Pretty Darn Sarcastic Tournament Rules and Procedures: WHC Youth Baseball and Softball League (WHCYBSL) would like to welcome you to our “CoVid Cup” Tournament. All Games will be held in Columbia, Maryland, and almost all hosted at Blandair Park, as long as Mother Nature agrees.

Some important park information and rules---- 1. Alcohol is NOT PERMITTED at WHC Sponsored Events. We are not joking, and will not turn a blind eye, please plan accordingly. 2. Smoking/Chew is NOT ALLOWED within Blandair Park 3. Pets must be leashed 100% of the time within Blandair Park 4. WHC enforces FANS/PARENTS SPORTMANSHIP pretty strictly, and that comes from above me. 5. Social Distancing at ALL times, whenever you can. Please. Married guys always practice this 😊 6. The attached Howard County Covid guidelines are to be fully read and followed. There are air-conditioned indoor restroom facilities adjacent to the two baseball fields.

Each field has metal tiered bleachers which are CLOSED due to CoVid Bring your own chair Each field has very nice dugouts which are CLOSED due to CoVid. Bring tents for shade NO METAL CLEATS ON BLANDAIR BASEBALL FIELDS Spread the word, or play in socks.

So we recommend your team brings portable tents and seating. Parents need to sit on the outfield side of the closed dugouts. This rule is for you, you can blame me, but enforce it for your sake.

There are only two baseball fields at Bland Air, fields 4 and 5. Our tournament has both on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. There are three football fields on the other side of the park’s access road, we don’t have those fields, lol. There are 2 batting cages for the 2 baseball fields in use, or the potentially 4 teams getting ready. SHARE!!!

Tournament Rules

HAVE FUN, remember we do this for the kids to have fun. Please keep that in mind. And keep in mind that we DO want the other team’s kids to have fun too, even when they play your juggernaut super team. Stealing and running up the score when the game is in hand for a $7.95 trophy? I know you are trying to save your pitchers on Saturday, especially with Rob’s Pitching Rules, and rushing to a mercy win is brilliant coaching, but get at least 5 innings in on Friday/Saturday.

Let’s get as much Baseball in as possible, please get on and off fields between innings and after games as fast as possible. The time limits are to be courteous to the next teams(s), I hope each game goes 6 innings plus.

Check In – Come say hi, lol------no check in table, etc Envelopes of cash will be accepted for favors. We trust you won’t cheat more than my team does, if you do, we will give you the evil stink eye.

Tournament Roster and age verification –None, don’t cheat. Everyone has their price, but a $7.95 trophy?

Coaches – Teams are limited to two (2) on field coaches per team. Some may be good coaches, some may not, like the bats rule below WHCYBSL has almost no restrictions on coaching acumen (Obviously).

Insurance – All teams are required to have their own insurance and send it to Darrin via email. Also-- Don’t have accidents so we don’t need to use your insurance. We are awaiting word, but there may be a special CoVid waiver as well. Via Separate email.

Baseballs – Game balls for each game will be provided to each team, keep track of your baseballs, it’s the new CoVid thing. We will cycle in the slightly used balls from previous games as well because we are cheap. Some balls will bounce your way, some may fiendishly bounce against you. The doesn’t know the score or the inning.

Sadly, I have to say this, but please have someone assigned from your team to retrieve “your” foul balls on both sides and return “yours” to your side quickly. Otherwise we will sell you extra baseballs, at say $25/ea. We could raise a lot of money that way. 😊

Bats – All bats must be BBCor, high school legal bats. Shaved, Rolled, shiatzu massaged, etc is beyond our control. The kids still have to swing the superbat, which is where my team struggles.

Uniforms – PLEASE have players wear some uniforms, mostly alike. Managers and Coaches, no tight 70’s uniforms nor cut off muscle shirts, please. I scare easily.

Umpires- WHC provides 2 umpires per game. Once should be pretty good, see if you can guess which one. 😊 Sometimes the umpires get it right, sometimes they don’t. But they have the final say. Confucius say, “the more important the call, the less likely it goes your way.” Wahhh

Appeals- If you want to appeal, the fee is $5,000 in cash, nonrefundable win or lose… That’s called perspective.

