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Facemask - 15 Lash Penalty
by Dave
Monday, May 05, 2008
I heard a story about one of those games in which a town rec/all-star team lured a travel team to come scrimmage them. At this game, the travel team infielders all wore the "gameface" face mask. I think we see these worn in competitive fastpitch more and more frequently and that is a good thing. But at the game in question, a mother from the rec/all-star team began yelling to nobody in particular (perhaps the umps) on the field, "they can't wear that - they're not allowed to wear catcher's masks in the field - that's illegal!" To this woman and anyone else who just has never seen this equipment, I feel comfortable saying you are rather wrong. This is but a simple piece of safety equipment. It is not intended to intimidate or otherwise distract your daughter when she is at bat. I am unaware of ANY rule prophibiting their usage and I suggest you find out more about this device as you may save your own daughter some significant pain. But this isn't really why I am writing about this today. The reason I am writing about it is because some folks, who should know better, do not.
For the second time this young season I heard a story about a game in which an umpire wanted to prohibit girls from wearing gamefaces. Ultimately he relented and permitted the girls to play with them on. But he suggested that they were not regulation gear and nearly made them take the devices off. He asked the coaches of the team wearing them to show him in the rulebook where it says these are permitted. That's beyond ridiculous.
Show me in the rulebook where it says girls can wear sunglasses. Show me in the rulebook where it says girls can wear underarmor. Show me in the rulebook where it says girls can wear cups. Show me in the rulebook where it says gilrs can have decals placed on their regulation helmets. Show me in the rulebook where it says girls can wear knee braces.
The fact that the most recent games in which the idiot ump was going to prohibit the wearing of gameface was a friendly was somehow lost. There was no "rulebook." There was the notion that the friendly was played generally under ASA rules except for teams being allowed to bat their whole lineups, etc., etc. So which precise rulebook the idiot was referring to is anyone's guess.
I believe the coaches must have responded with something like, "OK buddy. We're going to play with these on and if you don't like it, you can call the game, award it to the other team, and then go explain to the site director about what you did. The site director would likely have torn him a new one.
As I said a moment ago, I think we see more girls wearing game faces each year. That's true in age group ball, high level ASA play, high school and even NCAA. I will not be shocked to see a few of these at the Summer Olympics though that may be a little unlikely. The Olympic players tend to be older-style players who shun such things as face masks.
This simple, light-weight protective gear has a lot of benefits and few, if any, drawbacks. I do know that a few girls, including my own, find that they obstruct the vision a bit. My older kid won't wear one unless and until everyone else around her wears one. The younger one wears one some of the time but she doesn't when she needs to wear a visor due to sun glare or when for whatever reason, she struggles to keep the thing in place on her face.
One time, an ump asked me if it would be OK if I allowed my younger daughter to take it off and I complied. We were appealing to a higher authority, my daughter's rather strong will! That ump doesn't like the thing anyways and hates to see kids get upset when they struggle with a piece of equipment. His own daughter doesn't wear one when she plays school ball but that's her choice. She's even stronger willed than my daughter. Still, he is smart enough to realize there is no prohibition against them.
The reason I am writing about this today is it boggles my mind that any umpire would be so monumentally stupid as to presume to know that the rules prohibit wearing of a safety device like this. I'm shocked to learn that there might be two idiots out there. It is possible that the two stories which came to me involved the same imbecile but I can't say for sure. I just want to say in the bluntest terms possible that while there is no rule I am aware of which prohibits a little girl from wearing something intended to keep her unharmed while she is engaging in the activity of fastpitch softball, there is a rule against anyone so stupid that they make up the rules as they go being paid to officiate a game. I call on the loser umpire to give any money earned from calling these games back to the organization which paid him since, quite obviously, he did not earn his pay.Labels: injuries, players, rules, umpiring
 
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