Is the injured player’s spot an automatic out?
I almost always batted our whole lineup, and I understood the risk: In USSSA and a lot of Perfect Game events, an injury leaves a hole that's an automatic out. The umpire should announce it the moment the player leaves the game.
When you bat your entire lineup without subs, you do it knowing there’s a risk. If a player gets hurt and can’t return, his spot in the order comes up with no one to fill it. In USSSA and the Perfect Game youth events, that’s an automatic out. Little League and some Perfect Game events skip the spot instead.
As a coach who almost always batted our entire lineup, I accepted that. What I didn’t like was the umpire leaving it to the opposing coach to enforce.
I’ve been on that side of it. The injured player’s spot came up, and nothing happened. I called time and explained that this was the injured player’s spot and that it’s an automatic out. The other coach and his parents lost their minds.
In the other version, the umpire recognizes the injury and asks the opposing coach whether he wants to enforce the out. Publicly. If you’re that coach, what are you supposed to say? It’s almost always going to end poorly.
Either way, the umpire has put a rules decision in the hands of a coach.
It’s not bad sportsmanship. It’s the rule, and it needs to be applied consistently and evenly — for both teams.
How it should go. When the player leaves the game, the umpire immediately makes it clear that his spot will be an automatic out (assuming there are no subs). If the umpire keeps an official lineup, it’s his job to track it. If he doesn’t, he needs to work closely with the scorekeepers.
In my case, the umpire never made that announcement. He had no official lineup, and he made no effort to keep track of when the injured player would have been hitting.
Which rulebook? Tournament and league rules vary. USSSA 7.02.D.1(c): when a team bats its full roster, a player who leaves for any reason, injury or ejection, leaves a spot that is an out when it comes up. Perfect Game's youth sheet charges the out for both. Perfect Game's Kansas City sheet skips an injured batter's spot if at least nine players remain. Little League tournament rule 9(b) skips the spot for injury, illness or absence without penalty. Know which one you're playing under before the first pitch.
Force play at second. The shortstop takes the flip with his foot on the bag, and the ball settles in his glove. Then it squirts out as he reaches in to throw. Out or safe?
Still have a question? Ask Coach Fungo.
“I've been the bad guy, and it's no fun.”
I wrote the long version of this when I coached the Spiders: Umpires and Flexible Rules on SpidersElite.
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The rulebook lists a dozen different balks, and the penalty for every one of them is the same: Every runner moves up one base. Under the pro rules, though, the balk is waved off if the offense does better on the play.
“At the youngest ages, I wouldn't lose my mind over balks.”
Who’s out when two runners are on the same base?
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“Tag them both and let the umpire sort it out.”
The rules quiz
Ten questions, two minutes. Would you have gotten the call right?
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