Jewelry
 

I am puzzled as to why so many umpires allow the wearing of jewelry within amateur sporting events. It seems like travel ball is really bad with the players wanting to wear multiple rope necklaces and some even wearing chains. I myself give a friendly reminder at the plate meeting to remove all jewelry, then during the game if I see any I have it removed immediately. Most of the umpires though could care less about what the players wear and it bothers me that they allow them to play wearing all this darn jewelry. Also, when you ask them to remove their jewelry you get a dumbfounded look from the player and coach due to the fact that most umpires have never told them to remove it before.

Take a look at this picture from a regional high school game and you can clearly see multiple jewelry items being worn.

http://d1csi9vjsd9t3h.cloudfront.net...d6fe7988c5.jpg

Why do umpires willingly ignore this safety rule?

I ignore it because, with the exception of HS and LL, there *is* no such rule in games I work.

Or maybe they couldn't care less

Can you quote this rule (and ruleset)?

The post is about High School Ball which except in 2 States is NHFS.

NHFS

1-5-12 Jewelry shall not be worn (See 3-3-1 d) except for religious or
medical medals. A religious medal must be taped and worn under the uniform. A medical alert must be taped and may be visible.

3-3-1d
ART. 1... A coach, player, substitute, attendant or other bench personnel shall not:
d. wear jewelry (players participating in the game) or wear bandannas;

PENALTY: At the end of playing action, the umpire shall issue a warning to the coach of the team involved and the next offender on that team shall be ejected, except for (f), where the coach shall be ejected. In (b), it is also obstruction (8-3-2)

It depends what rule set we are working under in the summer. Legion uses major league rules with some variations. VFW uses high school rules. Iowa high school uses federation rules. So as I see it, I don't care what they wear for jewelry in legion but do care in VFW and high school games.

OK, I now see the link at the bottom is high school.. I responded after reading the beginning:
I didn't get "high school" out of "travel ball". I see the confusion now.

Yeah, it took a couple of reads for me, too. :D

I am still trying to figure it out. He is first talking about travel ball, not NFHS rules. All travel ball I've ever seen was OBR based, and the kids get all blinged out, with no rule preventing it. Travel ball always cracks me up how everybody thinks they are like some elite group of players, coaches, and managers, as if they are on the Junior Professional circuit or something.

I hate working travel ball!!

http://finickypenguin.files.wordpres...8/06/mr-t1.jpg

Sorry for the confusion guys haha.

The picture is within a high school game using FED rules obviously. I posted it as the player is clearly wearing two necklaces and also has a band on. There is no way that the umpires could have missed this, so why are they willingly allowing the players to wear it?

My rant into travel ball comes from the fact that I have yet to do a game within USSSA where there was not one kid with his neck hanging over from all the necklaces he is wearing.

Most of the travel ball I do uses HS rules, and so must have no jewelry. There have been multiple occasions where I have required one person to remove jewelry, and then within a few seconds, the 1/2 the rest of the team removes some too!

Just curious - what org is the umbrella for your travel ball?

The only one I've run across that uses FED is AAU.

Rich,
The tournaments run by USA Baseball, Perfect Game, CABA, and other smaller entities like the Battle in the South all use NFHS as the basis for their rules.

USSSA and Nations baseball use OBR based rules with some of the NFHS safety rules.

Roughly speaking, at about age 14 (sometimes less) travel ball organizations which have players that will end up playing college ball pretty much stop playing in USSSA or Nations and play instead tournaments that use NFHS rules.

I do a ton of Gameday USA tourney's, they all use FED rules. I do a bunch of other travel ball, not even sure who it is (nor do I really care), but I'm betting 70-80% of the non-men's leagues I do are FED here in the Chicago Suburbs.

(And I'm not a big fan of the men's leagues most of the time, just the larger paychecks!)

Are they 100% FED rules or do they use a variation of the FED rules?

For summer ball around here they like to pick and choose between rule sets. Let's use FED for FPSR, DH and we will use OBR for everything else, and maybe throw in a few 'house' rules just to keep things interesting.

Okay, okay. So they're FED rules, with free subs usually, maybe or maybe not to infield fly, a few other things here and there. Leave it up to each league to make things more complicated!

But absolutely FED based.

For the tournaments I was referring to, the rules will say "NFHS with the following exceptions:"

The exceptions usually include more restrictive age rules, time limits in pool play, mercy rules, special procedures to accelerate the outcome of an extra inning game, protest procedures, and in many cases, a requirement for wood bats.

