Was this a reasonable request

Reasonable and exactly what Youth coaches should do!!!! You did what you thought was best for the kid and the situation and I completely agree with your decision. I get that they reserve the right to say “no”, but what kind of coach would not allow that in any REC or league game?

I had a similar situation in an 8u MP competitive league where my 1 player had a broken right arm. I more or less said he wants to play so I will bat my last out for him and keep it to a single if he gets on base and then let the hurt kid run the bases. I arranged the batting so there were plenty of weak hitters in front of him so they would be my last out batter. I don’t even remember if we won the game or not but I do recall him fielding a ball in the OF, dropping his glove, and throwing it in left handed!!

I despise the arbitrary “them the rules” thinking when it comes to player situations that come up that all agree would be best to adapt to the situation. Note: I think this only applies to town ball/ league games and also do not adjust game play rules which is the slippery slope.
Edited to add: the umpire was right to stick with his rules when asked. The coaches should have been able to make this adjustment among themselves. Clearly the other coach didn’t want to do it so he involved the ump.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Reasonable to me. I coached 10u rec up until this year and I would have just said "whatever you want to do". Can't get too caught up in all of it. Just let the girls play

Personally, if she couldn't swing a bat, then it was too big of a risk to her health to play in the field. If the game meant nothing, why risk the kid getting hurt more regardless of what her mom/dad was saying. I would of let the kid take part in the fielding warm up, and then sat her on the bench to watch and learn.

It was a reasonable request and the other coach should have let you do it in a fall ball 10U rec game. Don't ever forget that you are there for the kids and not just the ones on your team. If it ever comes up in reverse do the right thing.

Your request was fine. So was their response. Your solution was just fine, too, and worked out to your advantage.

I had a player who’s parents were divorced. One of them would pull their DD from the game early on their nights. I had an opposing league coach argue with me about taking an out when her at bat came up. Most coaches are good about working with others but you can get the occasional one that really wants the win!

I don't blame the ump for this. He made the right call based on the rules you play under.

I blame the other coach.

He could have easily just said it was fine and you wouldn't have even had to involve the umpire.

His question about hiding the weaker hitter says a lot more about him than you, and it's nothing good. So what if you were doing that? He's that concerned about one hitter not being in the lineup? He sounds like one of those that really needs that 1st place rec trophy to validate his coaching.

We had a girl one my daughter's spring rec team that had an arm injury and couldn't swing the bat so she just bunted every at bat.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

Personal experience with bending rules and the outcome. I forget exactly what the issue was, but one coach wanted to bend rules and the other coach agreed. And yes it was 10u rec. I told them to do whatever they wanted as long as they both agreed to it. Well guess what, the game didn't go the way the other coach thought it would and then who was the bad guy? ME for allowing them to not follow the rules and got chewed out by the league president.. First and last time that ever happened in any game I officiated. You want to play a game outside the rules, you can do it without me as an official. By the way, this was also the same league that batted lineups, didn't care about illegal pitches and had free substitutions because "they just wanted the girls to learn the game". Well, if you don't play by the actual playing rules then you aren't learning the game.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Thanks for all the replies. I apologize for all the typos in the OP, I posted from my phone. To respond to a few points:

The league rule is you have to bat the whole lineup.

The ump said he would have been fine with it but he couldn't allow it without the other coach's agreement. I totally understand that was what he had to do.

It wouldn't have bothered me as much if the coach just said he wanted to stick to the rules, although I still would have been annoyed. Him actually saying that he thought I might be doing it to get an advantage was what really upset me.

We talked to her about her bunting but she said she didn't feel comfortable trying it in a game yet. We do work on it in practice.

For what it's worth, I'm a nurse practitioner and I took a good look at her prior to the game and I felt comfortable with her playing. I would not have let her play if I thought she would have been at too high of a risk of further injury.