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Please. We are humans and its an amateur game. Go ahead and say hi and acknowledge them.

Decided to don the new rig last weekend. Felt great. Looks good.

... and a number of cases in LL for that ball being fair - and everyone standing around for a long time as PU blows out their elbow silently pointing fair over and over. 😂

I'm the one that's been testing out these new CP's. The Apex and DX are both very comfortable CPs. I'd say both will stand up to baseball (or softball) impacts without any question. I haven't taken any major impacts yet, but I've had some punches and so forth to try it out and no causes for worry in my opinion. I only work up to Varsity and 18U baseball, so I am only seeing 85-90 top speed, or less, most of the time with rare exceptions. They both look pretty good under your shirt also. The DX looks very looks natural at the shoulders, no linebacker appearance here. I didn't have to size up for either one of these under my regular umpire shirt, they fit fine under my current shirts. The DX is very thin and offers a much lower profile that rivals F3 v3! The Apex is a bit more round in the chest, think more barrel-chested, but still doesn't make you look any larger than most other CP's (Wilson Gold, Platinum, etc.) out there does. While I like both of these, I am a bigger fan of the DX. I love the all black design with minimal logo appearance. The neck, wings and belly extension can be removed. I wear it without those on it and it is very comfortable with enough flexibility to be able to throw a ball back to a pitcher. It is lightweight too. When using my UL harness on it, I forget I have it on sometimes. It's very comfortable to wear. The pad jacket is thin, yet somehow soft and supportive at the same time. It's not hot in Ohio yet, so can't speak to how well it'll do in the heat, but so far it feels like it'll perform every bit as good as any other CP I've had - and I've pretty much had them all except the Power. My recommendation is to pick up one of these models if you're in the market for a new CP. I am not paid to say that either. I sold all of my other CPs and have been using the DX mostly, but I do like the streamlined appearance of the Apex also. Due to a bit more stand-off, the Apex actually provides more security than the DX - but I'm willing to trade the added safety for a lower profile personally. I'll try to upload a pic or two once I get home. If there is anything specific you'd like to see, just let me know.

Ok. I emailed our NCAA association‘s interpreter today. He’s also a current D1 SEC umpire, has post seasons under his belt….alright, enough of his qualifications. I’ll start with a little background. our association puts out “you make the call” videos where we answer, then the correct answer is giving later in the week. A few weeks ago, we watched a play where there was a slow roller to f6 who is behind the bag, F4 stretches from the back edge of the base like a first baseman, and it’s a bang bang force play. R1, running full speed, cutting and stepping on the inside corner and continues on to third as one would on a base hit. The umpire calls safe and r1 continues to 3b. He never touched f4. The ruling is this is not a FPSR violation, due to the new exception. Here’s my email to him. Specifically, in our You Make the Call video, that runner is not in violation, as covered under the exception. The question is, does this change if that runner was called out, and ran through standing up? The argument being the exception only applies if a runner is safe. In general, if a runner goes in standing up, and is out, is it 100% automatic he has committed a FPSR violation? In other words, GB to f6, he flips to f4, who catches the ball on the run coming across 2B for an out, and is 5-6 feet to the 3B side of 2B when R1 reaches 2B going in standing up? I would think this would also fall under the exception. Am I wrong? Here’s his reply. ..just because someone does something wrong, doesn't mean there is a violation. There also has to be a hindrance, (or in the case of FPSR, a safety issue). If the runner goes in standing and has zero bearing on the play, he is not guilty of anything I rest my case.

Are solo assignments the reason there’s an umpire shortage, or is the umpire shortage the reason for solo assignments?

I think this is a perfect example of why big field games--regardless of ruleset, but especially FED--should be two-man crews. BU in C would have heard the trash talk between F6 and R2 and told them to knock it off--and I've done that very thing. On the other hand, I thank you for posting this @Mudisfun--it's good to see how things can go south and how others have handled the situation.

I emphatically concur with you, @Thatsnotyou. Exactly. A well-regarded colleague disclosed, “There are two types of coaches, those that know (how to approach an umpire), and those that don’t. Those that do, you just insulted. Those that don’t, they’re not going to listen and change their ways anyway.”

