Illegal bats

There is a whole thread on the subject in the Umpire forum.

We have only played two games but the umps have checked out all of the bats prior to the start of the game and seemed to know what they were doing. You will probably find some inexperienced umps who don't know but at least in our area the assignors and trainers seemed to have notified all of the officials.

Seems to depend on the umpire. In one game they checked all the bats prior to start and rejected any illegals. In another game, umpire allowed 2 illegal bats, one was allowed after the umpire asked to look at it while the player was swinging it on-deck. The player somehow convinced him that it was legal. No one seemed overly concerned, which is strange considering the potential penalties. Most parents didn't seem to know the difference either.

If you had an illegal bat...would you put it out front for the umps to see it before the game? or just pull it out of your bag when you needed it?
Just asking.....a lot of bats have been "Pinging" like they shouldn't....

I will start this off by saying my son goes to a very very small southern section school. We had our second game today and the other teams coaches players and parents had no idea what a BBCOR bat was. This was their first game.

I was near their dugout taking pictures of the kids during pre game and over heard the 2 umpires tell them which bats were legal and which one were not. They did not have a legal bat and the umpires had no clue which did not surprise me at all. The umpires told them they had 2 bats that were legal a older stealth composite and a Demarini 1 piece alloy bat.

Our coach decided not to call them on it which in the long run didn't matter we wound up mercing them and we are not very good. Now this does not surprise me at all because of the division we play in and the caliber of umpires we get anyway.

LJ regardless of the division you play in all HS umpires come from the same pool and are given games by an assignor. There is really no excuse for this. I suggest you (or possibly your coach) find out who the assignor is (actually he probably has his number already) and have him call the guy and let him know about the bat issues.

BOF thx. thats a good idea.

LJ,
In your case, this was an awareness issue and not a cheating issue. I agree with BOF about contacting the assignor to improve the situation with the umpires. However, I would say it is just as important to suggest that your A.D. send communication in a positive manner to your league and/or non-league opponents asking to make sure all coaches know of the BBCOR requirements (of course they should already know but apparently they don't). Much better to get this cleared up in advance rather than have to deal with it again at game time.
It can be tough for the small school teams to keep a full schedule because, too often, teams end up with too few roster players, etc.. The last thing you want is to have additional forfiets due to bat issues.
Do all you can to keep those boys playing and enjoying the game.