Switching Jerseys
Billie from Whiteriver, AZ asks:
A coach takes a jersey off of one of his players and has another player put it on and pitch the remainder of the game under the original jersey number and jersey name owner. The other team challenges the move but the umpire allows this and finishes the game. The parents continue to fight and this situation has still not been resolved and nothing has been done by the association director. What should and would be done to the team and the coach as well as the director?
The rule book has no rules regarding jerseys players wear or changing numbers during the game. However, when a new player is entered into a game the coach is supposed to notify then umpire of the switch and then the umpire is supposed to notify the official scorer. This is so there is no confusion about who is in the game or when this player was entered. If this happened then there should have been no question or confusion about who was pitching.
Even though there is no rule about switching jersey numbers the association director probably should be notified of the situation so he can ensure that it does not happen again. It would also be up to him to decide if he wanted to inflict a punishment or not on the guilty team.
Answered by: Jonathan Bravo
Keywords: Players