Even in bucolic WHC, life isn’t always fair. Wahhh.

Line-ups- Hopefully everyone bats the entire line up, at least on Saturday. This is about getting kids reps and there is a gold and silver bracket, so weather dependent, everyone team has a chance on Sunday to play “sudden death” baseball. You can bat any number of batters, as long is it is a whole number. No 9.5 batter line-ups! Everyone on your roster can play in the field, and should play in the field if they are not batting. There is NO penalty for an injured player not being able to bat. As outlined below, you don’t have to keep a player out of the batting line-up to have the option of a courtesy runner, nor in case of injury.

Curtesy Runner- For the next inning’s catcher, any time. Last batted out unless you are not batting your line up. Then why not bat your line-up, they paid and worked the same? Oops, that slipped out. No running for the pitchers, a personal beef of mine. DH for him like any good American league team. 😊

Umpires vol 2---Do warn your parents that if they umpire from the stands, we will get them a very nice xl blue shirt and get them out there, without pay! The paid umpires will chill on the sideline and laugh their butts off! 😊

Only half kidding, parents need to be positive fans at WHC events, not second umpires or third coaches. Also, reminder, that WHC will look to the head coach to control the team’s fans. WHC has asked fans and the head coach to leave the park in the past. Have that talk with all of your players and fans please.

Format – Top 8 seeds move into in Gold Division Sunday and next 8 teams in Silver.

Seeding- This is standard stuff, but if I can figure out how to cheat you here, I will. It’s my one time a year, so WAHHHHHH. 1. Record, best) 2-0, next best) 1-0-1, average) 1-1 and 0-0-2, oops) 0-1-1, poop) 0-2 2. Runs allowed, fewest runs allowed is best, dozens of runs allowed is worst… 3. then who pays me cash under the table. For the right $$$, I can rig the coin flip.

Nothing about runs scored, I repeat nothing to reward running up scores.

I will try to make “fair” schedules for a few of you, but someone will feel cheated. I admit it, I cheated your team, if that helps 😊. Secondly, I can’t help it if the little (and not so little) whippersnappers of yours (or mine) didn’t respond to your brilliant coaching on Friday/Saturday and you “got stuck” in the Silver bracket even though you “are clearly” Gold bracket material. Which of course I will absolutely agree with to all 15 other coaches.

Pitching Limits- I would love to have an 80-pitch limit for the weekend per kid, but I don’t want to work that hard.

SO READ THIS!!!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

There is a 3-inning limit for the day on Friday and/or Saturday per pitcher, and a 4-inning limit for the day on Sunday per pitcher. READ THIS TWICE!!!!There is A 6 INNING TOTAL LIMIT for the tournament per pitcher. 3 plus 4 equals 7, so keep track of when a pitcher gets to 6. For those playing Friday night and Saturday, the math is just too complicated… read the Coach’s Tip below. Lastly, just 1 little old pitch in an inning, counts as the full inning.

Yes, I know this silly rule really makes coaching hard on you. Yes, it is a conspiracy to give WHC an unfair advantage, I am just not sure how it does. Let’s protect the kid’s arms.

Coach’s tip, if you make it to the Championship game Sunday of Gold or Silver Bracket, you are playing your 5th game, maybe 28-30th or so inning, and your 3rd game on Sunday. Which means you will be pitching at a minimum 6 kids, so pay attention to Fri/Sat games and pitchers, never use your top 5 for more than 2 combined innings in seeding games. Plan ahead! It takes some planning, so work it out in advance.

And no, I don’t care that the rule is silly. I revel in my silliness.

Mercy Rule- The point of this tournament is to get your kids reps since most of us have not been outside enough with Covid. 15 after 4, 12 after 5, 10 after 6 for every game. We want the kids to get to play for the (just short of) 2 hours for each game. Yes, that means you will have to use pitchers!!!

Time Limit- We have the games scheduled for every 2:15 hours on Saturday, so there will be no new inning beyond 1:50. Friday we will squeeze them in, we have lights!!! I hate drop dead, and the decision to count the inning or not. If the last inning really blows up and the next game will be badly impacted (or if its my game and my parents are restless) I may have to create a one-time drop dead.

