Mudisfun

So pretty much like @Velho describes above... When the game schedules are finally done, I would take all of them and list out every game/date each team plays. I would then assign that team, plate and base to cover another game on a different day. If your team plays on Tuesday, then you may be assigned to cover a Thursday game. If you play at 0900 on Saturday, then your covering the noon or 1500 game, etc... The easy win for everyone was A) the team my kid(s) played on since pretty much that coach got off easy getting his/her assigned games covered, and B) teams assigned to cover Majors since most of those get picked up by our District staff and or 'real' umpires. The people who get screwed are those covering the Minors since other than the Juniors, most district and other 'real umpires' do not want to work Minor divisions when they can avoid it. What you need to make this work: 1) A clear understanding by the BOD of how the program functions and the willingness to help enforce penalties if someone does not hold up their end of the bargain. 2) At the manager selection process, the requirement of supplying officials is went through with each prospect. Those that are unwilling to buy in do not get a team. 3) The managers with a clear understanding of the program are then in a position to 'sell' it to their team members. Since we established the culture, this has been much easier than when we first started the program. 4) Everyone must understand that ALL games must be covered. If each team plays 20-25 games, then they can expect to be assigned 20-25 games to officiate. I never understand leagues which try and sell the 'you only have to cover 2-5 games' mantra. Who is expected to cover the other 15-20? My last year as UIC, for Minor B (8/9 yo) - Majors we had 140 individual umpires work our games. 40 were district staff, 40 juniors and the other 60 were various parents in the league stepping up. They may have only covered 1 game or many, but those numbers there are a success story. Every team on average was 'assigned' 18-20 games to cover and we only had one team fail to show which triggered the 'no assistant coaches today' penalty. I sat at that game the entire time to make sure they took their punishment as assigned, and they did.

I was our UIC for 10 years. Requirement #1 was that the position was a voting member of our Executive Board, if not, then no thanks. I know of too many leagues where the UIC is a general board position which places them in a spot where they have little to no say on how the league is ran. When the BOD tries to implement changes which are not in alignment with the rules, or which is negative to umpires, there needs to be a voice. I ran my position more as an administrator. Our district as a whole handles most umpire training, so I worked to get as many volunteers there as we could, especially since I am one of the instructors. I set the game/umpire schedules and from there maintained communications letting the parties know when district or other umpires picked up a game and the local volunteers were off the hook, unless they wanted to work the game. I never saw my job as the 'no one showed up so I have to drop everything to umpire some random game'. If that happened? Deal with it... oh, and the team that failed to officiate lost their coaches the next game. Amazing how fast that fixes the problem. The 2 coaches are now sitting on the bench with the parent who no showed while the manager is restricted to the dugout for the entire game since you have to have an adult there all game. The kids loved it however, as they got to be base coaches all game.

Hello, 911? Yes, I am a sports official at XYZ park and there is a woman, 5'4, 260 (guessing?) LBS, yes... yes, looks like Large Marge from Pee Wee making terrorist threats to me. She stated "kill me in my sleep" several times. Yes, I am scared for my life. Yes I would love to press charges. Yes, she is still here. F this woman. Call the cops and screw the TD who allows this BS.

A bunch of my peers are wearing these more and more. They speak highly of the comfort and they look fine, so why not? Heck, 1/2 the time I am wearing Nike Monarchs (old man shoes) just because they have a comfortable memory foam insole and they are leather so they wipe clean easily. Nothing better for those games where your standing in C most the day because one team cannot pitch or field and the other team is already going station to station in the bottom of the 1st inning. I seriously crack up when partners are more worried about matching their shoes (you have white, I have to go white also!) then actually pre-gaming and making sure we are working off the same page mechanics wise.

Nope... not even the Ocho!

Hiked both Vernal and Nevada falls in Yosemite in addition to spending a week camping on Bass Lake. Great trips, no one got hurt and none of the cars broke down on the way there!

Came into Nogales last night after a 550 mile drive and am jazzed that the Western Regional Intermediate Regionals are about to start. Myself and 7 other umpires will be working the tournament through July 28th... If you happen to be in the Nogales AZ area (because we all know it is centrally located for everyone) stop by and say hello!

OBR is less restrictive in that they use the bonified slide rule versus HS which uses the FPSR. The FPSR is a safety rule, so you are correct, you do not have to slide, but you also cannot interfere. If you chose to slide, it must be done legally (see definition of a slide), direct to the bag, etc, etc... In this play, R1 ran straight into the base. He did not slide, he did not deviate and he forced the fielder to throw around him. He was in the vicinity of 2nd, so not one of those plays where the runner is only 1/2 way down the track. In our area, this is a classic FPS violation at the HS level and one we grab in our unit. Sorry for the long delay in getting back to you... was on vacation.

Coach suggested it, and I said come on by, we have it printed out and you can have a copy. I honestly can care less if they agree or not. If he really thinks I am wrong, pony up the $100/$150 and protest. If not? we move on.

