Batting the entire roster

[Tru_in_Blu]

Originally Posted by Manny A

Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand the issue. I just umpired in a weekend "world series" tournament where the TD allowed teams to bat up to 11 players. When a head coach handed me his/her line-up card at the plate, and it showed 11 players in the batting order with no subs, I really couldn't care less who was playing defense except for the pitcher and catcher, since we also had a rule that allowed for "courtesy" runners (either the last batter who made an out, or a substitute not in the line-up). The opposing coach really didn't care, either.

During the game, EHs went in to play defense for starters, and then those starters came in to play defense for other starters. Why should that matter? As long as the batting order stayed the same, what difference did it make which nine players were actually playing defense at the time?

There was at times a team with, say, 14 players on the roster. The head coach would list 11 players in the batting order and 3 subs. When he/she wanted to enter one of those subs, he/she was required to announce the substitute's position in the batting order. Whether that sub came in as a new EH or a defensive position player, what difference did it make?

Maybe I'm not seeing the forest through the trees, but I don't see the big deal here.

In your case, you had a TD lay out the rules for how line-ups could/would be managed. It included some specificity. The big deal (at least to me) is that the current USA rule is void of specificity.

We also did a tournament this past weekend and we were told we were using strict USA rules. Coaches had all different kinds of interpretations of how to "bat the entire order". The reason for posting this note in the first place was around a question of where EPs could appear in the batting order. The USA rule does not specify that but various Rules & Clarifications offered opinions or interpretations of that, saying the first 9 players listed must be on defense. And things got sillier from there.

Coaches submitting line-up cards had varying interpretations of how things should work and while that's not uncommon at all, the lack of common sense regarding this "rule" is befuddling, at the least.

I asked our UIC and several umpires with years of experience and found a lot of different opinions. And that's a problem with something that should be quite simple.