(Printable Rules and Guidelines)
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MIDLAND SOFTBALL ASSOCIATION 2021 COVID-19 RULES / GUIDELINES
The following rules and guidelines are to be used for the current season onward until amended:
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- Waivers:
All players and non-players (managers/coaches who are part of the team but do not play) must be paid and have a CoVid-19 waiver signed to be eligible for League play, no exceptions. If you signed up player registration online you have already signed the roster.
Each player and non-player must have a waiver for each separate team that they participate with.
The MSA president has signed the required waiver for the city on behalf of the MSA and is held liable to the city for the entire league maintaining social distancing as best we can and for adhering to the playing rules and guidelines we have set in place
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2. Who is and isn’t allowed in the dugouts, for social distancing, and per agreement with the City of Midland:
We are pleased to welcome back children, family, friends, fans, etc., who may watch, from inside the Redcoats complex.
Children, family, friends, fans, etc. are not allowed inside the dugouts / areas of play, no exceptions. This is keeping in adherence with the agreement with the City of Midland and our MSA liability insurance.
Players and non-players, only, may be inside the dugout, which may constitutes the area near and surrounding the dugouts, the backstop areas and down the foul lines until past the infield. T here are no exceptions to this rule which will allow us to play softball under our agreement with the City of Midland.
To enable players/non-players to adhere to social distancing, the dugout area may be extended down the fence lines.
Managers can and will be held liable for their teams complying with this policy and games can and will be stopped, up to the end result of a forfeit, if a team is found to not be complying with this policy
There may be, on occasion, MSA board members, MSUA umpires or City of Midland crews, who have to carry out their duties and temporarily need to be inside of the dugouts / areas of play.
- Softballs:
All co-ed games will utilize a 12” softball (men’s) only. There will be no switching of softballs.
Umpires will have a new and several used softballs at the beginning of the game. They will have spares if the softballs are lost.
If a team requires their own team softballs due to CoVid concerns, they may inform Jesse Stewart at the Parks & Rec Office.
Every effort should be made for getting all out-of-play batted balls. By default, the general rule is “Hit it, get it”. Umpires will not be adding softballs because offensive team chooses not to retrieve them.
Game time will be still running, so please return balls promptly and extra time will not be granted due to retrieving of softballs. All softballs must be returned to umpire’s bucket behind the backstop at completion of the game.
- Bats:
All bats must be placed outside of dugout prior to game for visual inspection by umpires. Bats need to be turned and have their MASA district 16 hologram sticker facing outward and legible. Once inspected, please bring the bats inside of the dugout.
- Umpires:
Umpire interactions should maintain social distancing where best possible. There will be no requirement for the manager to sign the game card at the completion of the game.
Managers are responsible to discuss interactions with the umpires pre-game.
- Stealing:
There will be no stealing in any slow pitch games. Per rules, A player stepping off of a base after a pitch has crossed the plate is not an out.
- Handshake lines:
No “good game” or “high-five” lines are permitted, to minimize personal interactions across teams.
- Prayers:
Teams wishing to pray together before/after games must practice social distancing to do so.
- Seeds/spitting:
It is highly recommended and encouraged to refrain from using seeds, gum, tobacco, etc., as to further minimize risks from the act of spitting the aforementioned things.
The city of Midland will also not put their employees at risk of cleaning up shells, dip/chew, gum and can and will notify the MSA if we violate this, which could in turn be a violation of our agreement with the City of Midland.
Let’s do our best to follow these rules and guidelines and we should be able to get out ahead of and stay out ahead of issues.
Thank you for your understanding.
