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Good Morning! Our job as an umpire is to know and enforce the rules per the ruleset of the sanction we've been assigned to work. While not in the rule book, many leagues and tournaments have a mercy rule. We must know the score to enforce a mercy rule. We also must know what inning we are in and which team is home and which team is visitor. That said, we ARE NOT the official score book. If the league or tourney has not hired score keepers (some do), then the home book is the official book. I consult with BOTH books between each half inning to ensure we all agree what the score is. Even in tourneys where I am to turn in a score card, it is known that the home team book is official. I am just writing what that book says (either at each half inning or at the very end of the game). In the rule book it actually talks about the score keeper and what their job is. Each team should come prepared to keep a book, either electronic or paper. It would be highly unusual for a game to be played where we are keeping score and neither team was keeping a book. The umpire should insist that at least the home team keep the written score and explain why. I have had a few instances where the home team score keeper was not present so we all agreed that the visitor book was the official book. This was done before the game began. Whatever the situation, the umpire should have this settled and all agree on the plan before the game begins. In my opinion, it was inappropriate for the plate umpire to know there was a score keeping problem but proceeded to then play the game and record a 0-0 tie. Umpire pay is not in the rule book in anyway. I cannot speak to if asking to be paid to keep the official score is allowed. I will reiterate that some leagues/tourneys do hire a score keeper for the games and they do get paid. However, paid score keepers do not just keep the score, they keep the whole lineup, record substitutions, and track each pitch and each out in the book. An umpire cannot do both - umpire and keep an accurate score book. The game would be significantly delayed, waiting on them to record each pitch and out in a score book. I would recommend you talk to your coordinator of the league or tournament and make them aware of what happened, as they need to have a conversation with the UIC who is managing the umpire assignments. I also recommend that your team always has a plan for each game as to who and how your team is keeping their score book. Hope this helps!

This team will be at our tournament this weekend. I have reached out to the TD/ head umpire and I plan on speaking to the umpires assigned to our game if we end up playing them. There are 20 teams so chances are low but I have made my team aware and informed them about making sure they stay still in the box.

Thank you for your answer. We tried to have this discussion before because as you can imagine both stands erupt when this happens and it becomes a very volatile situation.