Umpire calling an illegal pitch
2016/7/15 17:20:08
Question
My question pertains to an illegal pitch being called in an ASA slow pitch sanctioned league. If a pitch is deemed to be illegal (whether too high or too flat) by an umpire is he required to make this known verbally while the ball is in flight to the batter. The reason that I am asking is that our umpires this year have told us that they don't have to verbalize this call, instead they will just put their arm out to the side indicating the illegal pitch. In my 14 years of ASA softball i believe that 99.9% of the time this call was verbally made by the umpire...Can you answer this question for me. Thanks I appreciate it.
John
New York
Answer
Hi John,
Yes I can....
the umpire is mistaken and should read the umpire manual
In ASA the umpire manual states "you call the illegal pitch when it becomes an illegal pitch. use the ddb signal and call illegal loud enough for nearby players to hear you."
In ASA you have a district UIC, tell him/her they need to instruct their umpires on this. This is a pretty basic umpire mechanic in ASA.
I know another org does not verbal it until after the pitch and I've never understood that. How does the batter know the pitch is illegal?
Mark
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