Here is a link to a letter concerning the American Legion bat rule for 2011 at the national level.
Note: The Minnesota rule is slightly different than at the national level.
www.nwumpires.com/home/images/stories/NWmisc/bbcorbatltrjune12011.pdf
Here is a link to the Minnesota American Legion rule book for 2011. On pages 37 & 38 the bat rule is included.
Note: The Minnesota rule is slightly different than at the national level.
www.nwumpires.com/home/images/stories/NWmisc/2011mnalbrulebook.pdf
Here are the details of the bat rule for Minnesota:
www.nwumpires.com/home/images/stories/NWmisc/2011mnamericanlegionbatrule.doc
Here are some details on how we would like NW Umpires to handle the situation:
We have contracted to UMPIRE your baseball games, not to be bat police.
The Minnesota American Legion Baseball program will assume all liability for their deviation from the national policy.
It is the ultimate responsibility of each team to insure that the bats they are using comply with the state guideline.
As a reminder of that responsibility our umpires, will ask both managers, at the pregame meeting, “Is your team using legal bats today”. The only acceptable answer is, “Yes”. A game cannot begin until both coaches are able to affirm that their bats are legal.By acknowledging that they are using legal bats they are accepting the liability if any of their players use illegal bats.