Little League - grounds for forfeit

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by Berkut

So, at the game last night, we found out that what happened was this.

The best team in the tournament (call them Team A), during the first game (they beat us handily) had their pitchers play split innings, because they didn't know it was against the rules. Apparently our coaches thought "Hey, that seems like a good idea, give the pitchers some rest between pitching" so they thought they would try it.

So now it turns out that the team that just appealed our game (Team B), and got themselves a win, are also appealing the game against Team A as well. Of course, they did not know it was illegal either at the time of the game, and did not protest at the time of their game against Team A. But hey, they got the forfeit against us even though they didn't protest at the time, so why not? That will improve their overall record from 1-5 to 3-3! Not bad!

Of course some of the other parents on our team are now asking why WE don't appeal our game against Team A, since apparently they broke the same rule. I was very proud of our coaches when they said that Team A beat us because their kids played better, not because of some pitching subs, and there was no way they are interested in or would accept a forfeit win under those circumstances.

Sigh. Such serious business it all is...

I just hope we get to play Team B in the playoffs...

Tournament? Playoffs coming up? Just what situation are we discussing here?

And BTW, how could two different coach groups go through an entire season and not know pitchers can't return. It's in the rule book in more than one place (Reg VI(b), 3.03(3), and T-Rule 4(c)).

[Berkut]

[QUOTE=Rich Ives;685636]Tournament? Playoffs coming up? Just what situation are we discussing here?
[quote]

Uhhh, I don't know, really - my kid has only been playing baseball for 2 years, so I am not sure how all this works.

He played on the local 10-11 year old LL team earlier this year. Then he was selected after that "season" ended to play on the 10-11 year old post-season team made up of players from the 8 or so teams that played in the local "regular season" that plays in this "tournament" with teams from around the area. They play 6 more games, which seeds them for a actual elimination-type tournament. I *think* but am not at all certain, that this feeds somehow into the LL regionals or something like that? No idea, really.

And BTW, how could two different coach groups go through an entire season and not know pitchers can't return. It's in the rule book in more than one place (Reg VI(b), 3.03(3), and T-Rule 4(c)).

Never underestimate the ability of a group of people to all be wrong together. It is quite impressive, really. Hell, I've sat in a locker room after a football game with 4 other experienced officials wondering how we ALL managed to screw up some rules interpretation that in hindsight seems rather obvious.

They screwed up. The more I learn, the more I think that the process for resolving that screw up was pretty much ignored and screwed up even more. But at the end of the day, it was their mistake, and they are willing to accept the consequences, and move on.

Like someone said earlier - the kids mostly don't care. Some disappointment that they didn't get a win they thought they had, but they are playing anyway, so oh well.

[yawetag]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

And BTW, how could two different coach groups go through an entire season and not know pitchers can't return. It's in the rule book in more than one place (Reg VI(b), 3.03(3), and T-Rule 4(c)).

Rich, you're making a huge assumption that coaches actually read the rule book.

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by yawetag

Rich, you're making a huge assumption that coaches actually read the rule book.

Having dealt with coaches for close to 40 years - they almost always read the pitching and sub rules because they know they need to know them. It's the other 998 rules they don't read.