little league lineup rules

krc1995

krc1995

Heisman Trophy Winner
Well I have assumed the horrible job of being our team's scorekeeper and today I think we were got the raw end in the first inning. Here's what happened. We're playing in a 8U little league tournament today as the 6th seed, playing the 3rd seed so we are visitor and my scorebook is not the official book. Our head coach, who coaches his other son's team, is not able to make this game due to a scheduling conflict so the assistant coaches fill it. One of our coaches gave the other team our lineup and then he gave me a copy. Game begins with us at bat. Here's the problem the lineup he gave the home team is the wrong copy as the one he an I have. The first four batters were the same, but starting with the 5th batter it was different. She and I noticed it immediately, but we couldn't get word in and about three batters were on before the game was stopped to sort it out. She was ballistic and I didn't have the rule book. The ruling was to end the inning- allowing three of the runs to scores, but to make the others an out-even tough they got base hits and were standing on base at this time. I actually had four runs in my scorebook but she said her book trumped mine and she didn't "see" it. I think the correct ruling would have been to change the order to the kid that came up because it was the first inning and they were not technically batting of order.

They're 7 and 8 so I guess it doesn't matter that much but it would have changed the game because we were well on our way to scoring the max runs that inning. It's a learning experience. I also don't blame the umps for not knowing-that women was scary and I thought she was going to eat me.

 
Well, technically they were batting out of order because the lineup is what is given to the official scorer. However, as soon as a pitch is thrown after batting out of order, the order is "legalized" for that go around. Basically the batter always has to be the one in the order following the one who just batted, and if the out of order isn't caught in time, it's ok as long as the next batter is the one in the lineup after the guy one who batted, whether he should have or not. So if your team gave her A B C D E F G H I but batted A B C D F, F is an illegal batter. If he gets on base, the other team can appeal and he will be out. But if a pitch is thrown to the next batter, it is all legal, but G follows F. E is just skipped for this turn. The next time around, E must follow D. You don't call an out for each person that has been out of order, only for the one they have caught in team. Wikipedia actually explains this pretty well with examples. I think I remember an MLB in the 60s or 70s where a team batted out of order and the other team's manager just watched and waited until something good happened with a batter who didn't follow who he was supposed to, and he called it at that time and that batter was declared out with his hit nullified.

Non-technically, it's under 8 kids so the sportsmanlike thing to do would be to let you use your order. In any case, at most one out should've been called and proper order restored at that point.

 
Also, the reason you can't just say that technically the order is the way they bat the first time is that a coach could manipulate the lineup. If the first 2 hitters make outs, the coach may not want to waste his good #3 hitter in a bad situation, and slip a weaker hitter in there, saving the good hitter for the next inning. Again, for 8U common sense could prevail, but when talking about "correct rulings" and "technically", you can't do this.

 
Thanks VA, I'd seen this rule in the MLB rulebook but I thought little league might be different. I found a video made from the little league association addressing this issue and the ruling was that the lineup should be as the batter that goes to the plate. We ended up using my line up because our coached argued that that if we adjusted to the line up she had, some of the kids would have come up twice before some came up once. That was valid in my opinion. I don't have the scorebook with me at the moment so I can't exactly remember how it played out. The other team was very good and a year older and our little guys hung right with them until a defensive melt down in the fourth.

The kids were all trying to find ant piles while the melee was going on so I guess their perspective was right.

 
The real trouble was that our first four were the same a-b-c-d but then they were all scrambled like g-e-I-h-f-m-I type of thing

 
The last part you typed was the best...they are 7 and 8 so it doesn't matter. The person that went ballistic should have been beaten for all to see.

KRC, you sound totally reasonable and normal...most of these little league (and that is what it is, little league) parents are crazy.

 
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