Ever seen a team intentionally forfeit?

[dittoz]

Talking to my bro-in-law last night...

A 14u team was playing on a neigboring field and clearly not having their best game. Making bone-headed plays, dugout running helter-skelter... Basically a group of players who really didn't care about being there from what it sounds like.

Midway through the game, Coach calls time, conferences with PU, opposing coach is called over, they all talk for a moment... PU steps away, raises both hands and announces "game over - Home team has forfeited" !

Apparently the story was that the coaches were feeling that the players were just not getting the job done, screwing around and basically were an embarassment as I understand it. Coach warned them and when they continued, he forfeited the tourney and took them home!

That's a first in my book! At $375 a pop, as a parent I'd sure have mixed feelings about it though - on the one hand, I like the stick-to-your-guns attitude, but there are other concerns I'd be fighting. Lord knows, there's been a time or two I would have loved to have pulled my team off the field and run laps for the rest of the day!

Anyone else ever seen this happen?

[Judd]

Cant remember the details but I heard of a team here in GA that got to the championship game I believe. The coach called time and was talking to his defense, ump told him to wrap it up after a while, and the coach took the kids off the field and forfeited. Cant remember the details but one of the players was on our fall team and relayed the story.

So yes I have heard of coaches forfeiting a game.

[Tucson]

It was just a B team jr. high game, but we forfeited. We were overmatched, in a situation where a line drive could hurt someone. The Catholic school we were playing kept pouring it on and we left. The nun that was principal was not happy with the coach, because he had other players that he could have played. He wasn't rehired after the season.

I wasn't the coach, just the score keeper. But even the parents on the winning team weren't happy with how the coach played the game. As I recall (and it was a long time ago), we would have had to play 5 innings to get to the 10 run rule and we were still stuck on the 3rd inning and couldn't get an out.

But seeing someone forfeit because his team is messing around, no. I bet some changes are going to be made, now.

[Lefty's Dad]

A coach that my DD played for a few times did this in a tourney (we weren't playing for her at the time). She says the girls just didn't care, played like it and acted like it. She didn't pull them off the field but after their second pool game, she told them all to pack it all up and go home. Hard lesson to learn but one that players at this higher level shouldn't have to be taught. The current team that Dd plays on acts this same way, this past weekend they were all laughing and skipping back to the dugout after being eliminated, going two and out for the weekend. Very sad and I wanted to scream, I was so embarassed as was my DD and a couple of other players.

[TulsaEliteGold]

I watched a 18U team forfeit a "Pool" game this weekend about 15 minutes into their late game (9pm start) after they got down 3-0. The wierd thing was they forfeited this game after waiting around for over 3 hours between games, but then they still came back on sunday to finish the tournament.

[CoachShark]

A couple of years ago at Dynasty's Toys-for Tots tourney. Team from Arizona was doing a pretty good job of beating a team from So cal. It was their turn up to bat in the 5th, they packed up their stuff and headed out. They drove, and it was getting late on a Sunday night and decided to leave for that 6-8 hr drive.

[coolstuff]

During my daughter's first year in travel with a 12U B team made up of rec all-stars, the tournament ran late and they had to play the last game of the day - at midnight after everyone else had left against a team that was light years better than them. After 1 1/2 innings the score was 15-2 and would have certainly ended by mercy rule at the end of the 3rd inning if they had toughed it out, but the girls were too tired to continue and the outcome was obvious, so the coaches forfeited so we could go back to the hotel, get some sleep, and come back the next day, The parents were grateful.

[greenandblue]

We have a well-known coach here in the Sunshine State who would forfeit a seed game for made up reasons so it would change who he would play on elimination Sunday. Thankfully the local tournament directors finally got smart and wouldn't allow such forfeits.


Bet you can guess what he is well-known for.

[texasfastpitch]

A coach that my DD played for a few times did this in a tourney (we weren't playing for her at the time). She says the girls just didn't care, played like it and acted like it. She didn't pull them off the field but after their second pool game, she told them all to pack it all up and go home. Hard lesson to learn but one that players at this higher level shouldn't have to be taught. The current team that Dd plays on acts this same way, this past weekend they were all laughing and skipping back to the dugout after being eliminated, going two and out for the weekend. Very sad and I wanted to scream, I was so embarassed as was my DD and a couple of other players.

Sounds like it's time to look for another team!

[dittoz]

Now I didn't even think about that aspect...

Last season, we had a Saturday seeding game that was the 3rd of the day in 12u and the tourney was running late. It was a scheduled 7:30 game and the prior game didn't even start until 7:00. No matter what the outcome of our game would be, we would still be playing the same team at the same time the next morning at 8am.

Rather than starting a game at 8:30 and playing to 9:45, then going and eating and getting back to the hotel and getting the girls bedded down, we forfeited that final game and got the food and sleep we needed and wound up winning the tourney the next day.

Funny... I'd forgotten all about that one. Different twist on the reasoning though...