While at the Evans Academy several years ago an umpire yelled dead ball and one of the instructors ran over to the rolling ball and beat it into the ground with a bat. When the instructor finished he declared that the ball had still been moving but it was dead now.

I don't recall hearing another dead ball called for the remainder of the five weeks.:D

I know small ball has it's own mechanics, signals, etc. No problem with that (so long as the BB officials don't try to impose them on a softball game as if they are superior, etc.). However, this one makes little sense to me. There is a distinct difference between a dead ball and calling TIME. For example, if the ball is thrown out of play, it is dead when it goes out of play, not when the umpire declares it so. Whereas, if a player or coach requests TIME, it is not a time out UNTIL the umpire declares it so. Calling TIME when no one has requested TIME just to avoid having to say DEAD BALL is the screwy mechanic, if you ask me (but, of course, they didn't... and won't).

I guess I really don't understand this issue here. To me, and it may be just a softball thing, there is a difference between "time" (a requested/directed suspension of during a lull in play) and "dead ball" (an event-driven stoppage during while a play is in progress). These are two specific actions during a game, so why wouldn't there be two separate mechanics?

MLB Official Rules defines both a Dead Ball and Time separately, so what is the issue?

And these same rules routinely refer to a ball in play as "alive", so I am still confounded by their problem with an umpire declaring a ball "dead".

I know I had occassion to shout "DEAD BALL" in a 18U Legion game and BOTH dugouts started shouting "its dead, bury it" etc. It was a memorable and slighly embarrassing thing! For OBS/INT etc, the correct mechanic is "TIME".
Lame but thats what it is.

We must likewise remember baseball is not softball with a little ball - their aged mechanics are theirs, no matter how out dated...

As much as it pains me to say this, I agree with Wade on this one.

So using the same mechanic for strike and out is a modern innovation? And don't get me started on the syntax for designating runners.

I don't disagree, just don't understand the issue.

IF I umpired little ball (I don't) I would use their mechanics. I didn't say otherwise, despite the fact that more than a few BB umpires will smugly bring their BB mechanics to the softball field. What I said was it was a screwy mechanic. As Mike also points out, softball uses DEAD BALL and TIME for different situations. The BB abhorrence to using the word DEAD is silly.

I don't know how people always seem to extrapolate such opinions into some strawman idea (such as refusing to use BB mechanics in a BB game) when that was never said nor implied.

I was just making a general comment.. dont read anything into it. I wasnt making implications.

Touche