Can A Player Be Restricted ?

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by Spence

Is there any scenario where a player can be restricted to the dugout instead of ejected? In looking through the book all I see is that a player can be ejected.

Do any state associations allow the umpire to make that distinction?

What rule set are you playing by? Except for NFHS ball, I've never heard of bench restrictions as an option in dealing with minor indiscretions that don't warrant a full-up ejection.

Back in the old days when I strictly umpired LL Baseball, I was a strong advocate for some kind of "administrative removal" from the game when a batter carelessly released the bat after swinging. But I was never successful in getting something like that put into the LL rule book. You either have to suck it up and hope the manager does the right thing by taking the player out of the line-up, or judge intent and then eject.

As for allowing umpires to make a distinction, that's not a good solution. You'd end up with different umpires making three different choices on an apparent infraction: ignore it, bench the player, or eject him. It's best to have the rule book outline what warrants a restriction.