ASA Inning restart potential protest

[Sailorjoe6308]

During my coed league's tournament last night there were a few issues. The first beingthat the score keeper was scoring the game backwards. This error was caught by both teams as well as our umpire. This caused several issues and the game clock to be stopped with 2 minutes left in the bottom of the 6th. There were 2 outs 1 runner on 1st and 1 run scored. The score at the time of the stoppage was 10-8 with my team, visitors, leading. When the clock was stopped and everything was corrected the current league director and the umpire restarted the bottom of the 6th inning. My questions are:
1. Was this the right call?
2. Shouldn't the inning have continued from the point of stoppage?
3. If the inning were restarted shouldn't it have been restarted for both teams?
4. Is there a rule somewhere that can aid me in my protest?
To all of you I'm not protesting the scoring as that was corrected by myself, the other team's manager and the umpire. The lead umpire and our league director explained their side. The lead umpire even agreed that what I'm protesting is a valid protest due to the fact that in his 40yrs as an umpire he's never heard of this being called. Our league director on the other hand stated that he did not believe that it was valid and when I asked him what rule he would site against the protest he said he didn't know the rule on it but that he has to stand behind the umpire on his decision. Any help or guidance would be deeply appreciated.

 

[DeputyUICHousto]

If you were to protest, who would hear your protest? If its the league director I doubt that person would reverse their own decision in this situation. Its as if they have already made their decision and if there's no higher authority then you're out of luck.

 

[Iceman6409]

Just my 2 cents here. Never used a time clock before but I do like that idea. My GUESS is this sounds like a scoring discrepancy overall. The clock was stopped with time left to play, as I think it should have in this case. From there once everything was settled then I say place the players where they were when the game was stopped, make sure everyone is set and then start the timer. I cannot quote any book rules but this is what I would have done. If there was a valid reason to add time back on the clock then so be it. But I would not change what has already happened in this case. I personally see no reason why the bottom of the 6th inning should be replayed. Just my opinion

I must say though this is an interesting question overall. Looking forward to other opinions.

 

[Sully]

Yeah I agree with Ice if I understand this correctly. So the scorekeeper kept the visiting teams hits and scores on the Home side and vice versa? Once you fixed it, was the previous score correct and was the last batter the correct batter? If the score was correct and the last batter was the correct batter and this was strictly a book error, it should have finished from where it was paused.

Technically, I would say this isn't an official protest though. USA Softball rule book recognizes three types of protests.
1. Misinterpretation of a playing rule
2. Illegal Player
3. Ineligible Player

I don't think this falls into any of the protest categories. I would think this is an error the same as if the umpire put the runs on the wrong teams side on the scoreboard. You fix it and proceed with the game. I don't think this situation is covered in the rules because in Championship play it doesn't happen.

 

[EAJuggalo]

I don't think it's protestable, but I think it was wrong. The inning should have continued from the exact point it was stopped, unless there was a very good reason to change that. This is not one of the very limited scenarios where there is a do-over.

 

[Sailorjoe6308]

Yeah I agree with Ice if I understand this correctly. So the scorekeeper kept the visiting teams hits and scores on the Home side and vice versa? Once you fixed it, was the previous score correct and was the last batter the correct batter? If the score was correct and the last batter was the correct batter and this was strictly a book error, it should have finished from where it was paused.

Technically, I would say this isn't an official protest though. USA Softball rule book recognizes three types of protests.
1. Misinterpretation of a playing rule
2. Illegal Player
3. Ineligible Player

I don't think this falls into any of the protest categories. I would think this is an error the same as if the umpire put the runs on the wrong teams side on the scoreboard. You fix it and proceed with the game. I don't think this situation is covered in the rules because in Championship play it doesn't happen.

The score keeper had been scoring the runs backwards. Home team had visitors score. Once the scoring error was handled everything was correct including the last batter but the umpire elected to restart the bottom of the 6th inning entirely. I did protest the game and was told that my protest is valid by the league director's boss who is part of the 3 person panel that hears the protest. They denied my protest by saying our league doesn't have the funding to pick the tournament up there and extend the tournament another week because of a senior tournament that is scheduled for a week after our season ends.

 

[Sailorjoe6308]

I do have a couple follow up questions. Is league funds a valid reason to deny a protest? It is a city run league. They do not pay for the lights to be on when we play. Each team has a sponsor fee of $300 and each player pays an additional $25 player fee. We had 10 teams each team had an average of 14 players. Some teams had more and some had less but it averages out to 14 players per team. That's $650 per team once number of players is averaged out. So that's $6500 in total. Each team had 14 games. Our umpires get $60 per night so that's $120 paid out each night combining our umpires pay. That's $1680 for the season not including 2 weeks of tournament play. With tournament that's $1920. Taken from $6500 that leaves $4580. The league winners get league championship t-shirts. The shirts cost the city $150. Still leaving $4430. The city also provides bats for our league and they buy 2 new models every season. They buy 6 total bats every season. They are sold to them at a massive discount. The new ones this season were a Demarini and Easton. They spend somewhere around $1000 on bats per season. Still leaving near $3500. We did not have score keepers because the city claimed it could not afford them. I'm not an accountant. I do not keep the books for the league but I know what we pay to play and what the t-shirt company they use sells them the shirts for because I work there. The entire league knows they are getting deep discounts on the bats because they are purchased through one of the players in the league who works for the company they buy them from. So my second question is where is the remainder of that money going? Is there something I'm missing?

 

[Sailorjoe6308]

I should clarify that the scorekeeper we had during the game was the League Director's son and is not a score keeper. He was asked to keep score by his dad so that he could monitor the other games.

 

[ShortYellowBus]

Perhaps you should consider all the time, hard work and unpaid contributions from others to make organized softball an option. The leagues can’t self-sustain with the fees collected from the team fees.

You say it’s a lot of money left over. I hope you’re kidding. It’s nothing.

The real question is how much tax money is the city contributing to subsidize the very source of your complaints.

Have you tried being a league director? You have to kiss a lot of ass to get anything done.

If the city decides to cancel the softball subsidies, please tell me what your alternatives are?

This very same situation happened in my city. City cancelled it over the fact that too many elitist assholes complained about ephemeral nonsense and the city stepped in and took it all away.

Is this endgame the type of thing you’re trying to accomplish?

I’d rather get the championship t-shirt.

 

[Sailorjoe6308]

Our city leagues are considered charities because a portion of the money that is left over in total from all 4 seasons is given to our girls fast pitch usssa teams. You do have a point that I've never been a league director. That's why I'm trying to understand how they claim funding as a valid reason to deny my protest. I actually have several alternatives if the league's in my town are shutdown. I can go and play in Lake Havasu, Kingman or even Las Vegas. There are alternatives that I wouldn't mind going to so that I can play. I prefer too play in my town because it's where my dad has played for 30yrs. I only started playing softball because of my dad. These are the leagues he loves and theseare the leagues he plays in so its where I want to play. My end game is to understand the funding issue as a valid reason. I mean hell the fields we play on are maintained by the people in the area who spend their weekends in jail. So the city isn't paying them a decent wage to do it and the money they do pay them doesn't come from the city's parks department. That money comes from the county and it goes to the fines that the people who maintain our fields have. So again please explain why they can use funding as a valid argument and reason behind denying a protest? @ShortYellowBus can you explain this?