altered bat

Was at MS game the other day. Umps came looking at bats. Picked up a bat that had some black tape at the top of the leather grip wrap. Ump said this bat can't be used. Its been altered. The tape had been placed on the bat to keep the leather wrap in place or from un-raping. Coach removed the black tape, it had white tape under it. Put a piece of white tape on it help hold the old white tape that was already there. The ump did not say anything. Question on this is. What's up on the altered bat, with a piece of black tape to help hold down the leather wrap? Or was the UMP just messing?

 

Yea Cheeze and composite bats were 30 years in the future gosh we are gettin old, good thing though its still a round stick with a round ball.

 

black electrical tape

Black electrical tape, but the white tape that was used is electrical also.

 

Same thing happened in a game tonight batter called out for having tape on her bat?? really??

 

Had an ump throw out a helmet because a tiny little "official" sticker had come off the face mask. The helmet and the mask were in perfectly good condition, except for a missing mask sticker. This helmet, padded out for fit and issued to the player two years earlier, was very obviously identical to every other helmet in the dugout in age and condition. When the player asked him why, he gruffly grunted "that's the rule and you're not using it without that sticker." Then the game started and he proceeded to call one of the the worst strike zones we've seen. No batter or pitcher on either team could ever figure out his strike zone during the entire game. The only thing this guy was good at was enforcing meaningless rules that some far-away pea brain had dreamed up for this season. If he had a little common sense he would worry more about rules that mean something to the game, ...like the definition of strike zone, and less about mindless stuff!

 

UMP INTERROGATION OF RULES

I know this is a bat thread. But, we had another one yesterday. During meeting of both coaches at home plate along w player captain for the day. One of the players had a breakaway softball neck-less that she had been wearing all season, the coach stated. I was setting behind home plate and could hear the conversation that the home plate ump had with coaches. He looked at girl and asked the girl about the neck-less, said it looked good. When the game started the same girl came to home plate, stepped into the batters box. The plate ump called time, asked the girl remove the neck-less and said this was a team warning to her team, that any other girl coming to bat can not wear jewelry and that any player on the team wearing jewelry would be removed from the field. He said also no girls could wear ribbon in the hair/ponytail. Now, I'm not up on "ALL" the rules just a fan/parent. I know the game of Softball/Baseball. But ribbon in the hair or breakaway neck-less? Anyone out there that can help ALL OF US understand why an ump wants to take away from a game, somethings. But as stated from a previous poster doesn't know the strike zone or if a bunted ball settles on home plate he calls it a foul ball. Or at the start of this thread I stated, calls a bat altered or illegal for small amount of tape holding down the leather grip.

 

Had a kid today with a year old Easton the stamp was worn off of and not visible. The umpire was going to throw it out...but relented to allowing the bat to be used only if it was restamped before it was used again. We will see this umpire again. How and where do you get a bat restamped???

 

NFHS or High School rules prohibit all jewelry with the exception of religous medallions which must be taped to the body and medical alert jewelry which must be taped to the body also, but visible. The umpire should have mentioned the jewelry in the pregame since a player at the conference was wearing a necklace. This would have possibly prevented the stopage of play and the team warning. The hair ribbon is NCHSAA policy along with eye black worn in manner other then glare protection. As far as the tape as long as it is not more then 18" from the knob it should have been ok, unless it was slick tape in an area that could cause the batter to loose grip of the handle. Hope this helps.