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| Dennis (Hosanna)
February 15, 2006
2:35:08 PM
Entry #: 1272937
| Our league rules never explicitly stated it, but yes, we use Softball Canada. I believe this clarification was added to our league rules at our fall meeting (correct me if I’m wrong), so it should be there for this year.
You can also get rulebooks (and umpire’s casebooks) from the Alberta Amateur Softball Association (9860 – 33 Ave).
In the Edmonton area, there are a lot of different slo-pitch leagues, but there seem to be only three different rules bodies that you will encounter:
1. Softball Canada
2. SPN
3. NSA
Most of the rules are virtually identical between all three bodies though there are some subtle differences (e.g. definition of a foul tip and tagging up on a caught fly ball after crossing the commitment line are two that come to mind). But there is no consistency among the house rules of all the different leagues, so that can cause confusion if people have played in any other leagues.
Most people learn the rules by playing the game (let’s face it, without an understanding of the game, the rulebook wouldn’t make much sense). Unfortunately, that means that if they played the game wrong, they learnt the rules wrong, and that pretty much applies to everyone including me (I was very surprised when I first read the rulebook). I commend everyone who makes the effort to read the Softball Canada rulebook—because a better understanding of the rules makes for a more consistent game with fewer incidents of arguing.
PS: ASA is, I believe, the American equivalent to Softball Canada, and they’re affiliated with each other, so you won’t see ASA up here. But you may come across their list of illegal bats because Softball Canada doesn’t do its own testing and relies instead on ASA for this.
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