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Can I speak to the DP, please!?
by Dave
Monday, June 02, 2008
Harley writes in to ask:I have recently had the opportunity and time to watch the women's softball tournament on ESPN, and really enjoy the spirit of these young ladies. One thing I cannot figure out on my own is just what the designation DP stands for in the batting lineup. I realize she's hitting for the pitcher, so why is it not simply DH? After watching several, several games, listening more for the public address announcer's voice in the background of the television announcer's voices, I have yet to catch it. And of all the stats and info the TV announcers relate, not once have they actually said what DP stands for." OK, Harley. You asked the one question I least wanted to hear. I'm going to try to answer you but please realize that I do so kicking and screaming, against my will. It's not so much that I dislike the DP. It's more that I have tried to understand the rules several times without much tangible success. But I'll try once more for your benefit and the benefit of people who just don't get it.
For the record, I have used a DP just once, also against my will, because one of my coaches thought it would be a great idea. Then, when I needed to move players around, he freaked out, put a stop to what I was doing, then told me what I was about to do would have resulted in 3 of our players being disqualified for the rest of the game. I'm 100% sure he was wrong. He had no idea what he was talking about, regarding the rules pertaining to the DP and, not understanding them, should have refrained from trying to use the position. At the time, I had very little understanding of DP rules. Today I have only a slightly better understanding.
First of all, I think it is a good idea to stop oneself from trying to take every rule from fastpitch softball and try to draw an analogy to baseball rules about which we (men) are far more familiar. The rules of the two games, while substantially similar, are not identical, particularly with respect to DPs and DHs, but also with respect to some other rules as well.
One important difference between baseball and softball is, whereas a player leaving a baseball game at any time is not allowed to re-enter - he's done for the game, in softball, starters can be replaced and then re-enter the game for the person who replaced them, one time. The flex and DP being starters, they too can be substituted for and then re-enter the game. Also, in fastpitch softball, there is often an allowance (depending on type of play) for "courtesy runners" for pitchers and catchers. This mostly has nothing to do with courtesy but is a way, at least in the case of catchers, to speed up play. But I digress.
Put simply, the DP is the designated player. She bats for one of the other 9 players who is called the "flex." Under normal circumstances, the "flex" plays defense and the "designated player" plays offense. The DP need not bat only for a pitcher. In fact, in softball, pitchers are often rather good hitters and somewhat frequently, the flex is somebody other than the pitcher.
So, that's pretty simple. The DP is a DH for somebody in the lineup. That's pretty much the same as baseball. But it gets more complicated.
In NCAA play, the DP may go in and out of the game for any player (including the
flex), at any defensive position, any time and any number of times without it counting as a substitution for anyone except the flex. In other words, let's say your 2B is the flex, the person being batted for. The DP could go into the field for the first baseman one inning without there being any ramification to the batting order or a consideration that the first baseman has been substituted for. You could start the game with Sally being the DP for Jane, the 2B, and then replace Molly, the 1B, in the field with Sally, the DP. In effect, Molly is now your designated hitter since she's no longer in the field. But Molly is not now called the DP. She is still what she was, a defensive starter at 1B.
That may sound complicated but it is not. The DP, an offensive player, is allowed to play defense for any of the starters on the field. Initially, she may have been designated as the hitter for whomever was listed as the flex, the defense-only player, but it is very much possible to have the flex and the DP playing the field at the same time.
What is not possible is to have the flex player batting. I mean, she could bat but she is only allowed to bat for the DP. When the flex enters the batting order, she must hit wherever the DP is listed in the order, and this is a substitution. You could re-enter the DP in the batting order once since any starter can be substituted for once and then re-enter, but you cannot freely replace the DP with the flex, say if you wanted to run for the DP after she got on base.
Once the flex has permanently replaced the DP in the batting order, in NCAA play, the DP position is done for the game. For example, say the slow-footed DP gets on base her first time up in the second inning and you pinch run for her by using a bench player. That counts as a substitution, the player coming into the game is now your DP. Later, when the DP slot in the batting order comes up again, you decide to bat your original DP. This is a re-entry for the DP - her one free replacement and re-entry. The bench player who ran for the DP in the second inning is now no longer eligible to play in the game. She was not one of the original 10 starters. She was a substitute who entered, then left the game. The original DP has now used her one free re-entry. If she is substituted for in a "charged substitution" for a second time, she is done for the game. So if, she gets on base in the fifth inning and you decide to run the flex or anybody else for her, the DP position is now done for the day. You play 9 and bat 9 and now have just 9 starters in the game rather than the 10 you started with.
