The New Hampshire Amateur Softball Association Casual Profanity Rule for 2003 will include the following:
Expletives “Not directed at the umpires or opposing players, but most likely at the players saying them as a vent to frustration, but still loud enough for people watching the game to hear.” The offensive or defensive team, whichever is guilty of the violation is called out and will be treated on a delayed, dead ball situation. Profanity directed at others, especially umpires, will still result in ejection.
Lets say a team has the bases loaded and the batter pops up to the infield. Immediately he lets out a profanity( You can use your favorite word). What happens if the fielder catches the ball? The batter can’t be called “OUT” because he already is. Therefore, the next batter is OUT. If the batter would be first up the next inning, that spot will be an OUT. This is how we will enforce the penalty. If a defensive player “boots” the ball or drops the ball and utters a profanity where it can be heard by the people in the stands the defense is penalized by having their first batter called out when they come to bat. If a player is called out on a bang-bang play at first base and he/she utters a word under his/her breath as he/she runs by the umpire at first or curses under his/her breath because of this poor hit as he/she was thrown out at first, the CASUAL PROFANITY RULE will not be enforced. That’s because no one but the umpire, and maybe the first baseman has heard him/her.
Umpires should warn both managers in pre-game conference that the CASUAL PROFANITY RULE applies. Failure to do so does not preclude the penalty being enforced.
This rule has be used by other ASA organizations around the country, we have made a few changes, but like their interpretation.
“ THESE RULES WILL BE ENFORCED BY THE GAME UMPIRES AND CANNOT BE THE SUBJECT OF A PROTEST.”