I cringe if a partner does the “if you have a question about a call” speech during a high school or decent travel game. They should know it. Assume they do. If they don’t, you’ll figure it out at that time. I think it’s demeaning. They don’t give us a sentence or two on how to umpire while at the plate meeting. It also essentially implies that you’ll have a discussion or two that game. Is that typical for this guy? When you need to argue today, here’s how to do it… Yes, even at the varsity level they’ll mess it up, but it takes a few seconds to fix. As they approach me at the plate…nicely I say something like…”Chris made that call, do you want to ask him about it? Yes, go ahead”

Exactly right! Thank you! My wife and kids have been the biggest supporters of my umpire avocation. She comes to nearly every one of my games if she is able to. I would not have the enjoyment of umpiring if not for the support of my wife and kids. Not only is she my biggest supporter, she is my best evaluator, as well. Many of my partners over the years know how good she is at evaluating, and they often ask for her to evaluate them when we're on games, too. I understand there is a time and place for it, and so does she. But when I go to the fence to get a drink of water, I'm happy to say hi to wife, kids, friends that took the time out to see me work. Many of my umpire colleagues wish their spouses would come to their games and get the support that I have been blessed with receiving. How many umpires do you know that their wives show no interest, and often little support for any of their hobbies? Probably plenty, I know I do. You're damn right I'm going to acknowledge her at my games.

Hello everyone, Michael here. So we are now official. We are UMP Guard Retrofit LLC. So I wanted to give a brief description of what me and the team does at UMP Guard Retrofit. We basically do the same thing Team Wendy did back in the day, replace your old couch cushion foam with brand new closed cell foam, recreating the pad jacket. To get your pad replaced the cost is $160 not including shipping, we offer rivet replacement, fidlcok attachments, and so much more. You might be asking yourself, why should I get my CP pad replaced by you guys? That is a great question, first, let’s start with breathability, not only is our pad a half inch thick it is also breathable, why is this, the main reason our pad is breathable comes down to 3 things, lightweight, breathable materials, and breathable foam. Our pad weighs about 10 ounces, compared to a traditional west vest that is about 9-11 ounces lighter. We like to pride ourselves in that we have retrofitted chest protectors for umpires from Little League all the way to the MLB. This year you will see MLB umpire John Libka wearing our CP pad when he is behind the dish! Following are some photos of our work, more to come. Rivet Replacement, Fidlock Replacement, and Pad Replacement… only at UMP Guard Retrofit

Ooh, just thought of another one... NFHS, not coming to a complete stop in the set position when there's nobody on base.

I’m going 🙋‍♂️

Agreed this is an interesting discussion and thanks for everyone's patience as this didn't add up for me until just now: they are looking at Fielder and Runner similar to how I looked at my daughter going to prom on Saturday: Buffer zone. BIG buffer zone.

Batter interference. Batter is out, if it’s not the third out, runner returned to 2B.

Illinois adopted a 2-hour time limit on all JV and under games. Of course, most schools are still only paying $60 because of that. (Run rule here is 15 after 4, 10 after 5.) My personal best was a full 7-inning varsity game in 1:18. The home team scored 1 quick run in the first inning and NO runner made it to second base after that: double-plays, thrown out stealing, or 3rd out of the inning. Pitchers were not wasting pitches and batters were swinging at the first thing they saw. I never went to C after the first inning. Doubt I will ever see anything like that again.

This. It's a judgment call. Your judgment. Like any judgment call, teams are free to disagree or agree as they see fit. If the HC comes out to talk to you about the call and you aren't certain of what you saw, you could call a crew conference to seek any additional information that might help you in your decision making on your call. Yelling across the field to your partner puts them on the spot for making a call that they should not have to make. Those calls, typically a pulled foot, belong to a base umpire. If the umpire is not sure on the call, see above.

You make a good point here Champ! It's important to self-diagnose something is off, get checked out if you're having lingering or excessive (your call again here) issues like we're trained to identify in others - and take time off and rest! Never rush back as it only increases the likelihood of the next impact causing more severe and/or longer-lasting damage. I've had a mild concussion (AS MAG on foul back in a JV game) and didn't realize it until I was having the worst plate game of my life the following day. I honestly was thinking of retiring after that one, I did that poorly. I was apologizing to the kids, F2's, coaches - anyone that would listen... when it hit me and I had that proverbial light-bulg moment - I must have a concussion! It felt like I was looking out of my eyes sideways, I just couldn't see a pitch well at all. I had no headache or other typical signs, other than my vision was"off". I called my assignor and took the rest of the week off and went back at it the next week with no further issues. It's very important to err on the side of caution and be responsible for your own health here. Don't be ego-driven and try to tough it out. It's too your advantage to rest up and recover and don't come back until you're ready.

