Which Dugout is Home Team

[sprivitor]

For any association, regarding teams in tournament play, after the flip of a coin to determine home team, does the loser of the coin toss get to choose which dugout they're in?

Was told by a fellow umpire that this is the case in LL, but have never heard of this before...

Steve

[blue]

I've never heard of a tournament that allows the winner of the coin toss to choose the dugout. They choose home or visitor. Most tournaments and leagues assign the home team to the 3rd base dugouts. In most tournaments, the coin toss must take place prior to moving into the dugouts. The winner of the toss takes 3rd base. However, in some tournaments the teams have already moved into the dugouts prior to the coin toss. Some will allow the teams to stay in the dugouts regardless of who is home or visitor. I've never heard of anyone being allowed to choose dugouts because they won the coin toss though.

[bobbrix]

hi there

not sure how to link old posts, but i started a similar discussion in april ...

take a look at april 26/03 ... you'll see it there


i know i did a tournament a couple weeks ago and they told us the tournament rule was that whatever team was listed on the 'left column of the schedule' was to take the 1st base dugout ... so, other than specific tournament rules, i don't believe there's a right or wrong here

regards ... bobbrix

[Duke]

In the 16U tourney I did this past weekend, I was told if there was any argument over the dugouts that the team that LOST the coin toss could have their choice. Didn't have any problems though.

[Panda Bear]

Once the "Home" team is determined, by whatever means, that team customarily chooses a dugout. That is part of the "Home field advantage", just as getting to bat last is.

Depending on sun exposure, that can be very significant.

True "home" teams may also have something like an equipment locker in "their" dugout. In a "neutral site" game or tournament, I've seen the expedience of preassigning teams.

Locally this year, due to some field construction and availability issues, we had a number of situations where the true home team was the designated visitor, for purposes providing equal number of "home" games to all teams. On a couple of fields where 1 dugout directly faced the sun on hot days, this was not a trivial matter.

[bobbrix]

coin toss and then setting up ?

interesting

we typically have the coin toss during the pregame conference, so the teams have been set up in their respective dugouts long before the coin toss

for league games, it seems that it's "whoever gets there first picks their dugout"

[Dakota]

Same here... although for league games, there is usually a true home team, and they get their dugout. But for tournaments, the first team to arrive at the field picks the dugout.