Game 3: Poteet 4, Heath 2 (F)

very well played game, only one error early.poteet played with alot of emotion.chad young had a big night, congrats to both schools and good luck in the future for all the young men that left it all on the field!

Why would the police have to come to a high school playoff game? Does the UIL suspend players and or coaches for extremely poor sportsmanship. Will the Poteet catcher be allowed to continue playing?

quote:

Originally posted by throw'n bb's:
Why would the police have to come to a high school playoff game? Does the UIL suspend players and or coaches for extremely poor sportsmanship. Will the Poteet catcher be allowed to continue playing?

"throw'n bb's" Either you were not at the game or you have LOST YOUR MIND! IF anyone needs to be disiplined or repremanded, IMO it should be RH Coach Zac Randle! The UIL or HS coaches association (whoever is charge of governing coaches) should really check this man out! The catcher was following the play down the line (as batter hit a ball into gap in LCF) and Poteet had the wheel play on (where 1st baseman follows runner and catcher slides in behind them @ 1st...in attempt to pick off the runner on big turn), when Randle, for no reason, wandered onto the playing field, and catcher Nowell accidentially runs into him knocking him to the ground. As Randle is "screaming foul", the umpire returns focus to 1st base and see Nowell reaching down to HELP RANDLE UP and thinking Nowell jumped onto him, EJECTS catcher Nowell! What BS!!

At this time, Doe is force to change pitchers so he goes to Franklin and discusses a pitching change which favored Young and new catcher King. This moved Franklin to RF and Griffin to 1st. Sooo, what happens next? Randle starts to BERATE Griffin @ 1st at which time Griffin spouts back at Randle. So what does Randle do, CHASES Griffin through the post inning Poteet huddle "threating" Griffin, at which time the ump, coaches, players and 1 police officer step in and escort Randle to his dugout! NOW understand a 18yr old can get a little charged, BUT don't we expect more from our COACHES???

At this time, the 1 poor, D-ville police officer calls for back-up. 6-8 additional police arrive to return a HS baseball game to just that, A GAME! Officers fearing another outbreak (by RH coaches I'm sure) line the field, the dugouts and position at the exit gates, forbidding the Poteet dugout players from rushing onto the field to enjoy a REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, thrill of a life time, dog-pile!!! Only players on the field are allowed to celebrate until all RH players make it to their dugout! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

The sad thing is Nowell's father coached Randle @ Poteet, assisted him in obtaining college play at UT and even had 3-4 of the Poteet boys on his **** summer team (they should review that too, IMO). Soo "throw'n bbs" who is/should "continue" to play and who is sitting at home?

GO PIRATES!!!

IMO, D-ville PD should have given RH an invoice for "extra police service", before they loaded onto their cushie charter bus!

One last thing. If the RH Coaches were so astute to know the infamous "bat" was illegal, then don't you think that they also have knowledge of the rule that states (para) if a 2nd player from the same team is ejected from a contest, then that team FORFEITS the game, and consequently, the series? Soo, might it be plausible to consider that if the players can't take care of business on the field, then a losing team has no choice but to see if the coaches or umps can help?

There is NO UIL policy regarding "second ejections"...not that I have ever heard of at least. I am pretty familiar with UIL policy (this is unfortunate, believe me).

Then the umpires should NOT have threatened our team/boys with that "non-policy"...Or maybe... the "illegal" bat was not really illegal?

If the bat is what it is supposed to be (i.e. listed on the non-approved bat list) then it falls on the coach...not the umpire.

As for threats, we all know that umpires are different animals and sometimes will do what they deem necessary to contain a situation. Not right, but it is what it is.

P.S. I know nothing about the game or the situation, just reading some posts and thought I would reply.

Stay fair - you obviously did not read my post. I ask a question from what I heard (I was not at the game). I also heard the player was ejected and just wondered what the rule was on continued play after the ejection (one game out two etc.). I also ask about coaches and did not say which side. However, the tone of your post tells me all I need to know. I now would guess the umpires got it right.

quote:

Will the Poteet catcher be allowed to continue playing?

Nowell behind the plate seems to be a big part of why Poteet is going to state, him not being in the game could have a huge impact on Thursday.

Anybody know the rule on this?

Does someone else besides Stay-Fair have the story of what happened at the game that results in the police being called?
One of the Poteet coaches is a good friend and I saw him yesterday but only had time to ask him about the bat incident. Did not know about the altercation during the game, otherwise I would have ignored my wife (at my own peril)who needed me and continued with the conversation.
He said the bat was unapproved and should not have been used. Said they, the coaches, should have known and it was their fault. But I could tell he was not happy about how that all went down though he kept those thoughts pretty much to himself.

I presented the bat controversy to two people as a learning tool. One is a long time baseball guy who coached his two sons from youth and who both went on to the next level after HS, and the other was my 15 year old son who is a highly competitive 2 sport kid that hates to lose. Essentially both thought that technically the Heath coaches followed the rule and the umpires were right in their call, but both thought that from a sportsmanship standpoint that pulling it out the way they (Heath)did was pretty bad. "Not very classy" as the long time baseball guy said. Missed opportunity by the Heath coaches to teach their kids how to play with honor. Sometime before the first game, contact Poteet and let them know about the bat. Respect your opponent and give them the benefit of the doubt. If they had still used it then, okay, nail them. Otherwise the Heath coaches probably just gave Poteet more motivation to win. IMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by Stay-Fair:
One last thing. If the RH Coaches were so astute to know the infamous "bat" was illegal, then don't you think that they also have knowledge of the rule that states (para) if a 2nd player from the same team is ejected from a contest, then that team FORFEITS the game, and consequently, the series? Soo, might it be plausible to consider that if the players can't take care of business on the field, then a losing team has no choice but to see if the coaches or umps can help?