I would highly recommend taking the time to explore the archives and carefully review Max's contributions, as I believe you will find it to be an enlightening and worthwhile endeavor. Additionally, I suggest reflecting on your emotions and giving them thoughtful consideration before crafting responses. Remember that not every comment is meant to be insulting. It's easy to misinterpret tone in writing and I doubt any insult was intended.

You might be trolling but if you don’t know Max’s opinion on the Schutt you haven’t gone very far into the archives of the website… 🤣

Yep. It's better to be out wishing you were in than in wishing you were out. And, that applies to baseball umpiring, too.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having verbal communication with your partners, especially those that you haven't worked a lot with. I know it puts my mind at ease when I hear my partner behind me telling me what they are doing. It allows me to be proactive to check something off of my mental list and move to my next area of responsibility.

This is the best post-game postmortem you can do. Identify the points when things started slipping away so that you can stop it the next time. My personal opinion and approach, I do not allow ANY jawing back and forth between coaches. NONE. Shut that $#!+ down yesterday. If they are ACs, then they get even less leeway. You (hopefully) wouldn’t let two players go at each other, so do NOT allow coaches to go back and forth. From a game management perspective, almost all of my worst games started spiraling this way. Talk it down as soon as it starts. Issue the team warnings immediately. The key is not to escalate it yourself, though. Calmly let the HC know that NOBODY is to yell or even speak to the other team. There is NO reason for opposing coaches to talk to one another; all subs go to you and get announced by you anyway. Maybe an unpopular opinion: depending on the run-rule, I wouldn’t be letting up completely at 16-1. If there is a 15 run-rule, I want an insurance run or two. This is especially true in tournaments when you have more games to play. Put it to bed, save your pitching, get off the field before a player gets hurt, and rest up for the next game.

I'm with Jimurray. No balk in HS varsity and below. Especially in youth ball, where F1's twitch and wiggle all over the mound, this is way to picky. Football officials would call this kind of violation "too technical." If the explanation of the call has to start with, "technically..." then we shouldn't be calling it. Balks should almost always call themselves. This one doesn't.

"HAHAAHAHAHAHA. No." - Nestor Cortes & Johnny Cueto

I could do Navy so dark it almost looks black with charcoal side panels. Wouldn't take much to tweak that 😀

Agreed. My use of 6' or 10' was meant to imply that the fielder was not in the vicinity of the base. And, yes, in practice, it's easy to tell if F6 moved on his own or to avoid the runner who wasn't sliding. I have no problem giving the benefit of the doubt to the fielder; I have a problem with making it an absolute.

I’m Paul Harvey… Good ^Dây^! … … 🧐 Why’d you place R2 on 2B, instead of awarding him 3B?

Best advice from a coach ever.

100%. I have done this as well. Once, it had the effect of reminding the crowd that I was a human being with a life beyond calling little Billy out on strikes (which I do a lot, and, frankly, enjoy—pitching is hard).

Randy, I’m saying this kindly, and any ire or animosity you detect is not being directed at you, Randy the umpire, but at any “parent” association and/or Softball itself. Why do you need (still) heather grey??! Because your parent association / assigner is directing you to do so? To maintain some “uniform standard”?? Is that association or assigner providing the uniform items?? No?? Then they’ve got no say as to what specific items / colors / brands / tones / shades you wear, or more importantly… purchase. Associations – and this goes for Softball, too – have to get with the times. Everyone makes this big ta-doo about “looking like Major League Baseball”. All those uniform items are provided. Even in MiLB, those items are purchased under a directed stipend. Even in NCAA baseball, there’s a degree of friction between what the assigners expect, what’s provided (under stipend or otherwise), what the umpires actually purchase and use, and the assignments they receive. But outside that, especially at the amateur level, there is no way they should have that kind of grip and sway over us. It (whatever stylistic template the assigner or association PTB holds) doesn’t matter. Wear charcoal. Wear 3-years faded pants, especially on a 1:30pm JV game at a class 1 school in the middle of nowhere… no one cares. Heather grey umpire pants – that you were directed to purchase yourself – doesn’t mean you’re a better / great / effective umpire. It means that you’re fulfilling the direction (wishes, whims) of some stooges sitting at a desk.

