Blown-call Hall of Fame

[greymule]

During last night's regular season game, two coaches who had taken a league all-star team to an ASA tourney over the weekend related the following for the blown-call Hall of Fame:

Their team up by one, bottom of the seventh. Runners on 2B and 3B, 2 out. Batter hits a double, driving in the tying and winning runs. However, they appealed that the wrong batter had batted. Umpire agreed: fourth batter batted when third batter should have. So the ump calls the girl who hit the double OUT for the third out, but says the runs score and they lose anyway. Says any runs score on the play count, and the batter had reached first safely.

Incidentally, these coaches knew the ump was wrong, but there was no director or anything to appeal to. No protests; umpire's decision final, right in the rules they handed out. Bye, everybody, and thanks for coming!

Incidentally, the tournament used a drop dead time limit. Certain amount of time for the game and no more. No finish the inning, just STOP, bottom 7, 1 run down, bases loaded, no outs, 3-0 on the batter. Game over. I did one tournament that used that rule and will never do another.

[Bandit]

GreyMule: Would like to have chance to change your thought on never doing a drop dead time limit game. Here in Indianapolis we have a indoor facility that does tournaments all winter long. Full indoor field. We use a drop dead time limit with a couple of twists. And they work GREAT. Is it for use outside or for regular season ? No way. But they can work. Tournaments are always round robin format. Last two games to determine first thru fourth are finished. During round robin games, after time has run out score reverts back to last complete ining unless home team has tied or taken the lead and is still at bat. Winning team is given 2 points, tied games result in both teams receiving 1 point, losing teams 0 points. After 3 games teams with most points moves on to "finals". Great way to stay in "umpiring shape" during the winter.