Little League: Kentucky vs. Texas
 

Kentucky batter attempts to check his swing as he's being hit on the hands by the pitch. Orel Hershiser correctly explains that the hand are not part of the bat, but since the batter was ruled swinging on appeal, it should be called a strike. Way to go, Orel! Hopefully parents everywhere were listening to you!

However, on the field, the homeplate umpire rules the pitch a foul ball, not a dead ball strike.

<sigh>

Orel first said that it should be a foul ball.

I thought it was a top notch "throwing under the bus" move by the PU to explain to the coach that U1 made a call of foul because he doesn't understand much English.

The announcers keep throwing the umpires under the bus by continually emphasizing that they are "volunteers" and pay their own way.

I beg to differ. They point out consistently that EVERYONE is a volunteer. There have been plenty of times they could have thrown the umpires under the bus and they refrain most every time.

-Josh

Orel never recanted that statement. People all over the country now still believe that it was a foul ball and not a dead ball strike. Here they had the perfect captive audience to educate fans everywhere, and they blew their big chance.

The PU did end up blowing the call as well by saying on national TV that it was a foul ball, going along with U1's assessment.

What bothers me about watching the LLWS is that the umpires call time/put the ball in play when they don't need to. IE after walks the umpires tend to put the call back in play. I didn't know that a walk was a dead ball situation ;)

-Josh

I am not sure exactly how that works in Little League. You cannot leave the base until gets to(crosses?) home plate. Could you take second base on a walk if there was a passed ball? Is the ball live? Between batters? Not really, I guess.

Maybe that is why these guys are trained to do what they are doing...seems a little bit odd to me.

They can't leave the base until the pitch reaches the batter. The ball is live, just like regular baseball. The umpire, especially the goof working the California/Mass game, kept giving the count, then putting up a stop sign, then pointing it back in play after nearly every pitch when the batter wasn't quite ready in the box. Ridiculous.

But they're volunteering their time.:rolleyes:

They did that in one of the regionals as well. He would put the ball in play before EVERY pitch in the game. It looked pretty goofy.

Sure you can try for 2B on a walk. To summarize LL rule 7.13, the runner must stay on his base once the pitcher has the ball and is on the pitchers plate and the catcher is in position to catch. As in regular OBR the ball stays live until and unless there is a reason to call time.

This holding up the pitcher/pointing the ball in is a combination of bad habits and a lack of training.

So, after a walk, if the catcher fires the ball back to the pitcher, the BR has to go to first and stay? Is there something in there about there having to be a batter in the box or, just the pitcher and catcher must be ready?

I can imagine some interesting walks with a runner on third situations...

The batter doesn't need to be in the box. Otherwise, you could just have your batter stand back and let the runner run.

I always thought getting the ball back to the pitcher quickly was a good idea at whatever level.

No. You can't use the rule to stop a play in progress and the runner advancing is a play in progress.

LL Rule?
 

LL uses basically the same OBR rules. A LL guy has his first time behind the dish on national TV, and he's finds himself putting the ball into play after every pitch. Now you think the reason is because he has no training or rule knowledge. You suppose he was "coached" that way or in awe of the big time national exposure.

In the Washington/Georgia game today, there was a pitch where the PU didn't call catcher's interference where the batter swung and missed. I thought it was a foul ball because there were two sounds, the bat hitting the ball and the ball hitting F2's glove. The PU got all four infield umpires together to discuss it.

If that's me and I don't have CI, there is no way I'm asking a BU for help. Of all that calls that you should get on your own, that is one of the most obvious.