I had a very similar situation just this week. I was on a two-man crew for a 14U travel ball game, and my partner got pulled to work a FED game. I told my assignor I don't want to work solo, and he understood and took the place of my original partner. In my mind, I signed up for the game, so I felt obligated to work the game regardless--but I was happy to have a partner.

Nope. 60 feet is enough for coaches to get out of the way. They "used to play" you know.

My opinion, #1 is the ONLY acceptable answer. I'm not fully reading your position or angle in the OP, but if you know you got caught at a bad angle/got blocked out/etc., you should never have an issue going to your partner if asked (politely and properly). I vehemently disagree with the use of "discreet signals." People see it and see what is happening. If you don't see your partner's signal or don't go with it, somebody will see it. Why sow the seeds?

There is no such thing as interfering with an umpire. So, no, that can't be called. There is no applicable rule in any code. This is one of those things in youth ball that newer umpires get surprised by. Kids do dumb stuff. We need to be aware of the ODB/scored runner and shoo him away if he gets too close. Umpires who are on a knee for plays at the plate limit what they can do in this regard (one of dozens of reasons not to be on their knees). Ordinarily, I don't lay hands on players (at any level), but this situation is an exception to that.

I am confident that is intended to be a lightly used accent color. But hey if enough people have interest in looking like the Savannah Bananas I'll see what I can influence. @ousafe that is already planned in the general design parameters. Our higher end shirts currently us a neck lining with our FNX fabric which lowers ambient temperature and wicks moisture faster then our polyester fabric. These shirts will have a similar neck/collar lining and sweatband. Something similar may be found under the arms as well.

Thank you for letting us know you are fallible champ.

Your gut told you to go with INT with the live action view you had. You saw everything you needed to see, you were positioned where you needed to be, and you made the call. If you didn't have (much) protesting or complaining, I'd say you made the right call. I'm my own worst enemy in situations like yours. I'll replay a scenario over and over in my head, wondering if I made the right call. But I've come to realize that my memory of a certain play isn't as good as the live action. If it helps, based on your description, I would've call INT as well.

Disclosure: I have a close family member who has lived most of their adult life in a wheelchair following a spinal injury. They have limited use of their hands and no use of their legs. They do not umpire and I would like to offer the following responses: 1) How do you know? Have you seen him work? And we have all seen partners who work games who don't get up the line as they should... 2) How do you know? Have you seen him work? Angle over distance, right? Maybe he doesn't get the ideal distance moving from the plate to get FPSR but, I promise you he gets the angle. 3) How do you know? Have you seen him work? 4) How do you know? Have you seen him work? I promise you...if YOU have thought of all of this, someone in a wheelchair has too. Maybe he doesn't wedge it up as he should. Like all of us, he is doing the best he can and I'm sure like all of us, his first priority is knowing his capabilities and getting himself to where he needs to be and minimize the risk of injury to himself or those on the field. 5) So maybe he doesn't work wet fields. Over the course of a baseball season, I'm sure there are lots of opportunities for him to work under his ideal conditions. 6) Conjecture and speculation...we don't know. Again, maybe he doesn't work turf fields. The bottom line is...people may have questions. People may not understand. People may want to pass judgement. I see a man in a mask, wearing our jacket, and grabbing strikes umpiring a baseball game. As far as I am concerned, that's our brother and I'd take the field with him anytime and I hope all of you feel the same way. ~Dawg

The brain jarring around inside your head, even though it is a minute sized brain I have, is the reason I turned back my games for the rest of the week. Did not want to risk further damage by running around the field. 5 games.

Just don't go out from inside, especially in the two umpire system. You most likely aren't going to get any better look at the play and you've taken yourself out of anything else that could happen, leaving one person to cover 4 bases and multiple runners. I am a much bigger proponent of working to create an angle and keep yourself in the play. Every time I've seen someone go out from the inside in the 3 umpire system, it has been on a no doubt moonshot that didn't need someone out on it and they have all been in a camp setting. I would ask "Why did you go out on that ball from the inside?" The answer was always, "Well we need to go out on balls challenging the wall, right?" My response, "Brother, that was challenging the county line, never mind the wall."

