Little League Team Disqualification.
 

Mark, Jr., and I do not umpire LL Softball, so we have a question: Is it illegal for a base runner to steal signals and relay them to the batter?

MTD, Sr.

Apparently little league has made it illegal, no other rule set has any such rule.

Have no idea if there is any video of the game, there are people claiming it was the umpires imagination the signs were being stolen and what they were seeing was nothing more than the runners normal routine. You are aware that was not the team that was disqualified?

How do they know they were stealing anything?

Wow. I googled it and quickly found this right on the official Little League website. Talk about foreshadowing.......

"Stealing and Relaying of Pitch Selection and Location

Starting in 2017, local league umpires will have the option to adopt the rule that the stealing and relaying of signs to alert the batter of pitch selection and/or location is unsportsmanlike behavior. If, in the judgment of the umpire, this behavior is occurring, both the player and the manager may be ejected from the game. The same rule will be mandated during tournament play."

"umpires will have the option" ?????????? :eek: :eek:

That sounds straightforward and non-controversial. :o :( :( :p

Of course, defense has no problem yelling "GOING!" on a steal... I feel that gives their teammates an unfair advantage. ;)

No team was disqualified for sign stealing. A player and coach were ejected.

There was a different team disqualified because a group of its players fingered the opposition and posted a picture of them doing it.

It's pretty obvious at the lever where it happened.

Stupid rule. Umpire's discretion. We hope it will get re-thought.

Lol. True. But the last sentence says "The same rule will be mandated during tournament play." So I'm guessing it was in place for the world series, and I'd almost bet a big emphasis was placed on it. And actually what I posted was just simply a press release type statement telling us about the rule. That's not the actual wording of the rule.

I personally have never caught an opposing player stealing our signs, but I've definitely caught opposing coaches doing it. One lady was coaching first, and I noticed the same little instructional sentences to her batters. It was a code indicating which pitch was being called. I started having fun with it. I'd call the pitch, and then literally say her sentence for her. Her face turned blood red, and she shut up. It was awesome.

It is a stupid rule that just kills the integrity of the game.

OTOH, LL shouldn't be involved in the game of softball to begin.

Please explain !!

Probably more games for those of us who don't umpire LL, if all were in travel ball; but I'm curious about your reasons.
Is it because they can't get it out of the baseball minds?

The tragedy of the whole situation is the realization of the damage a social media post can do nowadays. Once it's on the internet, it can never really be taken down. The six girls who decided to raise their middle finger in that picture will be forever linked to it. And, make no mistake, considering their age and obvious talent level, at least a handful of them were probably beginning to show up on the radars of future college coaches. Probably not after this......

People think they can post anything they want on the internet and there will be no repercussions. I have seen several comments claiming it is free speech and the players had every right to post it. Yes, freedom of speech means they can pretty much say or do anything they want but it does not mean they will not face penalties for their actions. You can say anything you want about your boss on facebook, does not mean they have to retain you as an employee.

My daughters college team had a freshman come in that was very active in posting on facebook, twitter etc. She was posting negative things about the coaches, players etc. Coach called her in, had a discussion with her and explained in no uncertain terms the negative posts would cease immediately. She promptly walked out of the meeting with the coach and posted about how no coach was going to tell her what she could and could not post on social media.

Just so happened the team was flying out that day for a tournament. The girls parents had already left and were driving to the tournament which was several states away. The team drove to the airport in the team bus and as the girls got off the bus they handed them their airline tickets. When said girl got of the plane they told her she had no ticket and would not be traveling with the team. Yes, she was free to post and say anything she wanted, the coach was also free to leave her behind.

I know that. I was refering to the semi-final game in which the team that won was then disqualified for off field action. But its opponent had a player and coach ejected during the semi-final game for stealing signals.

MTD, Sr.

After reading a some posts it seems to me that we had a post about this same signal stealing rule earlier in the season and many umpires including MTD, Jr., and myself included that it was a very stupid rule. If you do not want your signals stolen, then do a better job of hiding them or change them.

MTD, Sr.