Players standing in the dugout openings

[Mountaincoach]

The sad thing is anyone with common sense realizes the facemasks are a very good thing, but organizations are caught studying the points you guys are making in order to satisfy the lawyers, current lawsuits, and future lawsuits. For example, I'm being told the primary reason that my state's high school athletic association is hesitant to mandate the masks is because of the ongoing litigations already in process. Just this past week, we've watched one college signee possibly lose her entire career due to a line shot and severe facial trauma, while another took a ridiculously scary shot to a facemask and pitched the very next pitch of the ballgame. That's all the science and study I need. So it falls to the coaches, parents, and the players to do the right thing. The umpires should not be required to police it until hard rules are established, and we can't wait until a kid gets killed before the organizations do the right thing.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by Andy

Manny....my point exactly. I'm just trying to find out if it is more widespread than just here.




I've already heard of some local areas and state HS associations requiring them. It won't happen from a national standpoint until there is a safety standard established similar to the NOCSAE stamp for batting helmets. Last I heard, NOCSAE hasn't even been asked to start developing a standard....

ASTM would be the organization responsible for determining the appropriate standard and initiate testing. I believe that ASTM will do that when someone commissions/pays them to do so.

[teebob21]

Originally Posted by Andy

The last couple of years, there has been an increase in this particular item, but this year during our HS Season it seems to have really increased....

Several umpires are making a point of addressing this in either the pre-game or during the game. I heard of one umpire that stopped the game four different times during an at-bat to tell players not to stand in the opening to the dugout.

I haven't worked with any of the "dugout enforcers" this year, but last year I had several of my partners pull this stunt in HS games. At a particular high school here with large dugout openings, between innings, I asked him which rule he was enforcing. He said "the one where they can't stand there", so I asked him to show me in the book after the game, so I too could learn this rule.

We didn't have much of a postgame...he drove home still wearing his shin guards and chest protector.

[Tru_in_Blu]

In my area, we have several fields that have a wide open dugout. Some have a cement slab with a dugout built over it with steel posts in the front supporting the roof. Others are just a bench along either of the foul lines which help demark dead ball territory.

We have had some bucket-huggers who think they can give their pitchers signals from live ball territory. Those have to get into dead ball territory.

At one National that I attended, the UICs allowed the bucket-huggers to have their buckets on the cement portion of the dugout and their dangly feet to rest in live ball territory. The logic given was that they could move their feet out of the way if a ball came in that direction. I don't necessarily agree with that argument, but it's what we were told.

I have no problem with someone standing in a dugout opening that is defined by fencing or other construction material. Seems to me like much ado about nothing.