On of the things we have been doing this year is posting our discussions so that others can see the answers to questions they may also have...here is one about Bunting & The Mercy Rule...
Question:
Bobby,
Hi. My name is XXXX, I am the captain of the kickball team YYYY. I am writing you in regards to rule enforcement of the kickball games. I want to preface this by saying, I know the goal of this league is for people to get together and have fun and not be competitive, but scores are being kept and human nature tends to be a little competitive. It is more fun knowing that everyone is playing by the same set of rules though. My team has played only three games and so far there have been some contradictions to the rules in each game. During our first game the opposing teams offense seemed to be to weakly kick the ball down the third base line, many times barely reaching third base and nothing was said to them. That being our first game we took that as being perfectly legal. We employed this strategy in our second game and were warned by the ump at that game that it would not be tolerated. Our third game the opposing team again used the weak kick down the third base line kind of play and nothing was said. After asking the ump for a clear explination in the third game it was explained that the kicker must have their kicking foot clear their plant foot. Explanation understood. One of my players was warned about "bunting" even though he was clearly kicking "legaly".
Secondly, during our first game we were being beat 15-0 in the fifth inning. I asked the ump if "mercy rule" was in effect. I was told no "mercy rule" was in effect. We went on to lose that game 20-0. Our third game was stopped in the sixth inning with a score of 13-3 in the third game with the ruling of "mercy rule". Again I know the purpose of this league. But I, and others on my team, are competitive by nature. It tends to be less fun when we can't get a clear and uniform enforcement of the rules. I am sorry if I am coming across like a "sore loser" , I am just trying to do get some uniformity from the umps.
Thank you!
Answer:
Hey man,
No worries at all. You do not come off as a “sore loser”. I actually will always answer questions like this and 100% agree with you on the issue of being consistent and at least following the rules the same way every time.
As far as the bunt is concerned it is definitely a rule that every umpire interprets in their own way.
Generally speaking I will call a bunt when I think that the pace on the ball was not what I consider enough to be a “placement”.
A “placement” is when I think that the kicker meant to “place” a playable ball within the infield rather than just touch it and go. There are times when the ball is also struck poorly and the intention was not at all to kick the ball lightly. However, it ends up being a soft kick yet still rolls far enough and with enough pace for the infielder to make a play on it. That is another part of my decision.
Do I think the infielder could have made a play on the ball and at least have tried to defend it?
If I think that the ball had enough pace on it for the infielder to at least attempt a play I will not call it a bunt. If the player clearly had no chance of a play and it was just gently touched and I feel that the kicker was intentionally trying to not give it enough pace to even reach an infielder then I will absolutely call a bunt. A bunt is a strike and the player gets the opportunity to kick again as if it was a foul ball. You can be out on a bunt if the previous kick was foul or was also called a bunt.
Regardless, in the end, it is really a judgment call by the umpire. I don’t think we will ever be 100% the same on that call.
Think of it kind of like a strike zone in baseball. Each umpire is different, however the difference should not be so great as to interfere with the way the game is played. I agree with you that it needs to be consistent and I will share this e-mail with the umpires so they are absolutely aware of my interpretation of a bunt. I can’t promise that every umpire will call it exactly the same, mainly because of the arbitrary and interpretive nature of the rule. However I will try to keep it close.
I want to take a minute and acknowledge the level of thought that has gone into this one rule associated with…ahem…kickball. 
As far as the Mercy Rule…
There IS a Mercy Rule.
It is:
- 20 after 4 innings
- 15 after 5 innings
- 10 after 6 innings
Once the “Mercy Rule” is reached, the game is over and the winning team is awarded the win. However, if there is time to keep playing I want the teams to keep going WITHOUT keeping score and simply enjoy playing the rest of the game without the pressure of winning and losing as part of the game any longer. We’ll move on, forget about it, and just play the rest of the innings to have fun with our teammates and the other people that live in and around Delaware that, like ourselves, like to play kid’s games. I think that simply agreeing to play Kickball, Dodgeball, or WIFFLE® Ball says something about someone. At the very least they have a sense of humor and a desire to be social. I encourage everyone to keep that in mind when you are playing the games. Who knows…there might just be a cool person along the other baseline. That is after all why we are here.
ALL of the umpires should know the Mercy Rule, I will address it again. We actually had a discussion about it on the website and here are some member opinions that helped me make my decision:
http://www.delawaresportsleague.com/News/June-2010-%281%29/Open-Discussion--The-Mercy-Rule---
What occurs to me is that the rest of the discussion was held in an umpire e-mail and I did not publish the final decision. I will certainly do that!
Long ago I came to appreciate that competition is part of the fun and I would never knock you for at least wanting to win and for the rules to be consistent. As long as your competiveness does not spill over into actions or words at the other team I am perfectly fine with it. I agree competiveness is human nature. As long as you are friendly to the other team both on and off the field and are only competitive with yourself I absolutely understand that. A wise man once said “winning isn’t everything…but wanting to win is…” that man was Vince Lombardi. I could not agree more. However in this league I would go further to say “and if you do lose…who cares?? It’s Kickball, Dodgeball, or WIFFLE® Ball!”
I get a lot of e-mails that start “I know it is supposed to be about fun, but…” (which is not what you said but brings me to a larger point)
DSL simply is simply a league that will always choose having fun and making friends over competiveness. It’s just the way we will always be and I’m pretty adamant about it.
That being said we will never stop trying to keep the rules consistent and the umpires all on the same page. The umpires are sometimes new and get thrown to the wolves I will admit. I always joke that if there is a secret society of “Experienced Kickball Umpires” I am unaware of, please let me know! We have the most experienced Kickball umpires around…Mainly because our umpires are pretty much the only ones around here that have any experience at all in umping kickball games! HahahaJ
All kidding aside, we do train them, but because of the growth of the league sometimes the training is limited. By that I mean like one or two games and off you go! Sometimes time to train is just not a luxury you have when you have games that need umping and a short staff to work with because people have…uh…lives. I stop short of giving umpires a test to pass before umpiring. A lot of them are just members that do it to help out and make a little money on the side. Most of them don’t really do it even for that. It is solely because they care about what this league stands for and to make sure that everyone that wants the opportunity to be involved in DSL has the opportunity to be a part of it. We need umpires to do that. For the past three years the league has grown so fast that we admittedly sometimes struggle to keep up. However we are getting there and the umpires are getting better and better at what they do, because many of them have now been at it for 3 seasons.
I will always try and do things to make the league better and will always do my best to respond to e-mails like this because I believe that the day that people STOP e-mailing me about issues that they see in the league is the day I should really begin to worry. By taking the time to write me I think it shows that you care enough about the idea of what we are trying to do and that you want your team to have fun. I’ll NEVER knock someone for that! I really appreciate it and we need folks that care in this league! If the rules are inconsistent and you are on the wrong end of it that can be frustrating...in other words…not fun. I am totally picking up what you are putting down and I appreciate you bringing it to my attention.
I will certainly address these issues with the umpires and make sure that they are all on the same page.
Thanks again for caring enough to e-mail me my man!
