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Member
Just curious... in a game yesterday, a ball was hit foul into brush next to the field. The ball that was retrieved happened not to be one of the game balls, but a ball from a previous game that had been sitting in the brush for days or weeks, soaking up the wonderful Northeast Ohio weather.
This ball eventually made it into play.
My dd sensed that there was something wrong with the ball, but did not quite know what, and used it. Ended up that both pitchers used the ball for an entire inning. Other than that (and one pitch that my dd threw that rolled from the pitchers mound, which I thought was very strange), it ended up being a non-eventful inning, no one scoring on either side.
When I asked my dd about this after the game, she said that the umpire said that in order to change the ball out, it had to be hit out of play first. Is there a specific rule that governs this situation? And, if this condition is found mid-way through an inning, do both pitchers need to play with the "altered" ball?
This ball eventually made it into play.
My dd sensed that there was something wrong with the ball, but did not quite know what, and used it. Ended up that both pitchers used the ball for an entire inning. Other than that (and one pitch that my dd threw that rolled from the pitchers mound, which I thought was very strange), it ended up being a non-eventful inning, no one scoring on either side.
When I asked my dd about this after the game, she said that the umpire said that in order to change the ball out, it had to be hit out of play first. Is there a specific rule that governs this situation? And, if this condition is found mid-way through an inning, do both pitchers need to play with the "altered" ball?