1st Games of the year
 

Recently moved to Germany and I'm doing my first Varsity games. No association or dues. No registration fees. Have to order rule books on my own. No time so, I'm using 2016 rules with 2017 rule changes printed out for myself.

Poor pitching, lots of illegal pitches. Heard lots of "never called that before" comments. My partner said that was probably true. Very rarely call illegal pitch.

Partner didn't know that if batter gets hit on the hand while swinging it's a dead ball and strike. This happened and it was the 3rd strike so, batter was out. Everyone confused but me.

Cold day but, good to be back on the field in a little less than a year.

Just curiosity, which rule book? ISF?

Also curious. Are the players mostly kids with parents in the armed services? Local German kids?

Had this happen to me also. There was some intense discussion after the play.

Varsity Softball with a large loud crowd, rivals, teams were 2 of the 3 top in the conference so title implications, home batting bottom of the 6th down 1, 2 out, bases loaded, 3-2 count.
Batter swings, ball hits her middle of the forearm and the ball rolls towards the pitcher. Pitcher thinking it's a hit and with no chance of getting the runner (who's running on the pitch) at home, picks it up and airmails it to right field. I'm in front of the plate waving arms and yelling dead ball. Finally get the play stopped as the 3rd runner approaches home. The crowd is quiet, my opportunity to make the call so everyone can hear.

BATTER IS OUT.
BATTER SWUNG.
BALL HIT BATTER'S ARM.
DEAD BALL STRIKE 3.

Home coaches kept saying it is foul.
They went to my partner & he told them it's his call. Good job.
We got together and talked to try to appease the natives & he asked (away from the players & coaches) me if I was sure of ruling. 1,000% I said.

Emailed both coaches the casebook play when I got home.
Got apologies and thank yous.
I get the same game in a couple weeks.

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Easy response. How can a ball that doesn't touch the bat be a foul ball? Tell them when they figure that out, they can come back and talk to you. :)

We use NFHS rules. These are high schools on the army and air force bases. 15 schools total. 4 in Italy, 1 in England, 2 in Belgium, and the rest in Germany.

That's quite the travel budget for those schools! ;)

And guess who is footing that bill? :)

NATO??? :rolleyes:

We are paid $38 per game plus $.54 per mile for milage if the round trip is more than 50 miles. And yes, our taxes are paying this.;)

I'm a product of the DoDDS system. I played high school sports for Stuttgart High School back in 1975-76. Yes, there were some long rides in school buses to get to other high schools, but really not much different than what high school kids do here in many rural areas of the country.

It wasn't a high school sport back then, but I also played baseball for the local ADYA (American Dependent Youth Activities) where we lived. We sometimes took trains to get to tournaments.