August 28, 201511 yr I put this here because I figured it would get seen more. I was working the scoreboard for the Florence Freedom (Frontier League-independent baseball) game tonight and saw one of the weirdest rules I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of baseball at different levels. So in the middle innings it was a tie game, 3-3. Freedom had runners on 2nd and 3rd with I believe 1 out (maybe 0). The Rockford Aviators had the infield drawn in. The batter hits a laser shot to the SS's left. Unfortunately that's also where the umpire was and despite his attempt to get out of the way, the ball hit him in the back of the head as he was turning. The ball ended up in LF. Play was ruled live because it was past the drawn in infield. The runners scored and once the ball was back to the infield play was stopped. The umpire was tended to and remained in the game. However, an inning later the umpire couldn't continue (mind you, the Frontier League only has two umpires per game). So there was only the plate umpire left. I would've thought that the rest of the game would continue with just the one umpire but apparently that's not the way the Frontier League operates. The Frontier League has a rule in place for these situations. That rule is: both teams send out their previous night's starting pitchers to become field umpires. So now we are at three umpires. The batting team has their pitcher as the first base umpire and the fielding team has their pitcher as the third base umpire. After every half inning, they switch so they are on the appropriate side. Or atleast that's what the rule says... Tonight it was slightly modified since the game has substantial meaning for the wild card chase. Tonight it was decided that they newly crowned umpires just stay in their spots on their side of the field for the remainder of the game and the plate umpire (the actual umpire) would make all the calls himself. The pitchers were just there for fair/foul calls in the corners or trap/catch rulings in the field. Never would've thought that would be a rule in pro baseball. And I will note that I talked to the field umpire, who was hit, after the game and he appeared to be okay. He was going to be driven home and if needed, taken to the hospital.
August 28, 201511 yr Wow, now that is pretty different! Thanks for sharing, I got a good chuckle out of it this morning!
August 28, 201511 yr This is single A Independent baseball correct? Whatever they have to do to survive. When that's the case, you will se some strange rules/happenings.
August 28, 201511 yr Author This is single A Independent baseball correct? Whatever they have to do to survive. When that's the case, you will se some strange rules/happenings. Not even A ball. It's an independent league. They have no affiliation to major league clubs.
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