Ground Rules/Pre-Game Coaches' Conference

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by BretMan

Then why make a sequential list that says to take the home team line-up first and the visitor's second, or to even differentiate between "home" or "visitor" at all in relation to taking the line-ups?

The original reason is that at one point, teams would occasionally want to dictate match-ups; either our #1 vs your #1 and #2 vs #2 because we think we can beat you both games, or our #1 vs your #2 because we DON'T think we match-up well. When that happened, someone had to be required to turn in the lineup first, since they were both waiting for the other team to go first.

So, to avoid the cat-and-mouse-game, the home team was required to turn in first.

With that understanding, when they plan to play based one what they plan to do, rather than wanting to see what the other team does first., the order makes no difference.