Deception

There is no kid pitch 8u in our area that I have seen. (Texas) Prob to keep the game pace up. We are also almost all coach pitch in 8u.

There is no rule about "deception", but there is rule 10 which is commonly referred to as the god rule. The umpire can rule on any situation not specifically covered in the rules.

What a dirtball. Must feel good to trick an 8 year old. I hope the league or org he is with was informed of that bush league antic.

Lightning said:

I've only seen a girl thrown out at 2B once (in all-star play). But in DD's rec league we have at least three girls in 8U who have thrown a girl out at 3B. They aren't consistent yet, but those girls will be good when they make it to 10U next year.

Eric's right, it's all about developing their skills. You can really see them getting stronger and getting closer to being able to execute consistently.

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Makes sense to me. Do you guys have the girls steal 2nd everytime they get on base, then?
I also keep forgetting that my 8U team was a little different last year. Every girl on my team was league age 6 or 7, and only had 1 girl (DD) that played tee-ball. Hopefully I'll get my catchers up to that point this year!

MacLobo said:

Makes sense to me. Do you guys have the girls steal 2nd everytime they get on base, then?
I also keep forgetting that my 8U team was a little different last year. Every girl on my team was league age 6 or 7, and only had 1 girl (DD) that played tee-ball. Hopefully I'll get my catchers up to that point this year!

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Our 8U team would have NEVER gotten an out at 2B on a steal. Ever. lol

Comp said:

There is no rule about "deception", but there is rule 10 which is commonly referred to as the god rule. The umpire can rule on any situation not specifically covered in the rules.

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You're correct...but in the case of the OP, you don't need the "god" rule.

The OP scenario is Obstruction. The act of a defensive team member without the the ball that confuses or hinders a runner legally running the bases.

grcsftbll said:

Our 8U team would have NEVER gotten an out at 2B on a steal. Ever. lol

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Like I said in my earlier post, it was a success when my catchers actually caught the ball clean!

MacLobo said:

Like I said in my earlier post, it was a success when my catchers actually caught the ball clean!

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Uh huh. Plus we didn't have a single player in 8U who could make that throw I don't think. Our main catcher was a teeny tiny little 7 year old.

MacLobo said:

Makes sense to me. Do you guys have the girls steal 2nd everytime they get on base, then?
I also keep forgetting that my 8U team was a little different last year. Every girl on my team was league age 6 or 7, and only had 1 girl (DD) that played tee-ball. Hopefully I'll get my catchers up to that point this year!

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Yes, pretty much every time we got a player on base we stole 2nd base, usually third base also. So a walk in these 8u tournaments would turn into a triple almost every time. We never had one of our runners thrown out in a game but we did have two girls called out for leaving first base too early.

The quality of the competition varied quite a bit. Some of the teams were more like a rec all star team that were not very good at all, and then there were part time travel teams that played together since January. We had our tryouts in January and practiced indoors from mid January through the end of March until we could get outside.

Ajaywill said:

You're correct...but in the case of the OP, you don't need the "god" rule.

The OP scenario is Obstruction. The act of a defensive team member without the the ball that confuses or hinders a runner legally running the bases.

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Ajaywill is correct that this could be an OBS call, but I believe that is really a stretch, much of it depending on the timing it took this to unfold After all, the runner has a coach right there who's job is to direct the runner and be aware of what is happening including watching the umpire's call.