Got one taken away today!!

[mkral]

Tough day! We lost our first 3-2 in the last inning. And had the second taken away from us in a way I have never had before in all my years coaching. We were tied 2-2 after first. Rain on and off all day, horrible playing conditions. Rained on our top half of second. We were home team. My pitcher pitched in rain, our #2 pitcher, for most of the second before it stopped and we gave up 8. My team pretty much gave up. I told them the fat guy (me) has not sang yet.
Starts to rain again in between innings and ump asks if I want to quit. I say no. We pitched in the rain they can pitch in the rain. We kept playing. We rip off 4 quick runs with 1 out. My #1 pitcher hits a triple and scores 2 more. Next batter hits double, #1 pitcher slips on home plate and slams all her weight onto her ankle on the back side of the plate, DONE!! Badly sprained ankle. My wife/head coach goes nuts about conditions. We were already playing a 5th grader in a 14U tourney due to injuries. Tourney director comes out to the field looks at it and leaves. We keep playing. We get our second out. Load up the bases and get a single to score one. Tie game. Second in charge of tourney comes over and says game over get off the field. WHAT? Bases loaded 2 out tie game we are the home team and game over? We do not play with drop dead time limits. the game before ours went 3 extra innings.

Now if it cannot get worse we go to the other team and they say the score is 12-8 them. We went through 13 batters that inning and we were on the 14th batter with the bases loaded and 2 outs. And we only scored 6 in that inning???.....OK nice math. I guess I had girls stacked two high on base somewhere.........Then the lady keeping their book told my wife she could not count. My girls got one taken away from them, I really hate that. To fight back from down 8 and lose one more of our key players then all of this happens, WOW!

Our original #1 pitcher was already out due to a thigh injury, we now lose our replacement #1 pitcher. Lost our starting second baseman with a pulled shoulder muscle today as well. We are now down to 7 active players as we had 3 out before today with injuries and added 2 more today.

Season might be over and this was our second tourney of the year!!! We had high hopes this year. I will not give up just yet, we will keep fighting and pulling younger girls up to fill spots as needed.

Alright enough crying!
Mike

 

[amanda_cake]

Definitely sounds like you had a rough day; that was a bad situation that your team was put in. I would be mad as well!

 

[mkral]

Thanks Amanda. It is good have a place like this to vent from time to time.

 

[BretMan]

Where to start, where to start...

By rule, only the umpires can end a game due to weather/field conditions. They were wrong for asking your opinion about continuing, and it was wrong for some third party to come in and tell them to stop it.

By rule, since you only played two innings this can't be an official game. If called due to weather before five innings are played (or 4-1/2 if the home team was ahead), it would be a postponed game (wiped off the books). If your tourney had a different game-ending procedure, or a different minimum number of innings to be played to make the game "official" this could be either a tie game or a suspended game (resumed at the point it was stopped when conditions permit).

By rule, the home team rule book is the official book in case of a discreprency.

Somebody's math is definitely off. By your own account, the score was 2-2 and the other team scored 8 more runs (10-2). Then, you scored 4+2+1 (total of 7 runs). That would make the score 10-9. Yet you say it was a tie game. Did you leave one run out of your account?

Now, the rest of your story implies you did score 8 runs. Do you know how to "prove" a score book? Could come in handy if there's ever a question about how many runs scored. To "prove" a scorebook:

- For each completed at-bat, there can only be three possible outcomes: The batter was either put out, is now on base or has scored.

- Count the number of batters who have completed their at-bat. (13 by your account).

- Subtract the number of outs from the number of completed at-bats (13-2=11).

- Subtract the number of runners on base from that total (11-3=8).

- The remainder must equal the number of runs scored (8 in this case...so I guess maybe you did leave one out of your account?).

Funny thing about playing in bad weather. As long as it works to a team's advantage (gives them a chance to tie it up or win it) their coaches are all for it. Then, when somebody gets hurt, or the other team goes ahead, they're livid at the umpires for not having stopped it!