Be ready 15 minutes early, the umpires are directed to start every game on time or early. They will move it along to keep everyone on time and getting to play a lot of baseball.

Quick turnarounds between innings. 5 warm-up pitches for returning pitchers, 8 for new pitchers. Play Ball!

Games are 7 innings if you can get that many in the time limit.

The Championship games in the Gold bracket will have no limit, and will be 7 innings. And the pitching rules still apply! Read that again!

Slash bunting. It’s allowed in MLB, but it’s NOT allowed here. My kid plays third base, enough said. It’s an OUT.

Coaches and Time Limits- We coaches are what the games are all about, we know that, 😊 😊 😊, but please keep the games moving. And once your game is over, get out of the area asap.

General Rules- MLB rules, except the mound visit rule is from 5 years ago. 1 visit per pitcher per inning before you have to pull him on that second visit in that inning. The new rule is stupid, I said it.

Sportsmanship- Please, please stress this to your team and fans. As I have tried to reference lightly, WHC enforces this pretty strictly, and that comes from above me. WHC has removed fans from the park in severe cases. I have explained this to the Umpires as well, they will enforce this, so warn your fans.

Additional Notes from Thursday Email

No metal cleats allowed at Blandair Regional Park

COVID-

First, We are not asking you to provide signatures from all of your families on a WHC form that our lawyers drafted (in crayon). You’d just fake half of the parent’s signatures anyway. 😊

Second Everyone not in a uniform will have to wear a mask while at each field. Enforcement at Blandair is by the Park Rangers, so please warn your parents. The games may be stopped until everyone has a mask on, which will not stop the game clock.

Third The dugouts are closed, so your kids will instead crowd around in clumps at each end of the dugout. ☹ A Howard County government procedure that sounded good but is stupid in practice. Again, if you are in the actual dugouts at Blandair, the game may be stopped.

Fourth We are having the umpires behind the plate and on the bases. They will wear masks, and so you may not hear all of their calls. Let’s hope we also can’t hear all of the umpires in the stands because they are wearing masks!?! WOW!

REPORTING SCORES- The winning team should text scores to Darrin at (301) 651-3050 and Rob Leimbach (443) 542-7315 (for the WHC website). I guess both teams must text in a tie?

Please use full names of team when reporting the score like;

WHC Renegades Red 6 WHC Renegades Black 7

How about that example Dan? 😊

Baseballs-

We are having the umpires handle the baseballs. We are giving them 3 baseballs/game at Blandair, and 4 baseballs/game at ARP (because of the woods and shrubs). The umpires will keep the game balls at the end of each game and hopefully start each game after the opening game with 4+ balls.

But each team must have someone assigned to run foul balls, or you will be throwing in more baseballs, from your team budget ugh. Please bring several game balls just in case. For those at ARP, its great if you keep a Home Run ball, just throw in a replacement please.

The same for Blandair, but that parent is buying a round. 😊

Head first slides- No restrictions, other than avoiding collisions.

Make the switch between innings fairly quickly. The goal is not to at all costs, but there is typically wasted time that can be eliminated with a little effort or focus. So you can play more baseball for the same $$$! I know 15U players don’t listen to you anyway, so no need for long boring discussions. 😊 😊

Let your pitchers know they get 5 warm up pitches to start each inning, 8 if it’s their first inning. If they normally need more than 5 to warm up pitches, they can throw plan to throw a few on the side.

If your catcher is batting and makes the last out, get someone else to warm up your pitcher.

Let’s have fun!

Rob

FOR SUNDAY From Friday email

Bracket Games time limits- there is no time limit for brackets games on Sunday, all games will be 7 innings unless the mercy rules are met. The only time limit issue is if games are tied after 2 hours as listed below.

Bracket Games Sunday tied after 2 hours---Sunday, what to do in the event of a tie after two hours. Play will continue as normal until the two hours are up and that inning will be completed. If the score is tied after 7, but there is time left, the 8th starts as normal

If another inning is required after the 2 hours has expired, the last batter from the previous inning will be placed on 2nd with one out, for each team. (yes extra innings count under Rob’s crazy Pitching limits 😊)