If a pitcher has entered a game w/ out fulfilling the rest requirement (this is a Babe Ruth League)does the violating team automatically forfeit the game? Or does a formal protest need to be filed during or immediately following the game?

You need to protest as soon as discovered. The umpire won't be able to solve the problem, he has no direct knowledge. Your local BOD will have to fix the problem.

Who keeps track of all this stuff. How many innings a kid pitched? when he pitched etc etc Never had to deal with that back when,

quote:

Who keeps track of all this stuff. How many innings a kid pitched? when he pitched etc etc

Most assuredly it is not the umpires.

I guess our team has just been playing by the honor rule and assumed (wrongly) that the other teams in the league were, too. Until the kid pitching was on first base and told our assistant coach that his arm was killing him because he had pitched 7 innings and day and a half prior.

Who or what necessitated this rule?

The rule about 2 days rest for pitchers is directly from the Babe Ruth League rule book...just like international Little League rules. I'm sure like the Little League pitch count, it is meant to minimize wear and tear on young arms. However, I don't think our particular league has ever had a way to check on whether or not coaches were properly resting their kids...any suggestions?

There a couple of methods. One is to have an official book and hopefully an official scorer. The book stays in the pressbox at all times. Another is to have a pitcher log at the field somewhere that is always there. At the end of the game who pitched and how many innings is recorded for both teams and signed both managers. Some even go so far as osting it on the league website so it can be checked at any time by any manager.

Our District Administrator ruled today that the game is forfeited by the team violating the pitcher-rest rule. It does not even require a formal protest...just an automatic forfeit. Thank you for the ideas about keeping track of pitched innings. I am going to suggest our league adopt a policy regarding this.

MST is right on target here..........umpires, due to our random scheduling can not be involved in multi day pitching/rest rulings........

The only rule I ever enforced was the PONY 13-14 # of innings pitched in one game. 7 innings max, one pitch into the 8th and the pitcher was removed and the manager ejected.