Bad Ball

[treydawgmt]

I agree. Here, at least, at the Freshman/Sophomore level at least, the coach of whichever side throws a ball to whichever's side pitcher all the time. The coach was either standing down the 1st/3rd line and had one tossed to him from dead ball territoriality that went out of play, defensive coaches often pick up balls from backstop that get away, who knows how they get it, and I've never inspected them at that point.

Most likely someone just grabbed the wrong ball out of the wrong bucket. Like Ozzie said, it's still a baseball, right?! Probably no competitive advantage what so ever.

What stops the defensive from having 2nd baseman from bringing illegal ball out of dugout with him, stopping to "chat" with pitcher, helps him get rubber wrong, "drops" his "practice ball", and then goes to the base with the real one to warm up, and pitcher uses illegal ball. Do you expect yourself to inspect the ball after every pitch/inning change? I'd doubt it, so don't beat yourself up here is my thought.

[BestUmp]

treydawgmt, you are proposing the very essence of Human Brotherhood which is often found in our game of baseball. Fair play!

However, as an official, we must alweays be cognizant that evil lurks within coaches. Drugs, alcohol, spit tobacco...all of these and more can turn the gladdest, kindest soul into a bad ball inserting monster.