"FED Legal" Baseballs

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by UmpJM (nee CoachJM)

Kevin,

What does your association make of the Official FED Interp that says:



Because it seems to me that your association's policy to NOT allow the game without "marked" baseballs is in direct contradiction to "the NFHS edict on the baseballs".

JM

JM, This was last year; this year may be different. I have rapport with one of the wheels, and I was going to bring it up to him after you mentioned this and the comments started flowing. I only know of one of the umpires that refused to play a game for this reason, but I heard that there were a few.

It's really preposterous. These kids bust their @sses all week to play these games. And many of their folks bust theirs to get off work (like we do) and get to their son's game. All so some umpire can refuse to allow the game to be played because of incorrect baseballs?!? This whole deal that we pull off is already difficult enough, and in many cases, ridiculous enough that we don't have to make it any more difficult or ridiculous with crap like this.

[Ump153]

Originally Posted by Kevin Finnerty

JM, This was last year; this year may be different.

i believe the comment JM references was in last year's book as well.

[Kevin Finnerty]

Next year, [follow closely] they [the leadership of the unit] may choose to enforce it differently than they did this year.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Kevin Finnerty

Next year, [follow closely] they [the leadership of the unit] may choose to enforce it differently than they did this year.

It's really a shame that you have to explain the meaning of what you say to certain people who choose to pick apart what you write.

[UmpJM]

Thanks to all who chose to respond.

My post here was prompted by a discussion on another thread with a gentleman who was certain that it was grounds for forfeit to not have properly marked balls available.

I had never heard that before and disagreed.

I was curious how it was handled in different parts of the country. Between the two threads, 20 different posters took a position (including me).

4 said you can't play without them. Only one that it was grounds for a forfeit. The other 3 said they'd have/find a way to get marked balls.

Everybody else said "play", with some suggesting "file a report". 2 of the "don't play" umpires are from the LA area, &, I suspect, may belong to the same association. Another from NC & one from MN.

The FED Interpretation I posted above I found in the BRD. The BRD references the NFHS News, 3/99 #20. Apparently, this was in anticipation of the "Mark" requirement entering the rule book in 2000.

Sounds to me like the "official" FED position is, play the game, report it. Makes perfect sense to me.

JM

[Ump153]

Originally Posted by UmpJM (nee CoachJM)

Sounds to me like the "official" FED position is, play the game, report it. Makes perfect sense to me.

JM

FED, at least as represented by Elliot Hopkins, agrees with you. It's too bad some umpires and some assigners actually put a logo above the game. Since relocating to Southern California I'ver run into some real anal types, but I haven't had the experience with an assigner that Larry has had.

[Tim C]

"I believe this all stems from Nike attaining a contract with NFHS to supply baseballs for all (legal) NFHS games."

That statement is probably incorrect.

Oregon plays with the Classic Wilson A1010.

It is stamped with both the OSAA Logo and the NFHS Logo.

Wilson has been strong sponsor of Oregon High School Athletics for many, many years.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by UmpJM (nee CoachJM)

Sounds to me like the "official" FED position is, play the game, report it. Makes perfect sense to me.

JM

In Ohio, the state baseball philosophy is: "do what you can to get the game in." Between bad weather, fields that aren't ready, and other factors beyond our control, ignoring the mark on the baseball is something clearly within our power.

Consistent with that principle, we, too, are instructed to play the game and report the infraction. Most umpires I know do at least half of that.

[dash_riprock]

Our contract with the high schools requires line-up cards to be typed. Arguably, a card generated by a computer and a printer is not typed (not that I see many of those anyway). Ergo, under our present contract, there has never been a legally-played game.