ASA Illegal Substitution Question

[NorthAlaUmp]

Originally posted by gtfreek
Point taken, but cops dont prevent you from breaking the law. They can inform and encourage, just like us, if we choose, but ultimately we are there to enforce the rules, not prevent anybody from breaking them. Im still tryin to learn here and very open-minded, but i dont see it yet.

Where do you get that cops don't prevent you breaking the law??? Are you saying that if you tell a cop you are about to rob a bank, he can say go ahead and then arrest you when you do it??? Call it informing or encouraging, that cop is going to prevent you robbing that bank.

Then why do you say umpires shouldn't prevent illegal conduct? You do it when you inspect bats before the game and tell them to put the illegal ones back in the car or tell them the ball they just handed you has the wrong COR. It's the same thing with anything that has to go through me. IMO, if they didn't want me to "approve" a sub or CR, then they wouldn't have to tell me when they did it.

Which batter is up next is not something that I have to record each at bat. The score keeper does this and if discovered, then an appeal is in order. Missing a base used to be a direct call by the ump, but that was changed by specific rule, moving it to an appeal. (Still don't like that, as I believe you either broke the rule or you didn't, and a team shouldn't be able to break rules with impunity just because the other team is asleep. I believe this teaches the players the wrong lesson in life; it's okay to break the law as long as you don't get caught!?!?! Okay, off my soap box now.)

Not meaning to be hard or overly critical here, gtfreek, but this just seems like a real common sense thing. I would question the people that gave you the information about letting it go and then penalizing them if they get caught, and that seems to be what you are doing by posting here.

Keep questioning, because, as a High School Physics teacher taught me years ago, "the only stupid question is the one you didn't ask."