Injury
 

Had this happen tonight. Women's SP. Batter hits a HARD grounder that skips once and hits the pitcher in the knee. The pitcher collapses. The B-R is halfway to 1B and everyone, B-R included, with bat in hand, converges to the mound. I look at the 1B and it's clear noone is going to complete the play, so I call time, because it's obvious that the game is secondary at this point. The pitcher is an older gal who was hit in the shin last year and missed several games. She wears shin guards now. She is moaning "my knee", so I'm worried she's seriously hurt. Eventually she gets up and is ok, so I send the B-R back to bat, because she didn't make it to first and no out was recorded. When there was a mild objection (a little from both sides), I offered to put her on 1B, but both teams were fine with sending the batter back. In retrospect I probably just should have put her on first to avoid the drama of another AB right away. What is the official ruling?

I just read the Softball Canada rule book and it says in the case of a (serious) injury when time is called, the umpire can award the bases the runners would have achieved had the injury not occurred. So next time, she gets the base.

ASA says the same thing. If you've got an injury serious enough that time is of the essence, call time, get the medical attention immediately, THEN worry about the runners.

A knee injury is usually not a "time is of the essence" injury, but we're not doctors, and it's better to err on the side of caution. Putting the BR on 1B would be completely acceptable in this sitch.

Oh... for the record, "time is of the essence" is not in the book. That's just my phrase.

Had a game earlier in our SP season where a male batter hit a line shot off the opposing female's leg (I initially thought it went off her wrist since she had moved her hand there as the ball hit).

She was on th ground in agony and our BR froze. She found the ball which landed and came to rest along side her and threw out our BR -- all while crumpled on the ground. :eek:

BR got some good-natured teasing when he came back to the bench about being thrown out by an injured girl. :p

She was fine and finished pitching the game, although she reportedly had softball lace imprints on her thigh after the game.

One of the locations where I call does not do a very thorough job of fixing up the fields before games. I think they nail drag it maybe twice a year, if that. As a result, the batters' boxes have two pits that are set about 4-6" below ground level (I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about). Every day, the field crew just rakes the loose dirt back into the boxes, chalks out the lines, and that's it.

One night, a right-handed batter stepped into the box and gave the ball a good smack to a gap in the outfield for a base hit. R1 was on 1B, and immediately took off for second, then third. The batter tried pushing off with his left leg, but his foot wasn't planted firmly enough. Suddenly, he dropped to the ground into a heap. Thinking he had simply "spun out" like so many batters before him, I went around him, figuring he was just embarrassed. I had moved out a few steps towards the pitcher's plate, then moved towards the holding zone as R1 went for 3B.

I glanced at the BR, who was still crumpled on the ground, and I could easily see the problem - his left kneecap was 90 degrees to the left! I killed the play, gave R1 home (which he would have easily gotten), and awarded the BR 1B. At no time did the BR indicate that he needed help, or that anything was seriously wrong. He calmly laid there.

Creepy.

At least you knew he wasn't faking the injury. ;)