quote:Originally posted by luv baseball:
This is a generalisation but umpires don't care about defensive position with the exception of if it impacts the DH spot. So if there is a pitching change and the pitcher goes to RF and the RF goes to LF and the LF goes to the mound - Blue doesn't realy care about that becasue the batting order and substitution pattern is undisturbed.
Beyond the DH spot what umpires do try to manage is the reentry of players and curtesy runners to make sure that the substitution rules are followed.
I also suspect that most of the guys calling the games aren't worried about the statistics but are worried about making sure both sides know what the batting order is.
I get all that and understand it. What you’re saying is, it ain’t the umpire’s job to do all that, and its true! Its because unlike ML and Mil ball, there’s seldom an “official scorer” in more than name only at amateur games. That being said, Rule 10 or something like it is in the rule book, whether the umpires care about it or not.
Like everything else in life, the whole thing boils down to kingdoms. Other than fans or other interested non-participating parties, the person good statistics benefits most, is the team manager. Organizations like NFHS make the determination that certain data will be kept, then codify it by putting it in the rule book. But, that’s it! There’s no national database for any level other than ML/Mil baseball, and no person or guideline other than the book to make sure there’s some kind of commonality and continuity. So what happens is, every manager/coach makes the determination as to how statistics will be handled for his team, and the gamut of philosophies runs all over the board, then changes all the time.
Umpires in general take the position as you noted above, that it really ain’t their job, and if the manager/coach is worried about it, its entirely within his purview to do with it as he pleases. Managers generally take the position that he’ll take care of any “really” important data, and the rest is just eyewash and doesn’t mean anything. So really the SK/statistician turns out to be someone just trying to help, with no authority or power, and certainly no pay, because after all, what they do means very little.
That would be ok, but then I have to endure all the talk about how worthless HS stats are, and the main reason being that the scorekeeping is so poor in general.