No numbers?

[whiporee]

Played a podunk tourney this weekend. Our original tourney was cancelled because of an umpire "strike" and finding stuff this late in the season was tough. We would have just called it, but it's our last weekend playing for the season. Anyway, it was a two-hour drive and everyone had hotel and all that stuff because we planned team bonding stuff Saturday night. So we were committed to the weekend -- it was a four-game guarantee with two Saturday and two Sunday -- and the gap between them ended up being five hours. So that's the scene.

First team we faced, the players didn't have numbers on their jerseys. White T-shirts, black pants. Didn't even match.

Umps didn't care -- TD kind of shrugged. Coach said they were batting 9, so I just labeled them 1-9 in the book and GC. But I can't tell the difference between them.

After the game, our CF told us they only batted six girls. They'd bat the top five, then sub in another and return to the top of the lineup. We went through pitching and coaching changes, so our girls didn't recognize them the second time through, and the CF didn't know enough to say anything -- she was the only one paying close enough attention and had the only straight-on view. My bad and the coaches' bad, too, I know.

My question is what should we have done before the game? Refuse to play if they don't put on tape or something to denote who is who? Or just shrug it off as one of those things that happen, and assume the other coaches will operate in good faith? Maybe I should have had him line up his team and taken pictures of them so i could track them as they came up to bat?

Anyway, if given the chance to do a late-season tourney in Brush, Colorado; take it from me, pass it by.

 

[Strike2]

We used to see a team in local tournaments that always had issues with jersey numbers. Names didn't match numbers, and there were some who wore the same number. We paid extra attention in the dugout to their batting lineup, and caught them a couple of times with illegal lineup changes.

This season, I saw a team deliberately put mush balls into play during a showcase tournament. It was one of those "defense supplies the balls" without the umpires handling them "because of covid". They were called out and forced to use a decent game ball. Nothing else happened to them, even after I spoke to the TD.

Who knows why some coaches do what they do or why parents put up with it. At some point, the players are old enough to know what's up, and one wonders how/why they go along with that stuff. Speaks volumes about who they are as people.

 

[canyonjoe]

We played a team that would have different numbers on different shirts so if you played them 2 times in a tournament they were different. It was only a problem with Game Changer but we really didn't have much problem remembering the one who hit one 250 the day before against us. In HS we tried that with our wide receiver were we had him wear a new number. We didn't even get out of the first huddle before the other team realized it.

 

[The Man In Blue]

"Podunk tournament" was the operative word. Anything goes.

As an umpire, it drives me up a wall when a tournament does NOT require teams to give me a proper line-up card. If the coaches state this at the plate meeting, I tell them that I won't rule on any line-up related issues, such as batting out of order or illegal substitutions (including courtesy runners). In your case, no numbers, that falls under the same category for me. As the OTHER team, this issue should have been pressed at the the plate meeting. I don't care if they take a Sharpie and write numbers on their shirts.

As an umpire, if you don't say anything, I'm not messing with it in a podunk tournament.

I am more interested in this "umpire strike" though ...

I would like to know more!

 

[HunterMO]

I will admit that at a tournament awhile back we were the team with jersey number issues. It was a USSSA tournament and we had a couple fill ins. HC said he had some extra jerseys to supply the fill ins with. Great. Turns out they ended up being duplicate numbers. The only saving grace was that they were a sleeved style while the rest of the girls were using the sleeveless that tournament. So he wrote 7 (t-shirt) and 7 (tanktop) on the lineup card. That seemed to appease the umpires and other teams. We tried cloth and electrical tape to make 17 or whatever. Just wouldn’t work. HC wasn’t trying to do anything shifty….he just didn’t think about it.

Safe to say I made sure I was in charge of jerseys for fill ins after that.

 

[whiporee]

"Podunk tournament" was the operative word. Anything goes.

As an umpire, it drives me up a wall when a tournament does NOT require teams to give me a proper line-up card. If the coaches state this at the plate meeting, I tell them that I won't rule on any line-up related issues, such as batting out of order or illegal substitutions (including courtesy runners). In your case, no numbers, that falls under the same category for me. As the OTHER team, this issue should have been pressed at the the plate meeting. I don't care if they take a Sharpie and write numbers on their shirts.

As an umpire, if you don't say anything, I'm not messing with it in a podunk tournament.

I am more interested in this "umpire strike" though ...

I would like to know more!

USA and USSSA were told by the umpire assignor that umpires were refusing assignments because the fans had been too mean this year. It cost USA half a tournament a couple of weeks ago, and the USSSA this weekend because they couldn't come up with enough umps for the games. I don't know if it's true, but it's what TDs told us.

 

[EdLovrich]

USA and USSSA were told by the umpire assignor that umpires were refusing assignments because the fans had been too mean obnoxious this year.

Have no idea where this tourney was, but will correct your choice of words......

 

[whiporee]

Have no idea where this tourney was, but will correct your choice of words......

Much better choice. Thanks!

 

[The Man In Blue]

So … where was it?

 

[whiporee]

Colorado. Happened in the last two tourneys of the year -- one a USSSA and one a USA Softball.