Question about this

[CoachKevin]

On the Maxpreps site Shadow Hills HS forfitted their 2nd round win (1-0) because of this rule;

Bylaw 2521.2 says that "Teams entered in the softball playoffs will not be permitted to take batting practice on the day of a playoff game prior to the commencement of the contest," and that "Includes bunting or slap hitting. Batting practice will be construed as any type of pitching motion with ANY type of ball from in front of the batter (including pitching machines, underhand tossing, overhand throwing or pepper)."


What in the world are they thinking? Don't teams typically warm up by hitting? I'm at a loss why this would be a rule.

 

[David Carter]

Seems pretty silly to me but hopefully someone will enlighten us.....I am all ears.

 

[Hit by the Pitch]

I think you are in trouble.

They are thinking the home team has an advantage and are trying to stop it.

 

[David Carter]

Here is a link to the story.http://www.mydesert.com/article/20130522/SPORTS0610/305220008/Shadow-Hills-softball-dismissed-breaking-rule

 

[coach james]

That's a crazy rule... we warm up every single game with soft toss into a net as well as front toss with TCB's or MOJO balls.
Looks like I'm in trouble!

 

[CPEM]

This happened last year or two years ago, IIRC. It was what "Hit By Pitch" wrote: the home team has an advantage, especially if a cage and pitching machine are used, since the visiting team usually won't have time to utilize such a resource. Side-toss is still allowed, just nothing from in front of the batter.

It's a California thing, as far as I can tell. I don't know if any other states have it as well. Here's a link to the last time I heard of this happening: Breaking News: Duarte wins batting-practice protest, will play South El Monte on Tuesday | Best High School Sports Blog

 

[GOINGDEEP]

I'm going to take a stab at this rule.

Only logical thing I can muster up is the rule is in place to make it "fair" to both teams. And by that I mean the home team could/would have an advantage to practice more ( or at all ) compared to the visiting team. Let's take our regional championship game. We had to travel 2 hours to the home teams field. That's 2 hours the home team "could" warm up or take batting practice that we could not. My opinion.

The next mistake is the coach should have known the rules. Even myself, as only a parent, I've read our bylaws 100's of times to fully understand the do's and do not's to make sure NO violations occur.

 

[CoachKevin]

Funny thing is they weren't the home team. What about regular season? Can you conduct batting practice then? The rule just specifically states playoffs.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Even I knew that it had happened before. How can they not know?

 

[CPEM]

Funny thing is they weren't the home team.

For those not in the SoCal area, Indio to San Pedro isn't exactly a short little trip (almost 150 miles, one-way). I can see why the bus got there so early, they probably left shortly after school started that day because the route they most likely took involved some of the busiest freeways in the area.

It seems like the adults from the other team knew they were in violation. If you read the story I posted from 2 years ago, the protesting team first told the umpires of the in-progress violation, and they told them they couldn't stop them. Then the coaches told the offending team's coaches about the in-progress violation, and they decided to continue on with it anyways. It was at that point that they decided to tape the violation and submit the protest. What would you all do if you were in that situation: warn the offending team so that they aren't DQ'd? Or tape it and protest later?