biggest rule change in years

[fblover]

The national federation has implemented a new rule change for this spring that has to be one of the biggest in years. The rule basically stipulates that an assistant coach may not leave his area to question a call, if he does he and the head coach are to be restricted to the dugout. I understand the need and importance of sportsmanship in our sport, but in my opinion this is just another attempt to protect officials who aren't capable of doing the job at that level. This is just one more step by the national federation to turn our beloved sport into rec ball.

[dmoney1nc]

The national federation has implemented a new rule change for this spring that has to be one of the biggest in years. The rule basically stipulates that an assistant coach may not leave his area to question a call, if he does he and the head coach are to be restricted to the dugout. I understand the need and importance of sportsmanship in our sport, but in my opinion this is just another attempt to protect officials who aren't capable of doing the job at that level. This is just one more step by the national federation to turn our beloved sport into rec ball.

 

Tottaly agree!!! That is a terrible new rule. They only new rule they should have added is put a pitch count limit on pitchers. No kid should throw over 100 pitches and i know that most teams dont have enough talent to do this but it needs to be done.

[thedoctor23]

I couldn't agree with you more fb, this rule is absolutely absurd. It makes no sense to confine the head coach for the actions of the an assistant coach. Futhermore, how does it help the players if both coaches are confined? This is another move that proves that the powers that be don't care about the players. I think this is a rule to give incompetent umpires who have poor judgement an easy out when confronted by an assistant coach.

[riverdaleman]

an assistant coach can still question a call he just cant leave his box to do it.

[fblover]

I understand that they can still question a call, but some coaches can question a call without calling attention to themselves if they walk down the line towards the umpire after the call. Without drawing attention to the situation, it can make the relationships better, all umpires that I know don't want to be shown up, especially by an assistant coach. That is why I think that the ability to do that is bad for the game, I do realize the better officials will allow that type of thing to go on, however it is the ones who are unsure that will abuse this rule. It is my understanding that not all state associations have endorsed this rule, I find it unfortunate that ours has.

[NETFan]

Actually the rule has always been that the head coach is the only one who can question a call. The umpire may answer an assistants questions but he has never been required to. The only time an assistant can officially question a call is if the head coach is ejected. It should be this way. It is in any other sport. Basketball and football the head coach is responsible for the sidelines and bench. Why should baseball be any different?

[redbird9]

In those sports the coaches coach from the sidelines anyway. You need your baseball coaches on the field to help you with running bases. Its dumb that an umpire cant be questioned. Its part of the game.

[NETFan]

The umpires can still be questioned it just has to be done by the head coach. the problem has been that there have been some assistants that do not know the rules and many that are not paid employees of the school that have been taking advantage of the umpires and there is little to no punishment because they are not employees. The truth is that the head coach is the only who should question a call. When I was a head coach, I would have removed my assistant if he had questioned a call. It is a slap in the face to the head coach. It is the head coach's responsibility to be the one who interacts with the umpires.

[fblover]

The reason that it is different is that the coaches are located in different positions on the field during the game, an assistant at first base has a different vantage point on a call at first or down the right field line than the head coach would from the 3rd base coaches box or the dugout, don't get me wrong, I am not advocating that an asst coach go nuts and kick dirt or act a fool on the field, but it is ridiculous that he can't take 3 or 4 steps to ask a question. Furthermore as this rule was explained to me by Gene Menes this also applies to a situation where a player is coaching first base in a situation where there is only one coach for the team. If that player violates this rule he and the head coach are restricted to the dugout as coaches, but the player is still active as a player, meaning as soon as he gets restricted to the dugout he could pinch run, or pinch hit. I was discussing this with other coaches over the weekend and they see a tremendous liability issue in a situation like this.

[Tennesseesportsfan]

Its hard to compare football officials to baseball. Try arguing balls and strikes in a baseball game and see what happens. Football officials, and basketball also, tend to listen to arguing more than baseball officials. MLB assistant coaches very rarely argue with an ump, its the managers job. Its been a unwritten rule for decades, now its in writing.

[glock22]

The national federation has implemented a new rule change for this spring that has to be one of the biggest in years. The rule basically stipulates that an assistant coach may not leave his area to question a call, if he does he and the head coach are to be restricted to the dugout. I understand the need and importance of sportsmanship in our sport, but in my opinion this is just another attempt to protect officials who aren't capable of doing the job at that level. This is just one more step by the national federation to turn our beloved sport into rec ball.

 

Tottaly agree!!! That is a terrible new rule. They only new rule they should have added is put a pitch count limit on pitchers. No kid should throw over 100 pitches and i know that most teams dont have enough talent to do this but it needs to be done.

The assistant coach or the head coach should not question judgement calls anyway. It's in the rule book, judgement calls should not be questioned.

 

However, when the head coach does question a judgement call (thereby violating a BOOK rule), he should be the only one on the team to do it. The assistant/first base coach's job is to tell a runner to go to 2nd or to get back on a pickoff attempt or to take batting gloves. PERIOD!

 

Pitch counts?? What difference does it make if most HS pitchers throw over 100 pitches? What are they saving their arms for? Less than 5% move on to the next level, so what difference does it make?

[randyc1]

The deference it makes affects the rest of their life whether it be baseball, the work field or whatever. Not all people who have had rotator cuff surgery come back 100% and for those who don't is something they have to deal with the rest of their life. That has got to be one of stupidest comments anyone could make!!!