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Recap Game'09-13: Scoresheets | Play-by-Play Summary* | Audio of individual plays

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Turkeys Win/Lose/Win vs Shorthanded Radars

recap by Sam

Tonight the Wild Turkeys lost a shortened 4-inning matchup against a shorthanded LA Radars team that could only field a maximum of 6 men and 2 women, more than half an hour past the official starting time of 5:30. The Radars had only 5 men and zero women well past 5:45, while 18 Turkeys players and spectators waited patiently for the game to get underway. The Turkeys tried to be generous, and we waived declaring a forfeit after we were assured that two women and one additional man were on their way. Finally we offered to switch home and away positions so the Radars could start batting just past 6:00, and their 7th and 8th players arrived a few minutes later before their positions came up in the batting order in the 1st inning.

Once the Radars had the minimum number of players to avoid a forfeit, the game itself had the potential to be a good one. The Radars' short lineup of 6 men and 2 women was exceptionally strong. Their two women were very good hitters, as were their six men, so their lineup had no weak spots. This gave a perfect illustration of why C League's rules should not encourage this type of lineup, because a team shouldn't be given a positive incentive to obtain a most favorable batting order by skating to the edge of forfeiting.

Fortunately, the Turkeys' long lineup tonight of 12 men and 4 women was also pretty strong, and the undefended holes in the Radars' 8-player defense allowed us to keep the score close. The score was 8-8 at the end of one inning. Then, surprisingly, both teams were held scoreless in two of their next three innings. But the Radars broke through for one more big 7-run inning in the 4th to overcome the Turkeys' 3-run inning in the 3rd. Defensive gems in the outfield by Matt and Yvonne in the 1st, Mike in the 2nd, and Matt in the 4th kept the score close.

The 4th inning ended just past 7:10 with the Turkeys down 15-11 and enough daylight for only one more inning. But at this point the Radars reclaimed their right to forfeit the game! They invoked the mythical 7 o'clock rule and unilaterally decided to quit. At this point I didn't care much about salvaging any chance for the Turkeys to rally and win the game, but I did care about giving a second at-bat to the 4 players at the bottom of our batting order. I proposed to the Radars that we could switch back the home and away positions for the 5th inning, so that the bottom of our order would have one more opportunity to bat and the Radars would only need to stay an extra 5 minutes if they got us out quickly. But, no, the Radars after taking their four at-bats apiece could not be bothered to stay a little longer and give two at-bats apiece to some of our batters who had waited generously at the beginning of the game for the late-arriving Radars. In other circumstances, I might be perfectly willing to end a game by mutual agreement slightly early, but in this case there was no such agreement and the Radars richly deserve their forfeit.

Some C League teams have historically taken forfeits lightly, because the league doesn't keep standings and game outcomes are meaningless. But even more so in C League, forfeits are an abrogation of a contract with the opposing team and the JPL Softball Program. In this case, the 18 to 20 Wild Turkeys including spectators who showed up expecting to play or watch a typical 100-minute game instead only got a 70-minute game due to the Radars' unavailability early and late. This was certainly not the worst type of forfeit, compared to a forfeit when the opposing team doesn't show up at all, and that's why I attempted to accommodate the Radars' lateness at the beginning of the game.

Most C League teams seem to unaware that the JPL Softball Program takes forfeits very seriously in all leagues. The fields at Hahamongna are reserved for a full two hours (5:30 to 7:30), so a 70-minute shortened game represents less than 60% usage of the time paid for by the softball program. The Program Rules levy the "death penalty" on any team that forfeits two or more games in the same season: "A team shall be suspended indefinitely...for two or more forfeited games..." and "A suspended team remains on suspension until the Program Executive Council votes to lift the suspension."

Our game with the Radars was at least the second time this year that the Radars have forfeited. The Homers' website reports that the Radars only brought 7 players to their game with the Homers on May 18th. This pair of forfeits, though certainly not the most egregious kind of forfeits that other C League teams have been guilty of, is technically sufficient to invoke the indefinite suspension penalty called for in the JPL Softball Program Rules.

I'm not lobbying to suspend the Radars for this infraction. However, the seriousness of the potential penalty should jolt C League teams into increasing their rosters to the point where forfeits become extremely rare. Remember, the C League minimum team size is not 8. The minimum C League team has 10 players including at least 3 women. Eight players (including at least one woman) is merely the threshold beyond which the "death penalty" is invoked upon a second offense. No team in their right mind should aim to only meet the "death penalty" threshold each week, because there will surely be two weeks throughout the year when they fall below this threshold and then they will have failed in their obligations to the league. In C League it's crucial for every team to maintain a large enough roster that dropping below 10 players is rare and dropping below 8 is exceedingly rare.