Answering 'Rules' questions during a game

[BillyMac]

This kind of reminds me something that happened to my Babe Ruth baseball team (13, 14, 15 years old) back in the late 1960's. It was mid season. My team, Orange Diagnostic, hadn't won a game. The opposing team that night, Giordano's, also had not won a game, our early season match-up had been rained out. We were both desperate to win our first game, and one team would do so that night. Lots of excitement in the air. The opposing coach, Mr. Atkinson, I remember his name forty years later, watched our best pitcher, Gary Rispoli, now an IAABO official here in Connecticut, take his warmup tosses, before the top of the first inning was to begin. After Gary's first real pitch, Mr. Atkinson came out of his dugout, with an official Babe Ruth rule book in his hand, and approached the umpire. Back then, there were all kinds of rules regarding how many innings pitchers could toss in a week, and how many days rest they had to have between pitching at least one pitch in a game. Our coach has miscalculated the days off rule due to a madeup rain out game, but Mr. Atkinson knew that Gary had pitched a few innings only a few days ago, and didn't get the required rest. Mr. Atkinson demanded a forfeit, and the umpire gave it to him. He could have protested before Gary's first pitch, and our coach would have put in another pitcher. No baseball game that night. We all went home. Mr. Atkinson's team got their first win of the season, and we went winless the rest of the season, 0 W -15 L. I remember the situation like it was yesterday.

Look up poor sportsmanship in the dictionary, and you'll see a picture of Mr. Atkinson, the coach of the 1967, Giordano's, Orange, Connecticut, Babe Ruth baseball team. And, boy, does he look proud of himself in that photo.