Interesting day on the ballfield!

[Skahtboi]

Well folks, just got back from an interesting, if otherwise uneventful day of fastpitch fall ball. The ages that I was calling today were 14U and 12U, and I had some relatively interesting games were it not for the coaches. Thought I would share some interesting episodes with you, since the board is kind of slow this time of year.

First event:

Batter bunting the ball hits the ball off the bat and in to her arm. Coach starts yelling at the player, "Did that hit you?" Of course, the girl replies that it did, since it did. Coach calls time and approaches me, who is behind the plate. The following conversation ensues:

Coach: "Blue, the ball hit her."
Me: "Yes. After coming off the bat."
Coach, talking to batter: "Take your base."
Me: "No coach, we have a foul ball here."
Coach" "But the ball hit her."
Me: "Yes coach, after it came off of her bat. Let's play ball."

I still don't think he ever quite grasped the situation, though I cannot imagine why.

Few plays later, same coach, runner on second. Batter hits blooper through the infield, runner rounds third and coach holds her up. Errant throw into the infield from the outfield and the ball bounces into the fence on the left field side. Coach, telling player to run, grabs her and pushes her toward home plate.

Me: "DEAD BALL. Runner at third out."
Coach and a horde of fans: "What?????? Why?"
Me: "You pushed the runner coach. You cannot make contact with the runner. Third out."

Everyone looking extremely perplexed. At least the coach did admit to pushing her as I calmly explained to rule to him.

Next game was just about as interesting. There was one coach that kept hollering "Come on Blue," everytime there was a close ball call. Finally, after about two innings of this, I called him over as he walked past me on his way to coach third.

Me:"Coach, are you taking me out to dinner or for some drinks after the game or something."
Coach: (sorta perplexed look on his face) "Huh?"
Me:"I was just wondering if you were offering to take me out to dinner after the games tonight or something. You keep saying 'Come on Blue,' so I thought that maybe we were going somewhere that I had forgotten about."
Coach sorta laughed at this...but I didn't hear anymore "Come on Blue" out of him the rest of the game.

And finally, in my list of interesting days events, there was a bunt that was laid down beautifully by this one girl, died about mid way between pitcher and catcher after bouncing off the plate.

Coach: "Time."
Me: "Time."
Coach: "Blue, that ball bounced off home plate."
Me: "Yes it did. An excellent bunt."
Coach: "Blue. IF it bounced off home plate, it should be a foul ball."
Me: "No sir coach. Plate is in fair territory. Besides, it doesn't matter where it first bounces, but where it is either first touched or comes to rest."
Coach: "You sure about that?"
Me: "Positive."

Coach then goes over to the fence to ask one of the parents, and we all know their skills in softball, what he thought. Much to my surprise, the dad agrees with me. Of course, this was the same coach who pointed out to me that I failed to call the infield fly on them with one out and a runner on first. I tried to explain to him that there has to be runners on first and second, or first, second and third for the infield fly to be in effect, but I don't think that he quite bought that.

Oh well...the game goes on in spite of the intelligence levels of most coaches.

"Time limit has expired, ball game." The only call that I got right all day!

Scott

[bluezebra]

Scott:

Many times it's the coaches who make the games interesting with their lack of rules knowledge and off-the-wall comments. And that includes colleges.

Bob

[Gre144]

If the ball became dead before the coach pushed her towards home, I would not call her out.

Greg

[Joe Kupka]

To Gre144:
The ball was declared dead because of the actions of the coach, not because the ball rolled to the fence.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally posted by Joe Kupka
To Gre144:
The ball was declared dead because of the actions of the coach, not because the ball rolled to the fence.

Joe,

In ASA, the ball stays live and the runner is simply declared out.

In ISF, I do not see the status of the ball addressed in Rule 8.9 other than when it occurs on a batter ball and the outcome of the play has been determined. In that circumstance, it is a delayed dead ball, so I would assume that since it is not specifically addressed otherwise, it is a form of interference which would kill the play.

[Skahtboi]

Sheesh! Didn't mean to start a whole rules discussion. These are Dixie FP rules, and the actual call is "delayed dead ball," I was just cutting to the chase...you know to the point where I kill the play, call the out, and tell the coach what a moron he was for costing his team the tying run with his actions. (Well...I wanted to tell him that, but instead I just explained the actual rule to him.) So Gre144, that was where the "dead ball" came from, the actions of the coach, not because the ball was in dead ball territory...the ball was never in dead ball territory, so I didn't kill it until all apparent play had ceased.

Sorry for any confusion my little story may have caused due to my expediency.

Scott