DH in 10U???

Question
Hi Mr. Mielke.

I am just a mom of an 11 year old girl crying her eyes out.  She "played" in a tournament ASA sanctioned where her coach didn't let her bat the entire tournament, four straight games.  However she played defensively occasionally.  I don't even know if she was part of the official line up at this point because she never even held a bat in her hands.

She also sat out an entire game but did play a "courtesy runner" spot one inning.  To say I am outraged as a mom and softball enthusiast is an understatement and I am trying to protest this with her respective league!

Specifically however, I was interested in the DH as it pertains to this age group, can it be used and what a "flex player" does....she had both instances happen to her during this tournament.  What was this coach thinking???

Sincerely,
Kathy S.

Answer
Kathy,

I can't answer the question about what the coach was thinking, other than the coach was putting winning ahead of developing the players.  If you are a very serious A level team and trying to earn a spot in ASA nationals, I can almost understand this thought process.  

Typically if you are not going to be able to play a girl for a whole tournament, you would take care of this at tryouts and not put her on the team.  This situation is unfortunate because it will quickly kill any desire your daughter has to play softball.

The rule you are talking about is the FLEX/DP rule.  It really isn't that complicated.  DP stands for "Designated Player".  This is basically the same as the DH in major league baseball.  When used, the line-up has 10 players.  The last player listed is the FLEX player and also has a defensive position listed.  The FLEX player doesn't bat.  The player that bats only and doesn't play defense is listed as the DP somewhere in the first 9 spots in the line-up.  There is more to this rule regarding subsitutions etc., but that is not really important to answer your post.

I hope this helps.

Tom