The sort of rules that we normally think of as the "playing rules" are straight NFHS.

I know Mass. uses modified OBR whats the other state?

The state of denial.

I'm thinking a southern state, Mississippi if I'm not mistaken. One of those.

Rhode Island.

Now that's funny - and true. Travel ball now is so diluted its gotten pathetic and that is in area where the level of HS baseball is really really high quality.

Its just a matter of time when its going to start affecting HS more I think because so many kids will have ruined their arms before they reach high school

Thanks
David

Not Mississippi, we use straight FED rules for HS ball

Thanks
David

Well,
 

Actually the answer to the "what states don't use NFHS baseball rules" was always the same:

Massachusetts

and

North Dakota (as they do not play high school baseball at all).

Don't know if that has changed.

T

Well, I was really close on that guess.:rolleyes:

Good to know. Thanks!

So now there are three?

Rhode Island baseball uses NFHS rules.

See also the RIIL site.

Try Alaska.

When I lived back east, they did not. I just found a link that says that RI transitioned from AL rules to NFHS rules in 2009. So there's only 1 state then that plays HS baseball that doesn't use NFHS rules now, I think.

And Tee, ND *does* play HS baseball. It's Montana that does not (they play Legion).

I just read an old thread from a website that said it was Virginia, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts as of 2003, according the the editor of the NFHS baseball rules. So, if Rhode Island is not on the list anymore, are these others still?

Virginia uses NFHS

So now we are down to South Carolina and Massachusetts. Anybody want to report in from there so we can put this mystery to bed?

South Carolina uses NFHS rules -- I went to their website and the rules update link redirected to the NFHS website.

Mass and ND.

North Dakota plays under NFHS rules.

We have a winner: Massachusetts!

South Carolina indeed uses FED rules.

Of course, we don't allow appeals, so I suppose it is "modified FED rules." :rolleyes:

What do you mean "Don't allow appeals"?

Rita

SC still uses the old FED rule: if a baserunner misses a base, the umpire will call him out immediately. No appeal required or permitted. I've never worked under that rule, but I believe the ball remains live, so the defense can play on other runners (similar to coach's INT).

So wrong

Rita

No. South Carolina is the state that uses FED, but no common sense. Hence, the umpire calls the outs on the missed bases.

Well at least MA has some common sense when it comes to football and baseball rules. :D

Talk about jewelry...
 

Check out the S Florida pitcher vs Oklahoma on ESPN2. Looks like she is wearing everything in her jewelry box.

No jewelry rule in NCAA softball

It must not be enforced. I see several player with earrings pretty consistently.

Now those hair ribbons are my bug-a-boo.

Summer ball is suppose to be a little more lax when it comes to rules like jewelry. During summer ball they can bat entire lineup, free substitutions, eh/dh allowed. Down here in my neck of the woods anyways.

Evidently summer ball relaxes the NOCSAE approval for catcher's helmets too. Well that is what some of them have told me anyways when I tell them they can't wear the skull cap in the Pony / Colt leagues.

During summer ball, HS age kids yes some have worn the skull cap/mask combo.

Has anyone told the lawyers?

So if Houston is now the "neck of the woods"? That must make Brooklyn the "armpit of the earth"....................:D

Read again because that's not what he said. He said that there is not a jewelry rule in NCAA -- so they can wear jewelry. He didn't say that there was a no-jewelry rule.

My thing is, if I'm a coach responsible for players safety, wtf am I doing letting my players wear items that can be dangerous. Not only to my players, but to others. Unbelievable! IMO there is no need and no place for it.

Ahh, nationally televised game, let me look good for the camera even though I may lose an ear or get punctured in my head because of the CROWN I'm wearing on my head. Let's wear the biggest ring I have so if I swipe tag someone, I take out their eye, or I stub a finger and need to get it cut off.

But then I look at the coaches and they broke into their jewelry box too, wow!

I know, when do you hear about it happening? Everyday! Accept it's not nationally televised.

I know jewelry is not prohibited, but smart players won't wear them and smart coaches won't allow them.

I thought he meant that "no jewelry rule in NCAA" meant they couldn't wear jewelry. I would have understood better if he would have put "there is" in front of the sentence.

I shall retain this in my memory bank for years on out. Thank you most kind and gracious centurion.

I'll take 10,000 shirts! Bill it to Steven Tyler @ ...lol

They only come in one size. XXXXL Extra Fat.