League Rules (aka Calvinball)

[MD Longhorn]

What's the funniest, strangest, or worst league rule you've come across. Especially those that are unimplementable.

One of my favorites was last year - "Umpires will watch for contact between runners and fielders, and this contact will be scrutinized." Huh? So ... I don't call OBS or INT like normal? I just watch it and scrutinize it?

Or maybe "Ties shall be settled by the judgement of the umpire." Uh, what?

[RKBUmp]

Local league started about 3 1/2 years ago, initially started with 10U using the old ASA 10B rule of only 1 base per steel attempt etc. They then changed this to 1 additional base if the ball was overthrown, which they eventually changed to the runner could keep running if the defense kept throwing the ball around. They still have in their rules 1 base per steel attempt, but it now means essentially nothing.

[BretMan]

The worst one I've ever seen was in the men's fastpitch league where I play.

ASA basic rule set with a bunch of league modifications. You can bat the roster, remove injured players without penalty and even use four outfielders (10 players in the field) since the fields we use are unfenced. All well and good enough, as these modifications are generally aimed at giving players more playing time.

They also allow a courtesy runner for any runner, once per inning, using the last batted out as the CR. During one game a team took full advantage of that rule and (legally) used a CR everytime one of the slower/older players got on base.

The team that lost that game felt that they got shafted by the CR rule- even though this was perfectly allowable. Their coach just happened to be on the league board of directors and raised a stink about this. Lord only knows how he got this idiotic rule pushed through, but the next season their CR rule was modified with the following addition:

Any courtesy runner used may not be a faster runner than the player he is replacing.

Talk about unenforcable! How in the world would an umpire possibly know if one runner was faster than another? What he's going to do- line them up and run a race before accepting the CR? Have a printout of all player's forty yard dash times in his ball bag?

It only took few games for them to realize the futility of this rule and eliminate it.

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by BretMan

The worst one I've ever seen was in the men's fastpitch league where I play.

ASA basic rule set with a bunch of league modifications. You can bat the roster, remove injured players without penalty and even use four outfielders (10 players in the field) since the fields we use are unfenced. All well and good enough, as these modifications are generally aimed at giving players more playing time.

They also allow a courtesy runner for any runner, once per inning, using the last batted out as the CR. During one game a team took full advantage of that rule and (legally) used a CR everytime one of the slower/older players got on base.

The team that lost that game felt that they got shafted by the CR rule- even though this was perfectly allowable. Their coach just happened to be on the league board of directors and raised a stink about this. Lord only knows how he got this idiotic rule pushed through, but the next season their CR rule was modified with the following addition:

Any courtesy runner used may not be a faster runner than the player he is replacing.

Talk about unenforcable! How in the world would an umpire possibly know if one runner was faster than another? What he's going to do- line them up and run a race before accepting the CR? Have a printout of all player's forty yard dash times in his ball bag?

It only took few games for them to realize the futility of this rule and eliminate it.

Ha! Didn't we talk about this in Wilmington?

[BretMan]

Originally Posted by NCASAUmp

Ha! Didn't we talk about this in Wilmington?

Probably, since we spent a couple of hours telling war stories...

[Skahtboi]

There is one local municipality whose current fall league FP rules read, "No runner may advance on an overthrow." Now how is that for stymieing the game?

[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

What's the funniest, strangest, or worst league rule you've come across. Especially those that are unimplementable.

All of them.