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I am not one for standing around in a cold rain and risking injury to my players. I know you were being dealt a bad hand, but personally, I would have quit when I was given the chance.

There is always another weekend.

Cudos to your girls for hanging in there.

I like it when an ump asks both score keepers for the score every inning. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, mistakes occur.

The second in charge of tourney, might have been told by the parks department to clear the fields. Around here, sometimes all fields are closed in bad weather, to keep those huge foot prints from developing all over the infield.

 

[mkral]

Bretman,
You missed the run of my #1 pitcher making it 8 when she got injured. No matter it is done.
Yeah we went over to the ump stand to discuss after, actually for an explanation. We were not happy to say the least and I am sure they went on the defensive as well right away. The problem was the other teams score keeper was there with their book. I explained that we were the home team and I was confused as to why she was even there as our book was the official book and should be looked at first.
I do know how to do the math on batters/outs/left on base. I have been doing this a long time now and so has my wife. She has kept books for 7 years. I tried to have the head official look at it but they would not. I am not real sure why they were so mad at us unless they were afraid they were going to get in trouble for our injured player. That is what ASA insurance is for and we never brought it up. Again this is not our first rodeo. It is just to bad because the girls really fought back hard. But then again if it saved another injury so be it.

Amy,
I agree with getting the score between each inning that would be great. As far as clearing all fields it was a 14 field complex and only our game was suspended. The second in charge stood over by the other teams dugout the entire game. I have no clue what was said over there but it was strange. The head coach of that team and the second in charge might have been friends, I don't know. I don't know what was said over there and don't really care. If that is how they want to win they can have it. My girls did their job.

Thank you for your kind words for my girls. They really played their hearts out. Even after one of their best team mates is screaming in pain in the dugout they kept fighting. She would not let her parents take her until the game was over.

Mike

 

[Simo]

Tough day! We lost our first 3-2 in the last inning. And had the second taken away from us in a way I have never had before in all my years coaching. We were tied 2-2 after first. Rain on and off all day, horrible playing conditions. Rained on our top half of second. We were home team. My pitcher pitched in rain, our #2 pitcher, for most of the second before it stopped and we gave up 8. My team pretty much gave up. I told them the fat guy (me) has not sang yet.
Starts to rain again in between innings and ump asks if I want to quit. I say no. We pitched in the rain they can pitch in the rain. We kept playing.

You played yesterday!? Did you have scuba gear. We got about 2 inches up north of you!

 

[mkral]

Yeah I wont say where but you will know where.....it was over on the Mississippi where the Muskies roam.
It rained off and on all day over there too and the fields were really rough in spots. I take responsibility however for letting my girls play. I forfeited a game 2 years ago in conditions like that and the parents all got mad at me. So I thought we would let it ride this time. Stupid me, I am paying the price. I guess as a coach you are darned if you do and darned if you don't. If no one would have gotten hurt and I forfeited I would have been shunned again, but now that I did not forfeit due to conditions and someone got hurt I will hear about it, I am sure. It is price you pay coaching sometimes.
See ya later Simo. Oh yeah after our pitcher went down on the way home my DD told me she wanted to go and get a cortezone shot so she can come back and play. This is a kid scared to death of needles. I told her absolutely not!! She will have to wait and heal up naturally and the shot will not heal her it will only take the pain away for awhile. Gotta love the drive of some of these kids sometimes even if it is misguided.

Mike

 

[MTR]

Never should have been playing. Don't care what the other team did or wants.

As an umpire, I will not play in any conditions which is unsafe. Really don't care what the teams or parents think. While I will entertain the coach's input, that is all it is, input.

And just because I have insurance covering me, I see no reason to test it for a simple ball game.

 

[BretMan]

Bretman,
You missed the run of my #1 pitcher making it 8 when she got injured.

Got ya. I wasn't sure if you meant she slipped on the plate batting, scoring or was one of the other runs you mentioned.