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Have to tell a funny story ... we were playing in the CSU Holiday Classic yesterday. CSU is a great venue for indoor softball over the winter months, and Coaches Nicholson and Taylor always do a great job of organizing and running things there. They put a huge dome over the ****** field, and have 2 almost full-sized fields with a very high roof. Between my DD's playing days there and now she and I coaching her old high school team there in their winter league, we have been down there I think 8 years, not to mention several of these holiday tourneys.
So yesterday, in our final game of the day, it's the top of the first with 2 outs, we have a girl on 2B and the batter hits a shot into left field which eventually rolls into the out of play area, which is a ground rule double. So great, we have a 1-0 lead now, right? Wrong! The umpire sends the baserunner back to 3B and say she doesn't score because the batter didn't force her in. I got a little more excited than I normally do when I talk to an umpire, but I tell him that's not the rule and oh, by the way, that runner would have scored easily from 2B regardless. He continues to insist that's the rule, and I tell him that I have been coaching for 28 years and that's never been the rule. But there's no tournament winner in the Holiday Classic ... everyone just plays 3 games, and there's a 70 minute time limit per game, so I don't want to keep arguing and I go back to coaching 3B and just let the girls play. The next batter makes an out, and so we don't score the run.
Then in the bottom of the same inning, the other team has a runner on 1B, and our catcher tries to pick her off as she dives back into the base after the pitch, and the ball hits her and goes into the out of play area, and he awards that runner 3B. Now, to be honest, I'm not sure what the book rule is on that (and I should), but I know we've always played that at CSU as runner advances to 2B. We have a brief discussion about that, and I already know I'm on his list so I don't push that one either. If Bretman or someone can let me know what the actual rule is on that, I would appreciate it.
Three innings later, we start hitting the **** out of the ball and of course the ground rule double thing happens, not once, not twice, but 3 times in the inning ... and these weren't out of play down the sideline, but actually hit into the net or over the line in the outfield. At that point, we have the game well in control, and the other team calls time to talk to the pitcher, and I approach the umpire during the time out and ask him "so you're telling me that if we had a runner on 3B, and we hit a clean shot into the outfield, and it rolls past the 200 foot line in left field, you are going to hold the runner at 3B ... you know there are no rules like that?", and he tells me "yes, house rules". So I say "really ... I have been down here for 8 years and that's never been the house rules nor is that published in the tournament or high school league rules (they are identical), and that he should check with the CSU coaches whose house it is" and I turn around and walk away, after which my parents told me heaved the bat of our last batter over towards our dugout.
I'm not sure how I didn't manage to get thrown out ... I was pretty heated with him, though I never cursed or anything. And, by the way, I did talk with Coach Nicholson after the game and verified that the runs should have scored on the ground rule double. It was pretty funny afterwards to be honest ... I'm just glad it didn't cost either team the game. Meanwhile, my New Year's resolution is to approach such discussions with the umpires more calmly in 2013!
So yesterday, in our final game of the day, it's the top of the first with 2 outs, we have a girl on 2B and the batter hits a shot into left field which eventually rolls into the out of play area, which is a ground rule double. So great, we have a 1-0 lead now, right? Wrong! The umpire sends the baserunner back to 3B and say she doesn't score because the batter didn't force her in. I got a little more excited than I normally do when I talk to an umpire, but I tell him that's not the rule and oh, by the way, that runner would have scored easily from 2B regardless. He continues to insist that's the rule, and I tell him that I have been coaching for 28 years and that's never been the rule. But there's no tournament winner in the Holiday Classic ... everyone just plays 3 games, and there's a 70 minute time limit per game, so I don't want to keep arguing and I go back to coaching 3B and just let the girls play. The next batter makes an out, and so we don't score the run.
Then in the bottom of the same inning, the other team has a runner on 1B, and our catcher tries to pick her off as she dives back into the base after the pitch, and the ball hits her and goes into the out of play area, and he awards that runner 3B. Now, to be honest, I'm not sure what the book rule is on that (and I should), but I know we've always played that at CSU as runner advances to 2B. We have a brief discussion about that, and I already know I'm on his list so I don't push that one either. If Bretman or someone can let me know what the actual rule is on that, I would appreciate it.
Three innings later, we start hitting the **** out of the ball and of course the ground rule double thing happens, not once, not twice, but 3 times in the inning ... and these weren't out of play down the sideline, but actually hit into the net or over the line in the outfield. At that point, we have the game well in control, and the other team calls time to talk to the pitcher, and I approach the umpire during the time out and ask him "so you're telling me that if we had a runner on 3B, and we hit a clean shot into the outfield, and it rolls past the 200 foot line in left field, you are going to hold the runner at 3B ... you know there are no rules like that?", and he tells me "yes, house rules". So I say "really ... I have been down here for 8 years and that's never been the house rules nor is that published in the tournament or high school league rules (they are identical), and that he should check with the CSU coaches whose house it is" and I turn around and walk away, after which my parents told me heaved the bat of our last batter over towards our dugout.
I'm not sure how I didn't manage to get thrown out ... I was pretty heated with him, though I never cursed or anything. And, by the way, I did talk with Coach Nicholson after the game and verified that the runs should have scored on the ground rule double. It was pretty funny afterwards to be honest ... I'm just glad it didn't cost either team the game. Meanwhile, my New Year's resolution is to approach such discussions with the umpires more calmly in 2013!
