Expert: Martin Hoover - 5/25/2007

Question
I'm the chief umpire for our league but I spend most of my time in our Little League. We have a junior league (13-14) and last night we had a controversial call. The pitcher was wearing his batting glove under his glove. A coach asked for it to be removed and the umpire agreed. The umpires play small college ball nearby and I have used these guys all summer. They tell me that they're 100% sure of the rule for college. You'd think the coach would just do it but since he was losing and there was alot of tension in the air, he refused. Long story short, he was ejected and things got ugly but the game was completed. I cannot find any rules on this on the internet. I do not have my rule book with me today. Can anyone help? Remember this is a junior league (90ft), not Little League.

Answer
Brent,

Rule 1.15 (b) states that the pitcher may wear a batting glove on his non pitching hand, as long as the batting glove is not white, gray, or optic yellow.  The pitcher in your game could wear a batting glove under his fielding glove, as long as it met the above criteria.

However, now that he has been ejected, remember that he must not attend the next physically played game for his team.

I hope this has helped you.  Should you have any other questions, please let me know.

-Martin Hoover