On deck circle

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Both baseball and fastpitch softball (NFHS, NCAA, OBR, ASA, and USSSA) require the on-deck batter to use his/her team's on-deck circle if he/she is going to use an on-deck circle to warm-up. The reason is that the on-deck batter should be under the superversion of his coaches and keeps him/her away from the oppossing team.

MTD, Sr.

[rbmartin]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

Both baseball and fastpitch softball (NFHS, NCAA, OBR, ASA, and USSSA) require the on-deck batter to use his/her team's on-deck circle if he/she is going to use an on-deck circle to warm-up. The reason is that the on-deck batter should be under the superversion of his coaches and keeps him/her away from the oppossing team.

MTD, Sr.

Citation please. I'm not disagreeing with you but I cannot find this requirement in OBR. The closest I can find is prohibiting due to safety concerns or game expediency reasons.

[jicecone]

The problem is that all books recommend 37 feet from HP, based upon a field similar to MLB baseball, which is seldom the case for most youth ball. Most fields that youth ball plays on do NOT have a 60 ft backstop distance. Therefore the ondeck circle is usally closer and at a more direct angle than normal.

To not allow a player to be in a safer location because of this is just being way too OOO. Maybe you should be going after the parks Dept. director, Mayor or local officials but, heavens sake, we should all use some common sense here.

[RPatrino]

Here is a novel thought. It it is too unsafe for an on-deck circle, perhaps they shouldn't have one. More so if the field doesn't allow it to be done safely. Allow the hitter to warm up behind a fence. I know some of the newer city fields that I have seen have a little area next to the bench that is big enough to allow that.

In most cases, the leagues that advocate using the opposite side on deck circle are the younger kids. They probably don't need the on-deck circle anyway. For me personally, it was quite distracting to have multiple players passing behind me between batters and pitches. I can see that becoming an issue during a play when one of these young players decides to move to the on-deck circle too early.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by jicecone

The problem is that all books recommend 37 feet from HP, based upon a field similar to MLB baseball, which is seldom the case for most youth ball. Most fields that youth ball plays on do NOT have a 60 ft backstop distance. Therefore the ondeck circle is usally closer and at a more direct angle than normal.

To not allow a player to be in a safer location because of this is just being way too OOO. Maybe you should be going after the parks Dept. director, Mayor or local officials but, heavens sake, we should all use some common sense here.

Maybe this is a regional thing, but I haven't worked a single game in the 11 years I've lived in this area where a team tried to use the other circle. Probably cause it wouldn't be allowed...

One's OOO is another's expected practice.

[jicecone]

Originally Posted by GROUPthink

Maybe this is a regional thing, but I haven't worked a single game in the 11 years I've lived in this area where a team tried to use the other circle. Probably cause it wouldn't be allowed...

One's OOO is another's expected practice.

I agree and I am certainly not saying it is common for the games I have done either however, the few times I have allowed it, is when it was an obvious safety concern and it was most always in a youth league, probably 13-14 and below. Similar to a condition that could easily be found in a Babe Ruth game that was in the original op. Again, sometimes you just have to umpire.

[stratref]

Where I work at 12 and below (we only do a small fraction of the 12 year old games) they typically allow this weird (to me) practice, but once they are playing Babe Ruth (or above) it is not allowed.
When I started working games at this level I would ask about rules differences and they always say there are none, then this would come up and they would tell me it's ok. I just had to ask the coaches why they didn't mention the rules difference. I can work with whatever rules they tell me are in effect but not telling me what the rules are is a little unfair and tough to work with.

BTW I do understand the safety aspect of this rule as it is normally only used with much younger players (12 and below) and as they are normally not playing on 90' diamonds their on-deck batters only have 15'-20' if they are backed up against a fence, I just wish the coaches would mention stuff like that if asked for rules differences, most of us work games under 2-5 rules codes during the year with all sorts of little "local" rules thrown in just for "fun".

Stuff like that reminds me of working Pop Warner football in its first season locally (we have another youth football group as well), we ask both coaches before the game what rules differences there are from NFHS rules as the league did not provide our association with a rule book. They go over some point differential rules, and the first half goes off without a hitch. Then in the 2nd half one team brings out a football that looks like an arena football, gold ball with some odd looking black stripes (they had previously been using a regular looking HS football). I don't allow it and the team freaks out. I go over to talk to the head coach and ask him why he didn't mention the ball before the game and he said he didn't know there were any rules about the ball in the rule book. Apparently the football was the 'official Pop Warner' football and perfectly legal, after confirming that by talking to both coaches, it still stuns me when I ask for rules differences and there is something so obvious and it doesn't get mentioned. Then we enforces the "normal" rules we get yelled at.

Jasper

[JRutledge]

Wouldn't it be unsafe if an wild pitch hits a batter who insists on going to the other side of the diamond? Now I have not seen anyone get hit yet, but it has almost happen several times in my career, which is the reason I believe the NF has the rule in the first place to stay on your side of the diamond. Now if you cannot pay attention during live play and get hit by a ball anyway, well that is a different story. Now I do not work Babe Ruth or any OBR games under those rules, but as a general rule I would not allow a player to use the other batter's box.

Peace