If he doesn't explicitly say, in writing, to not follow the rules if they produce an unintended bad result, I would not trust him to take the heat if a decision you make blows up in his face.

I trust him 100% in regards to his proclamation. He is a nationally known official, and locally he is known for his charitable works. He is probably the most bluntly honest person I have ever met in my life. Unless I have totally misjudged him in the last 3 years I've come to know him, he is the last person I would expect to weasel out of taking responsibility.

Additionally, he didn't say "not follow the rules if they produce an unintended bad result", he said to make "good decisions". He is very big on situational decision-making and context.

Hopefully you don't work for supervisors who would not stand behind their words.

Yes, that's a T. Specifically in the rule or a case.

I don't have the context of your relationship and my opinion is colored by my real life line of work.

"Good decisions" sounds like the kind of code words I expect to hear someone who wants a certain result but also wants plausible deniability when asked if they directed that result. I would not expect someone who says that to stand behind me if I followed their advice.

However, if the sentiment is more "make the best decisions possible within the rules" and less "make good decisions [and the rules be damned]." that's a different kettle of fish.

So what you are saying is that some of you guys, you included, have no clue the names of the players without help from the book? How is that possible? I'm not saying I know the names of every player I see during the year, but I know a lot of them.

So if their correct name is not in the book, you have NO way of finding out their correct name?

I might see a team twice in a year. I don't work games for my local school. Why (and how) would I know their names. I could see how you might do a little research ahead of time for varsity games and learn about a star or two but other than that?

If I need a player's name (injury, ejection, etc) I ask the scorer to write it down for me.

I'm not interested in the names of players. I know the better ones but that's not my job. I don't call any player by name. There should be names next to numbers in the book but I'm not checking birth certificates or drivers licenses. If you list a kid as superman number 22 I'm not addressing it...at all. Now if you want to say superman is number 10 instead of 22 after 10 minute mark its a problem....and I know they're are quarter limits etc in high school but that would be for someone else to take up with the conference etc.

As someone who has coached and officiated in 3 states and worked in sports media in different capacities I would say the above is not at all accurate in my experience.

The names in the book are primarily for stat keeping and the media, not coaches' preparation. I coached against several future NBA players as a HS assistant. When watching tape and instructing players on how to guard/attack certain players we always said #32 likes to do this, not Jeff Green does this.

Coaches go by numbers not names, especially when if its not a star player or a local rivalry and they are unlikely to even know most of the kid's names. And coaches are especially not going by the name in the book 10 minutes before they play to rely on preparation. What if #32 and #23 decide to switch numbers before the game and are both entered into the book correctly?

Short of an ejection, injury, or some issue for a sanctioning body to worry about that carries over to the next game the name in the book is not really a concern to me as an official.

If it was a mistake and the names were just entered wrong, I'm calling it a book keeping error and moving on.

What matters to me is that for the purposes of calling fouls, #32 on the floor is #32 in the book.

What I think matters is how the mistake is discovered. Is the home book or a coach saying #32 is not Johnny? Is the visiting book pointing out their own error and correcting it?

Again, short of some sort of intentional deception or trying to circumvent a rule/punishment I'm not issuing a T b/c I don't think the situation warrants it and I have support from my commissioner to use my judgment.


See above. I can and will if I think it was simply a mistake in writing the names.

To be clear, in the example I gave a T should have been awarded by rule. A book keeping error is limited to the official scorer. If the info supplied is wrong and requires the number to be changed a T is warranted. I/We decided to bend the rules and extend the book keeping error to the V book who had the number incorrect on their roster and in the book. They said they had 2 rosters and used the wrong one.

What I'm arguing is that there is more latitude with a name change as my reading of the rule does not require a T.

Do you have a reference?

My two cents here: not calling the T if warranted in these situations can cause more trouble than just calling it sometimes. What happens when it’s late game and it affects the outcome. I can see both sides of the OP but I would argue that anyone issuing a T is not being OO, just that the interp is adding a name is same as changing a name. I can also understand calling a bookkeeping error. If it happens to me, I’ll go with my gut at the moment.

In fast pitch, we have team warning for changes after lineup accepted. After that, coach is restricted to dugout. Much easier in that sport


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