Batting the entire roster

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

Why should an ejection ever be "excused"? You have a coach not smart enough to manage his/her team or line-up. And assuming we are not talking about an umpire who seeks out reasons to eject kids, something terribly wrong occurred to cause the umpire to eject a player.

Where does ignoring the penalties for such action help, improve or promote the game of softball? Is there any reason at all to perpetuate poor sportsmanship by massaging the rules that much more than they have been already?

BTW, I believe the first "official" rules of softball were published in 1932 for ASA.

I didn't suggest that an ejection be "excused". Ejections already come with a severe enough penalty, where the player is removed from the game for all intents and purposes.

It just seems counter-intuitive that an ejection should result in an automatic forfeit when a team elects to bat their entire roster as allowed by the rules. What is the purpose of the bat-the-roster option other than to allow all players the opportunity to participate in the game offensively and showcase their talents as hitters. As an umpire, I have no dog in that fight. Let them showcase players all they want; why should that bother us?

So a coach opts to do that, but then runs the risk of having a game forfeited if one of his/her players gets a little too aggressive? That just doesn't meet the common sense test, particularly when the other team that only bats nine of its 14 players can have five ejections but continue to play.