Oh what ASA has wrought

[noobie]

Originally posted by Dakota
I lay the blame for this misunderstanding (and this example is far from isolated this season) on the teaching that has arisen from this one sentence in this one POE.

I hear you.

When a long explanation isn't clear, people start looking for phrases of less than 10 words that make the rule simple for them to understand ... that's just humanity at work. I do it more often than I'd care to admit, only to discover I've misinterpreted the rule. (Thank heavens for this board!)

In this case, the POE says some good things, and then commits literary suicide with one poorly written sentence. But the POEs don't govern the game; the rules do.

I understand why the coach blew: he completely missed the "impedes the progress" element of the rules (1, and 8.5.B). It's easy to miss if you read the POE and forget to re-read the rules.

I understand why you made your call (right, IMO, by the way).

I even understand why the rule book is so confusing.

The ASA Rules Committee needs to grasp the fact that being softball professionals doesn't make them writing professionals. If writing were a softball game, this rule book would be a forfeit. I'd hope that a professional editor would have stopped publication until the errors & contradictions were corrected. They're obvious.

I watched the World Cup final yesterday. ASA has enough money to run TV ads. Certainly they've enough money to rework that rule book, too, with professional oversight this time. God bless ya, Mr. Ryan.