Official Book Change

[OKREF]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

If the number was changed in the book within the proper "time frame" then I'm going to charge a technical foul, whether, or not, I checked the book before the game.

Around here "checking the book" simply means that there are eleven players warming up, and there are eleven players in the book, that all of them have legal numbers, and that none of them have duplicate numbers. I know of no official who makes sure that a 31 listed in the scorebook corresponds with a 31 uniform number on a player warming up.

If the home (official) scorekeeper tells me that a number in the book was changed, I'm going to ask him when it was changed. If there's a challenge from the offended coach, I might ask to see the rosters that the numbers were copied from, but I don't need to do a pregame "check the book" to do any of that. If the number was changed in the book within the proper "time frame", then I'm going to charge a technical foul.

Just because I screw up by not checking the book doesn't mean that two wrongs will make it right. I am not compounding my first mistake by allowing a second mistake to occur.

Maybe "checking the book" is done differently outside of my little corner here in Connecticut?

Yes it is. In Oklahoma we take the official scorebook, count the players, make sure they have the same amount in the book. Then we take the book to each coach and ask him if everything is correct, and ask them to sign or initial at the bottom. When they sign the book any problems after that are not on the officials, the coach signed that everything was okay. If you don't check the book, and the scorekeeper says it was fixed in time, (prior to the 10 minute mark) how can you assess a technical foul?