That is a new one for me too; too many walks would be my guess.
As I understand it, the idea was to move the game along (too many walks, though they didn't actually say that). It is also this league's 1st age group with the dropped 3rd strike rule in effect; not sure if that played into the decision. All I know is that my poor scorekeeper was going nuts using GC until I found iScore lol!
I have to agree that is a nutty rule.My rec league this season decided that the 12U girls would start with an 0-1 count.
I have to agree that is a nutty rule.
I've played slow pitch where very batter starts with a 1-1 count to speed up the game.
I've also done done some intra-squad scrimmages where we start every one out 1-1 count in an effort to get more girls ABs. But usually only do it when we are under time pressure, like an indoor facility or we are losing light.
But I can't fathom doing it in any kind of competitive league.
The purpose of the rule is to encourage the batter to swing the bat instead of waiting for that obligatory first strike. All this does is provide the strike on which the batter was waiting.
Yeah, what MTR said lol!
And apologies for the threadjacking.
BTW, that is the same reason SP starts with a 1-1 count. Couldn't count the number of times a batter would stand there and say, "wow, that was a good pitch". When asked why s/he didn't swing, it was the standard LL baseball response. "Can't swing at a pitch until I get a strike".