BrianC14

What he said. ^^^

I was referring to the comment that stated "I think he's been doing this for years." Davis instructed him to get in the on-deck circle. Instead of complying, he moved the circle to where he'd been standing. I don't see Beltre laughing or even smiling as he moves the circle. And he sure wasn't after being dumped. More to the point is that this is the sort of stuff that trickles down, and too many amateur umpires (such as the majority of umpires on this forum) won't 'pick that booger'. I agree with @maven - we don't know the whole story here, and as this is the 3rd game of the set, I have little doubt that Davis had finally had enough of the shenanigans. But if there's history, then Beltre surely knows about it, and this time he pushed it too far.

Laugh it up now, funny man. It doesn't matter that it's a blowout or how far Beltre moves himself out of it. If he's "always where he was standing last night", it's likely because other umpires ignored it and left the crappy end of the stick for some other umpire. He was given his chance to comply. Davis told him to get in the circle. Beltre decides to put the circle where he wants it. Bye bye. Remember the NFHS rule some years' back about extending dugouts toward home plate? How many of you ignored that rule, meaning that other umpires had to deal with it, along with the "but we've been doing this all season" Baloney Sandwich? This is no different. No, you don't have to be a redass about it, but when Fed decides to make it a POE (as they did years ago) then the rule should be applied from day one. I wonder how many umpires at Fed and NCAA also allow the first batter of the inning to sneak ever closer to home plate during warm up pitches? Nip it in the bud. Nip it.

There was a reply earlier in this thread that roughly half - HALF - of umpires thought that hands were part of the bat. If that many umpires are thinking this and applying the rule incorrectly, then why should umpires expect that coaches should also know the rules, especially the more complex and/or arcane rules? We need to right our own ship first.

When they're complaining about a pulled foot ? Oh - that was rhetorical, wasn't it? (But reminiscent of my games on Monday). I had to hide a laugh when Coach Whiner decided to get strategic and ended up with zero runs after having the bases jammed with nobody out. The ball never left the infield.

Were they complaining about your zone? And more important, did they give your mask back ?

On the other hand, I wouldn't want to be paying their property taxes.....

Some areas in CT get even more than that. Last I heard, a varsity game brought $92 +/- per umpire.

Still pics are nice, but watching the video, you see F2 set up well inside, then move the mitt slightly farther inside, then tweak it back. Even with that last tweak, that pitch is in the batter's box. How would anyone get the bat on it, when it's darn near tickling the batter's toes?

With a shortage of umpires, and yet your varsity pay scale is even lower than ours is. smh

Simple way to avoid this is to do what we did on submarines: verbatim repeat-back.

Two balls on the inside. Yow. YOW.

They almost look like a pair of Tanel shoes. I'd like to see what the soles look like.

Spot on. This isn't inserting ourselves into the game at all; it's just a matter of cleaning up someone else's (the bat flipper) mess. That's what we're paid to do, more often than not.

I'm thinking of using this at my next plate conference.

Sure, knowledge is good, but it's not a good idea to let it influence how you work a game. Players, managers and coaches act. We umpires react.

That's it exactly. Well said.

I agree. To me this is no different than if a coach had followed you to the car and saying the same things.

That's a far cry from the OP, in my opinion. Of course I'd want to know if there was recent history between two teams, because that will be relevant to how you will respond to 'the history' issue. Nobody said anything about a 'bubble'. Every game is different of course, and we are there to respond to all manner of events that may occur during a game. Let me provide this supposition: suppose your JUCO "big rivalry" had turned into a big nothingburger, that the teams played a great game with no ill effects whatsoever? Had you prepared yourselves to umpire something completely different, or did you let that information influence how you ran the game? We've all had those 'meaningless' games where major crap storms developed out of nowhere. So we respond to that as it happens, but sometimes our expectations are of a sleepy, quiet game,and we can end up overwhelmed when things don't go quite according to expectations. The opposite is also true, when the anticipated storm turns out to be smooth as silk. I worked a college game this season where there was 'history' between the teams, and also some bad blood between the manager of Team A and my partner. You know what we got? An incredibly quiet, 5-3 game where Team B won. Absolutely nothing rocked the boat. Sure, it was good that I had been informed of the history beforehand, but had I been working the game and influenced (in a bad way) based on the history, I'd have come off looking like a bona fide red ass. Just umpire the game you have.

Same here, especially when the OP states that the game is played under FED rules. And wasn't it just a year ago that FED had a POE about throwing bats? And this hot dog throws it so high it ends up near the mound? "Gone." This report can be written with 25 words or less.

"What's the most important game you've ever worked?" "The one I'm working right now."

Not to mention the players, coaches, fans, parents, groundskeepers, etc.

Just don't do this.

Suggestions / method would be appreciated. I took a look at it a few years ago but couldn't see a clean way to get it removed. Thanks

Tried it out today. Flawless. Out of habit I found myself pushing up on the CP, but it was never necessary.