District 16 administrator makes clarifications on softball snafu

In the wake of the 2012 softball City Series in Lynn, where the rulebook ended up being consulted quite a bit, District 16 administrator Joe Baglieri has some clarifications to make.Those clarifications include letting teams know that they cannot play with less than nine players, which is prohibited in Little League and which came up for debate during the series.Last Tuesday, when Wyoma and East Lynn took the field for a game, East Lynn had only eight players but said that a ninth was on her way. District 16 softball director Mike Pickering allowed the game to go on, with East Lynn winning. On Sunday, Pickering told Item staff that after that game, he said that a team of less than nine players would not be permitted in the future.Last Friday, Wyoma and East Lynn met again. This time, East Lynn had nine players on the field, but one player got hurt and had to leave the game. Pickering ruled that Wyoma won by forfeit.Yesterday, Baglieri expounded a bit on these two games.”The director admitted he made a mistake (Tuesday),” he said. “It was based on the fact there was supposed to be a ninth girl coming and she never showed ? The manager of the (East Lynn) team was told he was not allowed again to play with less than nine. It wasn’t like this should be news. There were nine on the field (Friday), a girl was hurt, they had to stop the game.”Baglieri added that the reasons for playing with no less than nine players extend to the fields of law and health insurance. He said that if a player is injured, an accident report is filled out, and a claim is filed. Yet he said that if an insurance company “finds a rule or regulation is not followed,” then “it is not within their rights” to pay the claim.The teams were to play for the title on Saturday, but the game did not get played after Wyoma showed up and East Lynn did not. Wyoma won the championship by default. Baglieri addressed the issue of one potential reason why East Lynn might have been shorthanded Saturday: postseason play for AAU teams.”One thing I’m not going to do is reschedule games for girls and boys in other tournaments,” he said. “You are hurting the other girls on the team.”Baglieri said that he and the East Lynn president have “had a discussion” about the issue of the umpires who showed up for Saturday’s scheduled game.”Somebody has to cover the two umpires who put their time aside,” Baglieri said, adding, “I will wait and see how that pans out. I don’t expect a problem.”While Baglieri sounded frustrated at times with the twists and turns off the field, he also expressed the hope that the district could put the controversy aside. And he sounded a bit philosophical, too.”People seem to make up the rules as the season goes along,” he said. “There are lots of rules that people don’t follow. I don’t like a lot of rules. But you have to follow them anyway.”Rich Tenorio can be reached at [email protected].