Pregame meeting

[Dakota]

The thread, below, on the bat the bench rule, describes a problem at the 16U state fall tournament that has continued to bug me.

While it is true there were several bad decisions made (sloppy rule writing, overly agressive coaching, possibly less than ideal game management by the umpires, and overly "by the book" ruling by the state officals), that led up to the forfeit being called, as I was driving in to work this morning, it occurred to me what could have prevented this entirely -- a good pregame meeting.

If the UIC at this 16U tournament handled things like the UIC at the 12U tournament I worked, the umpires had a copy of the rules, in summary form. They had written instructions from the tournament UIC to make sure they covered the fall rules in the pregame meeting.

I can only assume the bat the bench rule was not covered adequately with the head coach for the offending team. This game was the first game of the tournament for both teams, it was early morning on the first day of the tournament. It was the PU's responsibility to ensure everyone was aware of all of the unique / local rules.

The pregame meeting is a critical part of preventive umpiring, and if it had been done well at this game, it quite likely would have avoided a forfeit, and prevented one team being sent home from the tournament having only played 2 innings.