To sum up, at the very beginning of a game, use of the DP/flex results in there being 10 players in the starting line-up. The flex plays defense only and the DP plays offense only. But the DP can play defense at any time in replacement for any player in the starting 9 spots, including the flex, not just for the flex. The DP and flex could both be in the field because the DP has taken up a position for another member of the starting defensive team. There are no "substitution" ramifications when this happens unless the DP replaces the flex in the field. The DP could go into the field for anyone, other than the flex, at any time and any number of times. If you played a 40 inning game, you could, just for fun, have the DP play all the positions on the field, excluding the flex's position, for 5 separate innings without ever altering your lineup card. Remember that if the DP takes the flex's position in the field, that is a charged substitution.
The same is not true with respect to the flex coming to bat. The flex can only replace the DP in the batting order and such is a real, charged, substitution. The flex could bat for the DP and the DP return in the batting order but doing this is considered to be use of one substitution and re-entry. Whereas, you are allowed to substitute for a player and then re-enter her, this right disappears with respect to the DP as soon as you substitute for her in the batting order with the flex and then re-enter her.
I hope that is more clear than mud to you. I think it is an important distinction from baseball's DH where use of the DH in the field removes the DH position from the batting order and removes whomever was being batted for from the game, permanently.
The rules for DP can be rather intimidating. I wouldn't advise anyone to use it without understanding exactly what they wanted to do and the ramifications of those actions. This year one of my teams played against another in a national qualifier. Our opponent tried to use a DP because he wanted all 10 of his girls to play. So when he sent his tenth batter to the plate, I got very confused. I was calling pitches or I never would have noticed. I was expecting the leadoff hitter to come to the plate for a second time and somebody else came up. After that turn at-bat, our manager approached the ump and inquired about it. The coach of the other team had been completely confused by the DP/flex rule and thought it was just a nice official way to bat 10 kids. Unfortunately for us, the plate ump didn't understand the rules regarding batting out of order and failed to apply them properly! Oh, well!! I tried to steal an out but the ump wouldn't bite. We could have protested that call and won but it was just a seeding round game.
Moving back to my assistant coach from years past who implored me to use a DP/flex in an elimination game and then freaked out when I tried to make a substitution, let's said coach "Mark." What I tried to do, admittedly without any knowledge whatsoever with respect to the DP/flex, was to put my DP in the field while undergoing a pitching change and remove a player from the field, perhaps temporarily. DP goes to right field, RF goes to pitch, pitcher sits down and catches her breath. That is totally, 100% allowable. As I just got through telling you, the DP can go into the field at any time for any defensive player. The flex just cannot bat. The pitcher I had removed from the defensive side was required to bat when her spot in the order came up next. Nothing had happened, not even a substitution. Nobody was lost. The DP/flex remained intact.
Of course Mark, being a complete jackass-know-it-all, tried to convince me that he had just "saved me" from disqualifying 3 distinct players - I never asked him which three players he meant. Presumably, he thought we had lost the DP slot, the flex was now required to bat, and the pitcher was gone from the game permanently? Don't you love people who have no clue about certain subjects yet hold themselves out to be absolute authorities? That's the guy. And nothing can prevent him from shooting you in the back as soon as you turn away to attend to something else. But he had no idea what he was talking about with respect to the DP/flex rule and neither did I. I have since looked it up and suggest you do too if you ever plan to use it. And if you are only a casual observer, just watching the NCAA tournament - you watch softball for two weeks of the year because there is nothing else on TV - there's really no reason to learn anything about the DP. Just make sure that if you ever find yourself drafting up a softball lineup card, you don't use it. And if some assistant coach encourages you to use it, gather up a team of umpires - ones who have actually read the rules - and make him explain his understanding of the subject to the umps before you take any advice from him.Labels: rules
Permanent Link: Can I speak to the DP, please!?
 
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