Bretman Help

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For high school, it's the same thing anytime an unreported sub is discovered. Make the change to the line-up, warn the coach, play on without further penalty.

ASA is different! If an unreported sub is on defense and makes a play, then it is appealed before the next pitch...Offensive coach has the option of either accepting the results of the play or returning the runners/the batter to where they were before the play and continuing from there (one of the few rare examples where the rules allow a "do-over"!).

The high school unreported sub rule is pretty simple and easy to remember. The ASA rule varies depending on if the sub is a batter, a runner or on defense and there are different penalties if they're discovered either before or after the next pitch or before or after the at-bat is completed. Their rule has so many twists and turns that it is actually takes up a full page in the rule book!

 

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Soooo, Bretman, you're not going to run through all the scenarios for us so we can just print off this page and take it with us to tournaments?

 

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He could just sit at home and let us all call him in the middle of a game if we have any questions.

 

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That's interesting about the HS rule. I watched a very respected HS coach manage to get a pitcher thrown out of a game on 2 different occassions for being an unreported sub. And sadly, the 2nd time, the coach actually reported the sub to the plate ump as he was making the change at the mound. Well known coach waited until the new pitcher threw one pitch and then went berserk, complaining that the sub had not been reported to his scorekeeper. Plate ump asked our scorekeeper if he had reported it to the opposing team's scorekeeper because "it's not the ump's job", and proceeded to eject the pitcher from the game for being illegal.

 

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Actually, it is the umpire's job to report the substitution to the opposing scorekeeper.

Rule 3-3-3: The plate umpire shall record all substitutuions on the line-up card and then announce immediately any changes to the opposing team.

And even if he didn't....it still wouldn't matter. The official line-up is the one the umpire has in his pocket, not whatever a scorekeeper might or might not have written down in their book.

Plus, of course, an unreported sub is not disqualified, benched or ejected in high school or ASA softball.

Sounds like the "well respected HS coach" knew he had a rookie umpire on his hands and worked it for all it was worth. When there's fresh meat, experienced coaches can get a whiff of blood and figure it's feeding time!

 

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Actually, it is the umpire's job to report the substitution to the opposing scorekeeper.

Rule 3-3-3: The plate umpire shall record all substitutuions on the line-up card and then announce immediately any changes to the opposing team.

And even if he didn't....it still wouldn't matter. The official line-up is the one the umpire has in his pocket, not whatever a scorekeeper might or might not have written down in their book.

Plus, of course, an unreported sub is not disqualified, benched or ejected in high school or ASA softball.

Sounds like the "well respected HS coach" knew he had a rookie umpire on his hands and worked it for all it was worth. When there's fresh meat, experienced coaches can get a whiff of blood and figure it's feeding time!

This is not the way it was done at the Central District tournament last night. The team would tell the umpire who would try to yell it up to the press box. The press box would then announce it over the lod speakers. Only problem with this is that it was so noisy that we, in the dugout, couldn't hear the ump yelling up to the press box and then the volumn of the speakers was very low or the speakers were pointed away from our field.

There has to be a better way.

 

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I try to always make it a point to walk over to the opposing dugout, find their scorekeeper, then make sure they have the changes. Most tournaments do not have an "official" scorekeeper, but if they do then the umpire is going to have to report the changes to them one way or another. If the set-up is such that the official scorekeeper is so far away from the field that it isn't practical to report the subs, they'll just have to get a "runner" to come down and get the changes. In any event, whether the other books get the change or not doesn't really matter with respect to the substitution rules. If they reported it to the plate umpire, then it's a good substitution.

 

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I was stunned by the ump's response that it wasn't his job, as I was well aware that it's the ump's job to record and inform. He didn't even record the sub on his own scorecard. And he wasn't a rookie.