Illegal when receiveing signs?

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We had a strange one at our tournament. The pitcher would roll the ball down her leg when she received the sign. She rolled it out of her hand down her leg between her forearm and her bare leg. I questioned the ump on this because the ball has to be in either the hand or the mitt when receiving a sign from the catcher. I thought that this was odd. It also seems like if they were sweating they could rub the sweat on the ball. The ump at this game said that she had to have the ball in her hand or mitt when receiving her sign so she had to stop this. What is your interpretation of this? Bretman any rule against this?

 

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she did this while on the pitching rubber, or behind it? From what i always remember was that the pitcher could "rub" the ball as long as she wasn't on the mound, sort of like the major league rule for men...you see alot of that going on with pitchers putting dirt on the ball and rubbing it to get that waxy feel of a new ball out..it becomes illegal if they still this while on the mound.

i would think this would have been an illegal pitch, but ask bretman for sure, he's the man!

 

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She was on the rubber. Waiting for her sign.

 

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This one's pretty simple and the umpire from that game had it right.

When on the pitcher's plate, taking signals (or, simulating taking a signal), the hands must be separated and the ball must tbe held in either the glove or pitching hand. (ASA rule 6-1-D)

If this is a lower-level or rec league game, where some of the pitching rules are loosely enforced, I would probably warn the pitcher and we go on from that point. A repeat violation would result in an illegal pitch call.

Higher-level games should get the illegal pitch call on the first violation.

 

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Thanks Bretman! I figured that it violated the rule, but had never seen anything like this before. The pitcher did have it down to a sceince in how she rolled the ball out of her hand and down her leg, then back to her hand. I just didn't like the idea of her getting the ball all sweaty and then pitching it. Does anyone know if there is proof that a lady can move a softball better by getting it wet just liek they can a baseball?