USFA question to Western Rep

[whiskers_ump]

Originally posted by sprivitor
Hi Folks,

I've emailed this question to the USFA representative for our region. We use the DEFO position and can't get a good grip on it because there is no "DH or DP". Below is the question, what would your thought be on it?
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We were in a situation today where we had a DEFO and have become confused on the rule, we just don't know the exact situations where we can use it.

For instance, we had a player injure her foot at 3rd while on defense. We wanted to take her off the field for that inning and let the player who is on the bench come in and play on defense while she went out. The player on the bench was in the batting lineup. The DEFO was on the field. Because we had 10 players (includes 1 defo player), it caused a big delay with everyone trying to figure out what to do. In the end, we had to remove the player from the game and burn our DEFO player as a sub.

I guess the crux of my question is "is it possible to have 10 players which includes 1 DEFO player where we can rest players on defense interchangebly without having to lose the player's DEFO status or without having to use substitutions. On hot summer days, we like to rest our players during the game without using subs."

Any help our clarificiation is much appreciated.

Again Thanks!

Steve

Steve,

Yes, the player on the bench should have been allowed to enter to play
defense.

In USFA you may have up to 12 players on the lineup (11 of them may bat)
Use 9 regular players, up to 2 "extra players" [EP's] and a "defense only
player (DEFO). There may be 9, 10, 11, or 12 total players on the
lineup sheet, any 9 may be used on defense. If you utilize the DEFO
that player must remain on defense throughout the game, unless inserted
into the lineup "once" [and only once] for either of the two EP's , or replaced
on defense, in which case the DEFO position would be eliminated for the
remainder of the game.

[Bandit]

I had this exact situation ome up this past week-end in Shelbyville, Indiana. We have 10 players. Was using the DEFO. Wanted to use the girl on bench (in batting order but had not played defense) for an inning in the field for a young lady who was having a physical issue. We inserted the bench player and the opposing team AND UMPIRE were liked totally confused. Finally after calling over the tournament director and physically showing her what we wanted to do....basically....on defense it is "any 9 any time" when your in this situation...we were allowed to continue. Then later in the tournament we had a team we were playing put the DEFO in to run for a girl who had hit a double. We were good with this. But when I made the statement that this would eliminate the DEFO position for the game it "blew" that umpires mind also. Guys, USFA, these are your rules you really need to know them and how they are applied.