Can people stop including pictures of their bare feet in these threads?

… and let’s say it all together… No Runners On → No Balk

I don't think you understood the gist of the catcher's box nitpick. Prepitch by rule F2 must be in the box at TOP. No umpire at TOP is looking at where F2 or F3v is.

Even though the league I work is "LL" I tell the managers before the game that I will honor dead ball appeals. I am more interested in teaching the kids (and adults) to pay attention more than to go through the hokey pokey, as you put it.

Oh they're great all right. So great, that some of us will call time before the hokey-pokey gets going and ask Coach what he wants to do. When he says "Appeal," we make sure it's the right runner at the right base, ("which runner? what did he do?"), and then rule on it. Can be a game saver. Always a time saver.

Maybe the poster was high?

I know this is true, because I won't work 4-6 games per day and I always offer to help with the better tourneys in my area. I'm willing to take days off work and works Thurs - Sat (Sun is church and I won't work, another reason I don't get used, but I digress)... but do I get games assigned to me? Nope. Assignor, who calls me one of his best guys per what a peer told me, called me with my games for the first big tourney coming up in Summer around my area... guess how many games? Zero... but he told me not to worry, he'll get me some games. Last year, I filled in when a guy went down and worked his last game and got paid 1.5 normal rate due to emergency fill in - but that was it for a four day tournament. I'm not mad at him either, I understand. It's so much easier to put Tom & DIck on Field 1 for the day than to try to fit me and some other person in there for two games and then get another set of guys to finish the rest of the day. I blame fellow umpires as much as the assignors and the tourneys. Quit accepting that many games in one day. I don't care who you are, I've never seen an umpire yet, working 15-18U games with 2 hr 15 min no new inning time limits, who is as fresh and sharp in game 4/5/6 as he was in games 1/2/3. We say it's not about the money, then why else are we working 4-6 games a day when we know we can't be sharp? Are we honestly saying that we chose to work 10-12+ hours in the blazing sun for fun times then? If we'd stop letting them force us to take 4+ games per day, then we all could get a small piece of the pie and still enjoy the day doing what we love responsibly and more efficiently. In my area, it's not so much we can't find enough guys but the younger guys who are willing to work all the games on one field for every day are the ones that get used... and many times they are not the best umpires. But until assignors change this "butts in seats" method of assigning, then it will continue for the foreseeable future. PS - I'm not mad at some of you guys that do take and can work 4-6 games a day out of necessity. I'm speaking more about those that do it because the assignor doesn't want to work hard and try to get more umpires involved.

I wanted to take a moment and thank all of the Umpire - Empire crew for being so kind and generous with their time, and trust. I wanted to also thank @Razzer for as he spent some time talking to me about my product. I would also like to thank @MadMax and @wolfe_man for their continues feedback and help. As many of you guys know, I am 17 years old, my goal one day is to be a mlb umpire, this is simply a project to do along the way. I hope to retrofit many more protectors as my years go on. I will say this, I hope I never become a wilson sporting goods, heres why. Because If I ever ever made a product like Wilsons @MadMax would have me removed from the site in fear that I would take over the Wilson industry and he wouldnt have the opprotunity to buy wilson products and burn them. Anyways, I hope to make a meaningful conection with everyone I work with, I hope that one day, when I die, I can leave a legacy, of honesty, respect, and determination, that goes for my business too! I want everyone that has their protector retrofitted by me to feel like they are being treated with respect. I hope one day I can make it to the MLB, and if I do that will be awesome, but if I dont, that just means God has other plans for me, one thing I can say for sure is this is a new chapter of my life, and a new begining of something great! I hope over the years I earn each and one of your guises trust, whether its me retrofitting your protector, and jsut talking baseball with you guys! I wanted to say thanks! Thanks for your time, Michael Materasso Psalm 91:2

Correct call. The pitching restrictions permit F1 to step and throw to a base (provided it's occupied). When F1 throws to 1B without F3 there, he has satisfied those restrictions. Play on.