Was working a tournament which was using OBR but with the HS FPS rule... I called it at 2nd as the PU on the clean up. Coach is pissed of course because we are playing 'pro rules!'... for a JV level team I might add. Calmly explain to him that the game is being played with a FPS, as discussed at the plate meeting. Apparently they had forgotten that conversation already. Of course, thats not in the tournament rules... which of course it is. Gave him the opportunity to come to the car after the game to see the rules which were sent to all the coaches and umpires. Amazing he never showed. And I 100% agree we have to grab this EVERY time.

I found that when reading the LL book, I understand that it is 100% written as the Majors level only. Then when thinking about other levels, I look for the exceptions which are typically bracketed in... Just made it click for me.

3 man mechanics, when executed properly are amazing. The best is when everyone looks at 3rd, sees the plate guy there and then there is a play at home. Oh no! Who will be there to make the call? Bam! U1 busting it out. Great job 🙂

At the game level, this was the penalty, and of course, they still won. There is no taking back what action previously occurred. When the 2 teams met again, our team beat the tar out of them... at their field, so there was some sweet, sweet revenge. At the league level, from what I understand, the coach who was involved was removed from the team. But they play in a different league than ours, we just inter-league with them, so I could be just passing bad information that I was given.

The pin is roughly 1.75" in diameter with dual pins in the back... for 300 of them it was roughly $500. Yes, we trade them with other umpires and really anyone who wants to make a trade... I'm asking my partners for 2 of theirs. One for myself; I'm putting together a pin board of the partners I worked with throughout the All Star season and then another I am going to make up for our Western Region annual charity auction. People build the boards and then have them auctioned... Even if it makes $50 for the non-profit, that works.

My 13YO daughter designed my regional pin for me. I have so little artistic talent that my stick figures look, well, like sticks. The shark is our district mascot, and the pier represents the Huntington Beach pier, with HB being one of the cities in our district (HB, Costa Mesa, Westminster, Fountain Valley and part of Newport Beach). In one draft, the shark was on top of the umpire, so it literally looked like it was being punched.

Watching my daughters Pony games this season and we had some really, really bad officiating. So bad that I had to get up and move from close to the plate area where most the families were parked and move WAY down the line away from everyone. Most of these parents know me and that I umpire. If I start making comments, then I know it will be open season on the official. Considering most of their games had 1 guy only, and I try very hard never to make comments about other umpires, I just got up an left the immediate area. Bad rules knowledge, bad mechanics, etc... BUT they did have an umpire and got to play, so there is that.

Fair/Foul Catch/No Catch Tag/No Tag Ball/Strike Priorities...

What about building dirt mounds at 2nd base and or chasing butterflies in the outfield? Don't forget about those players also!

For water polo, where rain is not a factor unless there is lightning, I wear a Frog Toggs rain suit. Basically PVC, super light weight and made to go over your normal clothing. Only real issue, being PVC (I think) the material does not breath very well at all. I got mine on Amazon and there are a ton of colors available for roughly $30-$50. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=frog+toggs&crid=37S52VR91R23F&sprefix=frog+toggs%2Caps%2C154&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

I was wondering why you were dragging your right leg on ESPN last year!

... and in the news today an armed umpire at a LL game blah, blah, blah. The problem there is the firearm would most likely be in the car and not where he would need it when this jackass accosts him. The league has banned him. If you see or hear him, tell the league to remove him, call the police or you call the police. You can easily state that you are a sports official and that a parent who threatened you with bodily harm and who was banned from the league has returned and that you are in fear for your safety and need an office to respond.

For our district TOC, the specific instruction given was if the TD wanted music, they will play it from the booth. No individual teams may have walkup music or between inning music coming from the dugouts. We were also told this is not an umpire issue and the TD will be the POC to handle if there is an issue.

Welcome to summer baseball in much of Orange County... HS's rent out their fields, but don't provide any field maintenance items, other than a drag... and not always that. Chalk or painted lines are often imaginary. Makes it fun when U1 SHOULD go out on a F/F ball but has to come in and pivot since he has no frame of reference to make a ruling. PU has to line up 1st and the foul pole to have a chance of getting the call.

For them, or for you?

As someone who regularly umpires LL games, there are ways to handle bat throwers in an manner which typically does not include EJ's. Not saying it is not an option, but normally we don't have to get to that point. And @MadMax, you are right... people don't want to EJ 9 year old kids, so they come up with this call them out reasoning, which like you, I do not agree with. Obviously tell the coach, but I also address it with the player. Hey Johnny, you know when you it the ball, you threw the bat and hit the catcher in the stomach? We can't have that, so this is your warning. If that happens again, we have to remove you from the game. Can you help me out here next time you are at bat? Of course the next time he comes to bat, I remind him... Johnny, I want you to do me a favor this time. When you hit the ball, take 2 steps and then drop the bat. Just drop it. Can you do that for me? More often then not, this works and we start on the road to recovery... But occasionally it does not, in which case I then get to walk to the manager and tell him he only is leaving me 2 choices: The manager can sit Johnny for the remainder of the game, starting now (put your last batter or last out on the bases), or I have to EJ him. 99.999% of the time, the coach takes option 1 which in my experience has the expected reaction; the player is upset, normally cries and starts to understand that he needs to make an adjustment.