This was my first experience with a coach blatantly using illegal players. Is it more common then I have seen?
Original Post
Originally Posted by Target:
Saw this weekend at a USSSA tournament a coach using an ineligible player in bracket play. Kid wasn't on the USSSA roster but was on another's teams roster for that tournament roster. Team didn't appear to be short (11 players at 12U) and the ineligible player was wearing an absent player's jersey. The player wore another player's jersey and the coach instructed the team to call the player by the absent player's name. Even the teams parents called him by the wrong name. When the ineligible player was subbed for another player, the dad of the subbed player kind of lost it and left the ballpark.
My kid knew the absent player and the ineligible player so we knew what was going on was wrong. The team lost by the way so Karma won I guess.
This was my first experience with a coach blatantly using illegal players. Is it more common then I have seen?
It happens all the time. What difference does it make anyway? If they had his name on the roster he wouldn't be illegal, so you are really talking about an administrative technicality. I always figured that if they brought in better kids we'd see better baseball, which is what we looked for anyway. Another thing you'll see, if you haven't already, is shaved bats. It's the bat all the kids in the line-up pick up when they head to the plate.