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| Jim
August 22, 2007
12:56:53 AM
Entry #: 2330027
| Lauren, I don't think there is any set rule for when a team is short a female player, but I have seen many different variations of rules used through the years. Most teams, on arriving at the field, want to play. Therefore, the two captains should be able to come up with an arrangement before the game to make everyone happy:
- Some teams don't care and simply allow the game to be played as is. Or if the team with enough female players has extra male players, they may choose to scale down to also play with only two women. In this way, the teams are evenly matched.
- Some teams make the team with only two women play with nine on defense, forcing them to forgo the fourth outfielder as a penalty for not having enough female players.
- As for the line-up, you could always have the two women alternate between three spots in the batting order to ensure there are at least three female spots in the line-up.
- Or, just have the last spot in the batting order be an empty spot (to account for the missing third female player) and count it as an automatic out each time you run through the line-up.
- I've seen a couple teams over the years propose a unique rule whereby in specific innings, only two outs (instead of three) have to recorded on defense - as a penalty for not having three women in the line-up, I guess. I never liked this one. It makes no sense and makes the game too confusing. If you want to do something like this, just make the last spot in the line-up an automatic out. It's more fair than simply deciding the 2nd and 5th innings are 'two-out' innings.
- If a team is only batting two women, there should be a limitation (or elimination) of male DHs in the line-up. For example, you don't want a line-up of 16 players, but have only two of them as women. By right, a team should really bat three women in order to earn the right to have extra male hitters in the line-up as DHs.
Hope this helps. Really, it just comes down to captains agreeing on something before the game.
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