WOW... I never heard this rule before... I am very confidant that this is NOT a rule... I have been involved in a game where 2 players were ejected from the same game... and we moved on...

Were these umpires an all neutral crew or split a crew? Also was it 3 or 4 man crew?

quote:

Originally posted by halconnoche:
Essentially both thought that technically the Heath coaches followed the rule and the umpires were right in their call, but both thought that from a sportsmanship standpoint that pulling it out the way they (Heath)did was pretty bad. "Not very classy" as the long time baseball guy said. Missed opportunity by the Heath coaches to teach their kids how to play with honor. Sometime before the first game, contact Poteet and let them know about the bat. Respect your opponent and give them the benefit of the doubt. If they had still used it then, okay, nail them. Otherwise the Heath coaches probably just gave Poteet more motivation to win. IMHO.

Have to totally disagree on this. Would you expect the coach to tell the opposing coach that he is sending up a batter out of order? Or does he wait and then bring it up?

What are we going to do next...tell them what pitch we are going to throw?

If a coach can't have his own team follow the rules then where is the class in that? What about the teams that lost due to a team using illegal bats. If the team had an illegal players win would be stripped. I guess the same doesn't go for illegal equipment.

There was nothing classless about what RH did.

BTW...I'm not from either school, district or even that part of the metroplex. I just don't think what Poteet did was in the sense of good sportsmanship and fair play.

9-2-2-d-pen
UIL: Disqualification is for remainder of game only. UIL District
Committees may apply additional disciplinary action.

This is for players. Could not find anything on 2 players being ejected causes automatic forfeit unless they did not have enough players to continue.

In regards to the bat issue, aren't all bats subject to inspection before play begins? Did the umpire crew miss this particular bat or was it not out for inspection when the pregame inspection was made? If it was missed or not present during the inspection then the RH team upon noticing it had no recourse but bring it to the attention of the umpires.

I was not there and don't know what all transpired leading up to bat issue, just wondered why it was not questioned before game started?

quote:

Originally posted by MDteX:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by halconnoche:

Have to totally disagree on this. Would you expect the coach to tell the opposing coach that he is sending up a batter out of order? Or does he wait and then bring it up?

What are we going to do next...tell them what pitch we are going to throw?

If a coach can't have his own team follow the rules then where is the class in that? What about the teams that lost due to a team using illegal bats. If the team had an illegal players win would be stripped. I guess the same doesn't go for illegal equipment.

There was nothing classless about what RH did.

BTW...I'm not from either school, district or even that part of the metroplex. I just don't think what Poteet did was in the sense of good sportsmanship and fair play.

I think if you come from the standpoint that Poteet knew they were cheating, then I would agree. If Heath had caught the rules violation (or any rules violation) during the course of the game, then I would have no problem with what happened. But the fact that they knew about it a week in advance and waited till an opportune moment to use it is where it gets classless.
As for a player that bats out of order, usually don't see that caught until after the player has stepped in and taken pitches. Thats just poor game management.
Apparently it was not "bats", but just one bat used by one player according to witnesses from both sides that was stamped as approved though it should not have been. If other teams did not catch it during their games with Poteet, maybe they should have and they could have benefited.
I hear of illegal players being used all the time but usually not till after the game and usually the coach did know about it. Grades being the culprit most of the time. I think South Oak Cliff got stripped of a state basketball title for using an illegal player whose grades were changed.

Again, if you think Poteet was trying to cheat then ok, but you better be able to prove it. BTW, I am from Heath and have two kid in school there (though not in baseball program) and have a good friend who is a Poteet baseball coach.

quote:

Originally posted by Out in LF:
In regards to the bat issue, aren't all bats subject to inspection before play begins? Did the umpire crew miss this particular bat or was it not out for inspection when the pregame inspection was made? If it was missed or not present during the inspection then the RH team upon noticing it had no recourse but bring it to the attention of the umpires.

I was not there and don't know what all transpired leading up to bat issue, just wondered why it was not questioned before game started?

The bats were inspected, but this bat had a stamp on it showing that it was approved. The UIL sent out a notice before the season to umpires and coaches that there were some bats that were stamped but were not approved by the UIL Have not seen list but apparently it is about 2 pages. Umpires decided to leave it up to coaches to police themselves and not carry around the list and try to check it against all bats every game throughout the season. Apparently Poteet didn't do this and Heath caught it the week before during Poteet's playoff game against Wakeland. Heath then waited and used the rule to their advantage during the course of game 2 of their series with Poteet.

quote:

There was nothing classless about what RH did

Regardless of the Coaches behavior, this one comment holds true for some of the Heath players. After not being allowed to even shake hands on the field, several of the Heath players came over to the Poteet dugout to congratulate their friends and summer teammates. I can imagine how hard that had to be after losing, and they handled it with true class.

Kudos to them, someone taught them right.