Confused !

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:-/Can someone explain how a national qualifying tournament can adopt the rules in any way they see fit. ?I am not complaining about umpires or just being a sore loser. Nothing of that nature at all since it concerned every team that played. In fact myself and the opposing coach approached and asked about the pitching distance to be fixed, but were told that is how it is going to be- "case closed". ?I just don't understand the tournament rules that differ from the ASA Rule book in a National Qualifier. ?As an example, my first 2 ASA Qualifying tournaments this year, without mentioning names. This is an 18U team and several are college bound. ?

1. ?ASA rules say distance is 43 ft. ?Umpires ?says 40 Ft
2. ?Did not use ASA umpires, used HS and/or NSA umpires.

2nd Tournament. ?

1. Allowed 2 Extra players on defense that could go in and out any time without using a substitution.
2. Allowed metal spikes. ?

Those are just 2 tournaments and only 2 situations. I could proably think of many more but I just want to understand or get some clarification on the ASA Rule book or just throw it out and go by what the tournament director or umpires say will be the rules.

I have always thought the ASA was the premier santioning body, but if they are allowing the tournament director to dictate which rules or add rules they want to use in an ASA National Qualifier Tournament, then, I just don't understand and was badly mistaken. ?

I hope someone can help me understand this. ?I know in rec league they can adopt or modify the rules to the local level, is this also the policy in travel ball tournament play also? ?

Please help !! ?Thank you for any information or rules that apply. ?I am not trying to cause a problem or identify the tournaments, just to understand. ?

 

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My dd team (14u) has experienced the same things (not pitching distance) at the last two ASA tourneys we have played in. I would understand if it was the umpires who were having difficulty getting the HS rules out of their heads, but it is the TD's who have specified these rules. Not complaining either, just confused as to why.

 

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I don't think it has anything to do with the national ASA directors "allowing" these sort of changes. The rule book is quite clear about this. If it's a national qualifier, the rules in the book may NOT be modified or adapted!

What you are seeing are decisions made by local directors or tournament officials for that single event. Whether they are making these changes out of ignorance (not realizing they shouldn't make them) or because they have some notion that their way is "better"- who knows? But it is wrong.

About the only thing you could do about this is to contact ASA officials not associated with the tournament to get their input (all of their contact information should be on the ASA website). You could start with the regional director, then work your way up the ladder to the state directors and national directors.

One of those people should be able to give you some definite answers. They might ultimately contact the tournament director about this and reinforce that tournament rules must be used. Ignoring that directive could prevent the local group from holding tournaments in the future- and that tends to get their attention!

 

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^^^ very solid advice!!!

 

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again as more and more tournaments pop up every year the pool of decent umpires (and UIC's for that matter) gets more shallow. Many of the new TD's are in it to make money either for themselves or thier organization (nothing wrong with that...just the facts) and they may not be very savvy on the actual rules of the game and or how serious teams actually take them. Just an observation, because I have seen plenty of it in the past two years.