Unsportsmanlike spectrum: you decide

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I have to respectfully return the spit-take on these. ;)

Don't like the umpires making calls ... neither do the parents.

Put in everything ... except that stuff.

None of that is what I said though.

I don't want the umpires making up calls. And when it comes to enforcing literal unwritten rules, that's what it is. That's not judgment. "Did this pitch enter the strike zone?" is judgment. "Does this vague act constitute violating the 'spirit of the rule,' a concept that's not actually defined anywhere" is just making stuff up.

It would be very easy to create a list of "unsporting acts" that covers 95% of the stuff people think should be covered. Maybe more. And if people didn't think of it, I bet it's not that bad.

It's actually insane to me that, as an umpire, you'd rather have to rule on nebulous abstractions (did I just say the same thing twice?) than actual concrete rules. Imagine if the strike zone was described in the rules as "Any pitch that, in the umpire's judgment, was a good pitch, believed to be of the hittable variety, may be deemed a strike if the umpire so chooses." That's what some of this "spirit of the game" nonsense is. It's the difference between judgment and opinion.
 
Jul 14, 2018
982
93
A play not mentioned that I’ve coached players to do:

Runner on 1st, less than two outs. Ball hit to shallow RF or right center. OFer knows they’re going to play it on the hop, but we tell them to yell ‘Got it’ to slow the runner, hopefully stop them from going to third.

This isn’t total chicanery as the OFers need to communicate who is playing the hop


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jul 27, 2021
276
43
Imagine if the strike zone was described in the rules as "Any pitch that, in the umpire's judgment, was a good pitch, believed to be of the hittable variety, may be deemed a strike if the umpire so chooses."
That actually happens: mediocre ump with bias. I called it the starfish strike zone here.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
That actually happens: mediocre ump with bias. I called it the starfish strike zone here.

Guess I am biased and ...

GlaringWanCowbird-max-1mb.gif
 
Apr 14, 2022
564
63
None of that is what I said though.

I don't want the umpires making up calls. And when it comes to enforcing literal unwritten rules, that's what it is. That's not judgment. "Did this pitch enter the strike zone?" is judgment. "Does this vague act constitute violating the 'spirit of the rule,' a concept that's not actually defined anywhere" is just making stuff up.

It would be very easy to create a list of "unsporting acts" that covers 95% of the stuff people think should be covered. Maybe more. And if people didn't think of it, I bet it's not that bad.

It's actually insane to me that, as an umpire, you'd rather have to rule on nebulous abstractions (did I just say the same thing twice?) than actual concrete rules. Imagine if the strike zone was described in the rules as "Any pitch that, in the umpire's judgment, was a good pitch, believed to be of the hittable variety, may be deemed a strike if the umpire so chooses." That's what some of this "spirit of the game" nonsense is. It's the difference between judgment and opinion.
It does not just say spirit it says letter and spirit.
Spirit is not ambiguous, it means intent.
You always need the threat of intent because no matter how you write the rules some coaches will always look for a grey area in the letter rules.

In almost every unsportsmanlike act an ump has to decide general intent or real meaning.
 
May 16, 2012
97
18
Missouri
Spirit and letter of the rules are legal terms. Spirit refers to intent of the rules. The coach should teach both the intent and letter of the rules.
People come up with new stuff all the time. The ump needs the ability to rule on something no one has never seen before.
In all my training, not once has "spirit" of the rules ever been mentioned.
 
Apr 14, 2022
564
63
In all my training, not once has "spirit" of the rules ever been mentioned.
In my daughters first tournament at 8. The other coach was kicked out for climbing the fence an yelling at officials.
The rule book says unsportsmanlike conduct. Thus the spirit (intent) of the rule climbing fences is not sportsmanlike.

I do not know maybe we need rules defining how high a coach can climb before he gets ejected?
Maybe we should define calling an ump dumb is ok, but stupid mfer is ejection?
Or we could leave it to the ump to determine the intent (spirit) of sportsmanship?
 

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,468
Members
21,443
Latest member
sstop28
Top