Offical Scorekeeping Duties

Question
QUESTION: Scott,

You mentioned this when addressing a question in respect to batting out of order:

"Umpires hate Batting Out of Order snags, at least I do.  Actually, they're quite easy to penalize and rectify, but they slow the game.  Alert scorekeepers are worth their weight in gold to the umpire.  The best ones notice that a player is about to bat out of order as they're walking toward the batter's box, before a pitch is even thrown!"

Could you clarify score keeping rules in regard to the wrong batter coming to bat. Is it correct, that this is a defensive call of the coach of a player batting out of order and not something the umpire or scorekeeper act on until questioned by the defending team?

Thanks in advance!

ANSWER: Hi Dave,
Thank you for your question.  Let me use ASA's 2012 Official Rules of Softball to answer your question, since you didn't ask me to attach a certain Organization's rules to your answer.

The Batting Order rule is a little bit confusing, I admit.  7-2-C-EFFECT says: "Batting out of order is an appeal play that may be made by the defensive team only."  But just after that, in 7-2-D-EFFECT, regarding discovering batting out of order while the incorrect batter is at bat, it says: "There is no penalty whether discovered by the offense or defense while the incorrect batter is at bat."  In other words, it's not against the Batting Order rule for the offense, too, to bring to the attention of the umpire that it has an incorrect batter batting.  At this stage of the infraction, the rule is very lenient.  There isn't even a penalty.  The correct batter is merely brought in, assumes ("inherits") the count of the incorrect batter, and finishes the at bat.

However, if the at bat is completed by the incorrect batter, and before the next pitch, etc., then it is the responsibility of the defense to appeal batting out of order.  If the defensive scorekeeper or team brought it to my attention, right then and there I would bring both head coaches into the conversation, compare my lineup card with the defensive book and the offensive book, then make a ruling.  

It's completely routine that the offensive scorekeeper or team brings to the attention of the umpire that they have an incorrect batter batting, or have a batter who has just completed an at bat, because I contend that 99% of the time an innocent mistake has been made by the offense, and they just want to come clean and get the batting order back in order.  In this case I would do the same thing as I did when the defense noticed the error.  I would bring both head coaches into the conversation, compare my lineup card with both books, then make a ruling.  

So, whether the offense or the defense brings to the attention of the umpire that a batting out of order infraction has occurred, it's the voice of the defensive team that is required to formalize the process and make an appeal to the umpire.

As an umpire, I don't speak up about, or take any action against, a batter batting out of order.  That's the obligation of the defense, even if, as we just discussed, it's the offense who first pipes up about it.  However, if I detect that a player who is about to begin an at bat would be batting out of order if she came into the batter's box, then it is nothing but good preventive umpiring for me to bring this glitch to the attention of the offensive coach, and derail a fiasco.  I'm not working "out of the box," breaking the rules, or cheating the defense out of nailing the offense on a batting out of order infraction, because in this situation the player hasn't even become a batter yet, let alone batted out of order.

Scott Kelly



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Appreciate the fast response, and from an umpiring view, and a coaching view, I completely agree. The area of confusion is probably more in relation to the scorekeeper responsibilities? The score keeper is there to, shall we say, take notes of the game by recording situations that occur and how these situation occurred. The scorekeepers responsibility is NOT to point out the errors made by either teams coaches or the umpire, until they are asked a question. Am I correct in that statement?

Answer
Hi Dave,

Thank you for the generous rating, and you're welcome for my last response.  I'm sorry that I didn't fully grasp your first question, and that you had to submit a followup one!

I can't find anything in print in any of my rules books, umpire manuals, or case books about this specific topic, but I say NO, it is NOT correct to say that it is the scorekeepers' responsibility to NOT point out errors made by either teams' coaches or the umpire, until they are asked a question.  The umpire(s) and the scorekeepers comprise the officiating TEAM.  Only the home team's scorekeeper (usually) is the official book, but the visiting team's scorekeeper is an important part of the officiating TEAM, too.  Many times while I have been the plate umpire it has been one or both of the scorekeepers who have notified me that I have given the wrong count or incorrect amount of outs, or that an incorrect batter was about to step into the batter's box, or that the wrong runner has been placed on 2B to start a tie-breaker inning, etc.  These timely notifications were worth their weight in gold.  They derailed a fiasco, a mess, a disaster--pick one--and maybe even a protest.  

In fact, the scorekeepers are so important to me as a plate umpire that, ideally, each one is sitting just behind the backstop, where they are easily accessible to both me and their respective dugouts/coaches.  That location makes it a breeze for me to report subs and keep track of the score and inning, for example, which I need to know for the sake of the run-ahead rule in ASA.  I always cross my fingers that the scorekeepers are friendly with each other and will frequently compare the game score and verify that the correct batter is at bat.

I always remind the scorekeepers that I appreciate their notification of errors as outlined above, but that they need to be made only during a dead-ball period or during an appropriate live-ball lull.  Umpires don't like to be addressed by the scorekeepers at inopportune times, and chitchat and small talk is always off limits!

Scott Kelly