Warm Springs Little League: Coaches Corner

WSLL's coaches are volunteers who strive to make our kids better, and improve their baseball skills at all levels.

Chief Player Agent: Suzanne George

email: suz_tball@hotmail.com


Reminder: All WSLL Minor teams MUST use pitching affidavits during the 2009 season for ALL games -- including those played at WSLL. Please remind Scorekeepers to keep these documents current. Remember: they will be reviewed at each inter-league game.

2009 Spring Season Notes

WSLL Minor Division will be participating in interleague play during the Spring 2009 Season. Because all interleague teams come from different leagues, we ask all of our managers, coaches, and umpires to use a single standard of rules from the 2009 Baseball Official Regulations and Playing Rules handbook published by Little League Baseball. In particular, WSLL managers, coaches, and umpires should pay special attention to:

1. The "5-run rule" which limits the number of runs per half-inning of play. WSLL will be observing 5-runs as the standard. Note that under conditions of continuous batting order, the offense may only bat ONCE through the lineup. See rule 5.07 for complete details.

2. The 'last inning' should only be declared for impending darkness.  During the 'last inning', the 5-run limit is suspended. However, per the continuous batting order rule 5.07: a team may only bat ONCE through the entire line-up during any half-inning, including the 'last inning'. Please note that this is different from WSLL traditional handling. This is a 'special ruling' handed down from Little League International, BTW -- so you won't find it in your rule-book. The default 'last inning' is the 6th-inning per rule 4.10(a).

3. Should a TIE game be halted by the umpire due to weather, curfew, or darkness; the game will be suspended. Play will resume on another (re-scheduled) date at the exact same point that it was halted. Please note the differences from the way that TIE games were traditionally handled: under TIE conditions, no score-reversion is to be applied! This is all detailed in rules 4.10, 4.11, and 4.12 in your rule-book.

   A TIE game is one which the score is identical at the end of the last completed inning -- 4th inning or later, or when the home-team has tied the game in the last inning currently being played.

4. WSLL has curfews in the Minor Division: no inning shall start after 2 hrs and 15 minutes have elapsed from game-start, and there will be a 'hard stop' at 2 hrs and 30 minutes. Please note: tie games stopped due to curfew will resume from the exact point they were halted by the umpire (see rule 4.12). Non tied games which have met the regulation 4 innings of length will revert to the scores at the last full inning of play. See rule 4.11(d).

   Please attempt to keep the time between innings to a minimum in order to avoid curfew-halted games. These guidelines allow only 1 minute for warm-up pitches between innings per rule 8.03.

5. WSLL will be observing rule 4.10(e), sometimes referred to as the "Mercy Rule". The game is over and official when these conditions have been met.

How to Make Changes During A Game:

•        Use a standard line-up card. The league equipment managager issues a deck of these cards to all managers at the beginning of the season. Fill out the line-up card with ALL of your rostered players, whether they are present or not. Players not present at game start should be entered at the BOTTOM. Make sure that you include the batting order, the name, and the jersey-number for each player on your form. This takes only a few minutes at the beginning of the game.
•        Give a copy of your line-up to your scorekeeper several minutes before the game starts. This keeps the game from being delayed for administrative purposes.
•        When the Umpire in Chief (UIC) for your game asks for line-ups, the entries you've made are official: all players are now 'in the game', in the batting order you've given to the umpire.

The Game starts... and some play occurs... and now you're ready to make some changes. Here's how you should do it:

1.        Immediately after the last out of the half-inning, request time from the UIC. Tell the UIC that you have changes, and go DIRECTLY to the UIC (not the scorekeeper!). If the UIC wishes, these changes may be made simultaneously to the scorekeeper; but this is at the sole discretion of the umpire.
2.        Give your changes from your line-up card in the same batting order given at the start of the game: #1 is first batter, #2 is second batter, clear through the entire batting order. Always giving changes in 'batting order' is a VERY clean way to make changes.
3.        Give the following information for each batting order: substitutions (jersey # X is replacing jersey # Y), then position (and is playing in the Z position (1-9)):
a.        Example1: "Batting 1st, #23 is replacing #12, and playing in position 3 (first base)."
b.        Example2: "Batting 3rd, #14 is now playing in position 8 (center field)."

4.        Now the UIC will walk over to the scorekeeper, and give the exact same information to the scorekeeper, in the exact same form. Again, this will take less than a minute.

You'll find that you can 'walk through' your entire batting order in less than a minute using this protocol!
Note that we didn't need to use names. This removes a level of indirection, and makes everybody's job easier: yours, the umpire’s, and the scorekeeper’s. And your job is DONE! Your players and changes are now official.


But WAIT A MINUTE! You say, I wasn't ready! I had issues in the dugout!
This should not hold up the game, although your scorekeeper and UIC may get a bit grumpy with you.

1. Make your defensive changes. Once players take the field, they are officially 'in the game'. Straighten out your record keeping on the next half-inning; using the exact same protocol suggested above. In less than a minute, you'll be done.
2. Offensively, make your changes AS THE PLAYER COMES TO BAT. Simply announce to the UIC, "This is a substitution" before the first play is made with the batter. Example: "#24 here is replacing #18, playing position 4 (second base)", just before the batter goes into the box. If the player is confident, he can even announce himself: "I'm #24, and I'm replacing #18, and I'll be playing 2nd-base."