Starting the game.
Starting the game. Rules 3 and 4 cover game preliminaries and starting and ending the game. One of you most important responsibilities is to ensure the game, starts and ends on time, and that time is not wasted. We'll cover that in training. A sign that the game is ready to begin is the plate conference. On games with youth umpires, an adult Game Coordinator must attend. The rule books cover what is to be discussed and we'll provide a handout on how to conduct it.
The game begins when the pitcher is on the rubber with the ball, the catcher in the catcher’s box, and the umpire points to the pitcher and says “play!" By the way, every time the ball is dead (we talk about dead ball in Lesson 4, Rule 5), the only way it can become live is by this exact same procedure.
Before we get to the start of actual play, we have to mention Rule 8 ("The Pitcher"), because the pitcher is the one who starts play. We won’t spend any more time with it here because you already know what the pitcher does; and at the lower levels of league play, the technicalities of pitching covered by Rule 8 are of little consequence -- or, like balks, do not exist.
There is something called an illegal pitch, but we do not have that rule in Double A and it rarely happens. There is one illegal pitch we should mention, even if it rarely comes up, and that is a pitcher who starts his throwing motion, then stops it. It's unfair because it fools the batter. If you see one, just call time and explain to the pitcher s/he can’t do that. If it becomes a problem, ask the coach to explain it. There are rules concerning pitch limits too, but the coaches worry about that, not you.
The game begins when the pitcher is on the rubber with the ball, the catcher in the catcher’s box, and the umpire points to the pitcher and says “play!" By the way, every time the ball is dead (we talk about dead ball in Lesson 4, Rule 5), the only way it can become live is by this exact same procedure.
Before we get to the start of actual play, we have to mention Rule 8 ("The Pitcher"), because the pitcher is the one who starts play. We won’t spend any more time with it here because you already know what the pitcher does; and at the lower levels of league play, the technicalities of pitching covered by Rule 8 are of little consequence -- or, like balks, do not exist.
There is something called an illegal pitch, but we do not have that rule in Double A and it rarely happens. There is one illegal pitch we should mention, even if it rarely comes up, and that is a pitcher who starts his throwing motion, then stops it. It's unfair because it fools the batter. If you see one, just call time and explain to the pitcher s/he can’t do that. If it becomes a problem, ask the coach to explain it. There are rules concerning pitch limits too, but the coaches worry about that, not you.