I have a question about the positioning of the infielders and outfielders. In the USSSA and ASA rulebooks, does it say anything about where the outfielders and infielders have to stand? I ask this because the situation came up in one game where we had to move the infield in and the outfield in in order to cut down a play at the play (winning run on third, less than two out, bottom of the last inning). After the game, the guy the is the director of the league in that particular town said the next time we come down there, we couldn't play our defense in like that. I been told be a few umpires that you could play your outfield up as long as they were behind the base lines. This makes sense, but I am not sure where in the rule book it is. The only thing I can find is that the defensive players must be in fair territory. Is there anywhere that the books go more in depth about this, or is that all it says about the rule? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Yep, Defensive players must be in fair territory when ball is pitched (except catcher). Coed SP requires boy/girl sort of thing, but all others can stand where they want. Pitcher, of course is set to a certain spot.

The only stipulations in ASA in mens and womens ball is that all must be in fair territory and catcher in catchers box and none may be in the batters line of vision. Coed has to have two of each gender in the outfield and the infield and opposites at pitcher and catcher. Coed is the only league that has some stipulations as to where fielders have to be positioned at the pitch to keep the two and two in the outfield and the two and two in the infield. Don't know what kind of ball you were playing but if it was coed the director was right. The umpires judgement on where the players have to be at the pitch. An infielder is considered to be any person who defends the area of the field around first, second, third or shortstop areas. This is where the umpires judgement comes into play.

[Edited by Ed Maeder on Jun 16th, 2004 at 02:33 AM]

Some leagues I worked had a 150' restraining line in the OF. With a woman at bat, outfielders had to remain behind the line until the ball was pitched.

What about in fast-pitch? Does the same things apply? Sorry I didn't add that in the original post. :)

The only requirement for fastpitch is that they all be in fair territory and that they don't inferfere with the batter's view of the pitch.

I umpire for FP 10U - 18U USSSA and it says and the rulebook says only that they must be in fair territory, however the league I ump for has a set of local rules that supercedes the rule book. There is a rule in these local rules that says the outfielders must at least be 20' behind the infielders.

So, if the infield is brought in, the outfielders could still be in traditional "infielder" territory. 20' is only 1/3 of a base line.

Our local rules are 10' behind the baseline for 8U and 10U (no such rule for the older girls). Yes - this is on the dirt. Have had F8 field a ground ball and force a runner at 2nd several times.

I'm wondering about the reasoning behind these kinds of rules.

What problem(s) are they trying to solve?

Dummying down the game for the women.

No, I'm not saying the women are dumb, but in non-competitive situations they want the women to NOT be squeezed by overzealous competitors.