Adding players to a lineup

[chapmaja]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

Local rules are made by fools

I disagree with that statement to some extent. Local rules are made by people who understand who the majority of players PAYING to play in their league are. The majority of players playing in Recreational Leagues are not going out and playing USA Tourneys on the weekends. They are out to play for 1 or 2 nights per week. The local rules allow some flexibility to allow the games to be played and the participants to get what they PAID for, the chance to participate in the games.

Are some rules over the top stupid? Absolutely, because at some point they do start to mess with the integrity of the game, but some of the rules do exactly what the purpose of the local rule is, getting those who are paying to participate a chance to participate.

It is made very clear at our yearly league clinic. "We are in a business to attract teams. Without teams you, as umpires, don't have games to work."

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by chapmaja

I disagree with that statement to some extent. Local rules are made by people who understand who the majority of players PAYING to play in their league are. The majority of players playing in Recreational Leagues are not going out and playing USA Tourneys on the weekends. They are out to play for 1 or 2 nights per week. The local rules allow some flexibility to allow the games to be played and the participants to get what they PAID for, the chance to participate in the games.

Are some rules over the top stupid? Absolutely, because at some point they do start to mess with the integrity of the game, but some of the rules do exactly what the purpose of the local rule is, getting those who are paying to participate a chance to participate.

It is made very clear at our yearly league clinic. "We are in a business to attract teams. Without teams you, as umpires, don't have games to work."

I understand who is paying the bills. That doesn't make what they want to do right, nor does it mean as an umpire I would have to work those games. Do you do everything the players and sponsors want? If not, why not? After all, they are paying the bills.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by chapmaja

I disagree with that statement to some extent. Local rules are made by people who understand who the majority of players PAYING to play in their league are. The majority of players playing in Recreational Leagues are not going out and playing USA Tourneys on the weekends. They are out to play for 1 or 2 nights per week. The local rules allow some flexibility to allow the games to be played and the participants to get what they PAID for, the chance to participate in the games.

Are some rules over the top stupid? Absolutely, because at some point they do start to mess with the integrity of the game, but some of the rules do exactly what the purpose of the local rule is, getting those who are paying to participate a chance to participate.

It is made very clear at our yearly league clinic. "We are in a business to attract teams. Without teams you, as umpires, don't have games to work."

The issue is that the local rules are enacted in good faith and seem to be what people want, but the groups making the local rules don't have enough of a grasp of the entire rule book and don't consider how their local rules could interact with other rules in the book. This creates two issues....

1. Teams that do choose to participate in championship play think that their local league rules are "the" rules and will get upset when a ruling is made that is correct by book, but not per the local rules.

2. The teams are playing within their local rules and not learning how to play situational softball within championship rules that could be to their advantage.

I've always maintained that we have a perfectly good rule book that a lot of thought and preparation goes into (speaking USA SB)...why don't we use it instead of trying to change everything?

[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by Andy

The issue is that the local rules are enacted in good faith and seem to be what people want, but the groups making the local rules don't have enough of a grasp of the entire rule book and don't consider how their local rules could interact with other rules in the book. This creates two issues....

1. Teams that do choose to participate in championship play think that their local league rules are "the" rules and will get upset when a ruling is made that is correct by book, but not per the local rules.

2. The teams are playing within their local rules and not learning how to play situational softball within championship rules that could be to their advantage.

I've always maintained that we have a perfectly good rule book that a lot of thought and preparation goes into (speaking USA SB)...why don't we use it instead of trying to change everything?

And the more immediate and more obvious effect is the open holes and ambiguous provisions. The real rule book has enough of those anyway, but the local ones are more likely to occur.

[Umpteenth]

Originally Posted by chapmaja

I disagree with that statement to some extent. Local rules are made by people who understand who the majority of players PAYING to play in their league are. The majority of players playing in Recreational Leagues are not going out and playing USA Tourneys on the weekends. They are out to play for 1 or 2 nights per week. The local rules allow some flexibility to allow the games to be played and the participants to get what they PAID for, the chance to participate in the games.

Are some rules over the top stupid? Absolutely, because at some point they do start to mess with the integrity of the game, but some of the rules do exactly what the purpose of the local rule is, getting those who are paying to participate a chance to participate.

It is made very clear at our yearly league clinic. "We are in a business to attract teams. Without teams you, as umpires, don't have games to work."

In our neck of the woods, a lot of teams playing "recreational" ball (USA-sanctioned, but using local rules) during the week are teams that play USSSA tournament ball on the weekends.
So, we deal with local rules that vary from city to city (for example, one city uses "courtesy" foul with 2 strikes, others do not), rules differences between USSSA and USA, etc. And, a lot of the players want to abide by OBR and not softball rules, with lots of arguing centering on rules they "think" they know, but have no understanding of at all.
Add to this the fact that umpires do not review the city local rules, let alone actually read the USA rule book, nor do they have an understanding of game management, and this is a can of worms that explodes on a regular basis.
Thankful I don't do SP any more.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Umpteenth

....
Add to this the fact that umpires do not review the city local rules, let alone actually read the USA rule book, nor do they have an understanding of game management, and this is a can of worms that explodes on a regular basis.
....

That sounds familiar....

[PandaBear]

This is exactly why a lot of us avoid "beer-cooler" ball at almost all cost!