Illegal Ball Discovered

[jdmara]

NFHS

After the bottom half of the inning is complete, the home team pitcher comes to the mound and takes his warm-up pitches. After a few pitches, the batter hits an inside pitch off the handle of the bat to ground out. The next batter comes to bat and hits it off the cup of the bat and grounds out as well.

My partner (BU) went to check the baseball as the offensive manage asked me to check the baseball as well. We discovered a rubber coated baseball (like one used in little league). Running through the previous at bats in my mind I did not recall a foul ball where I would have put an additional ball in play. The 10 y/o batboy was the last person I recall handing me any baseballs.

Without specific knowledge of when the ball was put in play, I took the ball out of play and continued on. Thoughts?

-Josh

[Matt]

Originally Posted by jdmara

NFHS

After the bottom half of the inning is complete, the home team pitcher comes to the mound and takes his warm-up pitches. After a few pitches, the batter hits an inside pitch off the handle of the bat to ground out. The next batter comes to bat and hits it off the cup of the bat and grounds out as well.

My partner (BU) went to check the baseball as the offensive manage asked me to check the baseball as well. We discovered a rubber coated baseball (like one used in little league). Running through the previous at bats in my mind I did not recall a foul ball where I would have put an additional ball in play. The 10 y/o batboy was the last person I recall handing me any baseballs.

Without specific knowledge of when the ball was put in play, I took the ball out of play and continued on. Thoughts?

-Josh

There's nothing you can do besides what you did.

Now, to prevent this, check all baseballs that you get, and don't let balls go directly to the pitcher.

[rbmartin]

Make sure all balls pass through your hands before going into play.
If a pitcher brings a ball from the dugout at the beginning of the game, swap a fresh ball with F2 or quickly check ball in use before going live.
Don't let a coach or player (from either side) return a foul ball directly to the pitcher. Give a fresh ball to the catcher to relay to F1 and make them throw the retrieved ball back to the catcher, look at it before putting it into your ball bag. I have even stated this policy to both coaches in my pregame .

[bob jenkins]

I agree in general with the above, but I will make an excpetion for the foul ball that goes directly to the offensive coach (in / near the dugout, or in the coaching box) that he wants to throw back into play.

If the ball was legal, and the offense now thinks it's fine (since he threw it back to the pitcher), and the defense thinks it's fine (since the pitcher now has it), who am I to complain?

[jdmara]

More or less I share the experience as a lesson learned.

Live and Learn

-Josh

[rbmartin]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

...I will make an excpetion for the foul ball that goes directly to the offensive coach (in / near the dugout, or in the coaching box) that he wants to throw back into play.

Good point. As long as the ball hasn't left your sight, no need to slow things down.