What's the mechanics for handling an illegal ball? Here's an example.

SP ASA. Batter fouls a ball out-of-play. The offense throws in another ball. The pitcher does not check to see if it is legal. Batter hits a home run. The defense wants the ball checked. After recovering the ball, it is determined it is illegal. What do we do?

Your mechanic is that YOU throw in the new ball. If for some bizarre reason this has to come in from the dugouts, it should go through YOU.

Now, say for some reason we are in your sitch, and didn't look at the ball. I don't have the book on me, and this sitch is enough outside the norm that I don't have this rule baked in.

But I suspect this may be play on. The pitcher had the opportunity to see this ball before pitching, and didn't say anything.

Then again, I admit I could be wrong on this - it would never happen in my game.

Balls that go out of play are returned to me, and I check them before putting them in the ball bag. In my pregame instpections, I will mark that game balls so that I know they are legal as the game goes on & the writing is scuffed off. As long as I see and/or feel my initials in the area I put them, I know I've got one of the ones I started the game with. If my initials are not on the ball, it had better be new enough that I can see compression & COR & anything else I need to see for that particular sanctioning body.

Addition:
As to your situation, your plate ump "assumed" the ball to be legal & so did the pitcher. That's a homerun as you now do not have any way of being sure the ball you are now being shown was the one that was hit out.

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First of all, I was the plate umpire and I was the one who made the mistake. Also, this is a rec league. I don't know of any umpires in our association that requires all balls to come through them.

Secondly, in this situation I know that the ball handed to me was the ball that was hit out. The ball was yellow instead of white. When the pitcher received the ball, he asked me about it. I asked him did it say .44 cor and 375 compression. He said yes. So we played on. The first pitch was hit out for a home run. The defense complained and I had the ball thrown in. It did not say ASA approved. It said ISA. So, I threw the ball out and removed the run. It was a do over. I now know that's not the proper way to handle, but I felt I was to blame and it seemed reasonable.

One of the things about officiating basketball that I like is that if I place a team in jeopardy, I can rectify the situation under the correctable error provisions. It doesn't seem as black and white in Softball. So since they asked and I didn't check for the ASA Approved stamp, I felt like I put them in jeopardy. They did their part in asking. I didn't do my job.

I think its better in the rec league just to tell the pitcher to check the ball. If he doesn't complain about it before he/she pitches, then whatever happens, stands. It speeds up the game.

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First, by rule, (ASA) your only option was to remove the illegal ball from play. All play stands.

Second, I used to think and do as you say above until I had a 16U rec team bring in a mush ball when they were on defense.

Just because it is rec doesn't mean people won't cheat.

Yea, I do strickly rec leagues right now and as PU have already had to check new balls coming into play.

For us it's 375/44...if I see that, we good to go.

I would suggest that the umps in your league change their practice, but that's just me.

Once the ball's been put in play, I think you have to live with the result.

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by rwest
First of all, I was the plate umpire and I was the one who made the mistake. Also, this is a rec league. I don't know of any umpires in our association that requires all balls to come through them.

<b>Secondly, in this situation I know that the ball handed to me was the ball that was hit out. The ball was yellow instead of white.</b>

Not sure about ASA, but in NFHS mixing ball colors not allowed.

I agree. I do think you have to try to correct it though, going foreward. If you cannot, play on.
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