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I knew I was getting too many different colors when a kid walked past my truck one day............."LOOK MOM!! SKITTLES!!" as he pointed in the window of my truck.

7.11.f - A batter is out when: f. The batter intentionally or unintentionally interferes with the catcher's fielding or throwing by stepping out of the batter's box OR making ANY OTHER MOVEMENT that hinders a defensive player's action at home plate;... I'd love to get off the hook on this one too, but not sure the rules will let us. Am I missing a note somewhere, or another rule that addresses avoiding being hit by pitch absolves a batter of interference?

My next pair will be the F3. Just have to get a couple of checks to start rolling in first. Scrimmages start next week!

There are many factors: Your experience Is it "really" an infraction Does it effect the game/ did someone gain an advantage How does the league/ umpire association dictate you handle The age levels involved As umpires we hold our role as keeping the integrity of the game very seriously as part of our job, but an overly officious official can ruin a game for everyone. I had a similar discussion with a newer umpire once after working a Bronco game. He asked why I did and didn't call certain things and my response was, "I'm not out there looking for each and every infraction. If I were it would be an awful game for everybody because every play I'd be calling something. But if I see an infraction, I'll determine what I'm going to do at that time.

Apparently, our state interpreter aims to create not just his own mechanics manual, but also his own rule book. This just arrived in the ole email bag: For umpires who work in states other than Ohio, please note: There is no penalty for "being out of the running lane." Neither the definition of nor the penalty for RLI changes with runners on. A runner is out of the running lane if ONE (or both) feet are out of the lane. The rule does not require both feet out of the lane (regardless of other runners). Again, the suggestion that being out of the lane is illegal is incorrect. There IS a penalty for interference, which by rule involves hindrance. No hindrance = no INT.

It would be a busy one. You have to be at least a little screwed up to be an umpire.

The NAIA plays using the NCAA rules with just a few modifications—here are a couple things to consider before penalizing the batter in this scenario. The following rules are from the 2017-18 NCAA rule book (the relevant parts have been bolded by me): NCAA 7-1-d. Batter’s-Box Rule. This rule is designed to speed up play by controlling the actions of the batter between pitches. 1) The batter must keep at least one foot in the batter’s box throughout the time at bat. Exceptions—A batter may leave the batter’s box but not the dirt area surrounding home plate when: a) The batter swings at a pitch. b) The batter is forced off balance or out of the box by the pitch. NCAA 8-2-d. When hit by a pitched ball at which the individual is not attempting to strike, the ball is immediately dead; 1) A batter may not make a movement to intentionally get hit by the pitch and must avoid being hit whenever possible…

It's a good choice. Love my F3's.

................and.............it's "y'all"

I have BI. It reminds me of the obstruction call in the World Series between Boston and St Louis. Someone asked Jim Joyce after the game what the third baseman could have done in that situation to NOT obstruct the runner. Joyce shrugged and said, "I don't know... disappear?"

Maybe I'm just not understand what your say here, but isn't the rule that if RLI is called runners return to TOP?

translated-- We don't have enough officials to cover all the games, we can't thinning the numbers down just because some of these guys don't know the rules.

I use these and love them. Lightweight and no behind the knee strap to cut into the skin. Easy to buckle up and haven’t been hurt by any shot in approximately 125 games in them. I do Babe Ruth and High School ball. No problems yet.

Ah, I see. Attempted humor.

First games of my season are tomorrow! D3 DH on turf, gonna be cool, wet, and slick! But it's baseball season fellas! Who cares about the weather! Can't wait!

Just in case some of you haven’t heard (read) this advice on ejections I’ll try to succinctly state how I was taught way back when. First, some great advice on here about pre-gaming with your partner. I’m a fan of even discussing it “in-game” if it’s important. Briefly of course. Now, the 3 P’s of Ejections. Personal- “You suck!” Gotta go. Profane- “That call effin sucked!” Again, gotta go. Prolonged- “Coach we’re done, let’s play ball now. No, we’re not, I’m not done. You haven’t explained your call well enough yet.” Aaaaaand, He’s done. Buh-bye! Gotta go. Works pretty well. May not cover every situation. I don’t get to work at one very choice venue anymore because I dumped a coach who ran at me from 3B dugout, without calling time, after I’d put my hand up and warned him to stop and not continue further on a whacker play at first. I’m content with that call and that EJ but the tournament director wasn’t. So, I don’t work showcase tournaments at that all turf Division I venue anymore. Oh well. That’s why some umpires don’t eject- they are afraid of the repercussions. I’d rather be able to live with myself. My .02...Your mileage may vary.

I, and many others, have never considered "the confederate flag," or statutes to confederate leaders/generals to be "symbols of America". I say this even though my wife and children (whom I love more than life itself) are direct descendants of a confederate army colonel. For me (and many others...including my wife) they are symbols of the Confederate States of America...a self-professed separate nation/country.

I don’t know. I was brought up different. I’m a Baby Boomer, born just after a war, and was brought up to know that there’s a “right” and a “wrong.” Even through the 60’s and 70’s, things were the same; what you did was “right” or what you did was “wrong”. Now it’s a mess; the lines that I was brought up with are being deliberately blurred. Kill your parents? “Not your fault, it’s because you weren’t breast fed”. Kill your ex-wife and her boyfriend? “Not a problem, one of the cops used the N-word 5 years ago”. Try and take the gun from a police officer? “not your fault, your great-great-grandmother may have been a slave”. For crying out loud, you can’t even call your son “he” anymore, without being called a “bigot and Dr. Suess is a white supremacist!”. It seems that virtually everything in the country that’s designed to bring us together is being deliberately cast side. No longer are we “Americans”. We are now, “---------americans (small “a”), “------privileged americans”, “rich” “marginalized” “fascist” and “supremacist”. We’ve been broken up into parts to be eliminated one at a time. It seems that everything that’s supposed to keep us together is being cast aside as “old”, “antiquated” and “racist”. Now we’re looking at symbols of America. First, it was “the confederate flag”. “Racist, gotta go, tear them down”. It then morphed into “confederate statues”. “Racist, gotta go, tear them down”, Then, it was Jefferson, Washington, Columbus. No one is safe. Where does it end? Now we’ve gotten into sports. The one thing that brings us together. A guy in a Raider shirt can sit next to a guy in a Charger shirt, and, (aside from a little good-natured ribbing), together watch a competition away from work, politics or just “the real world”. And the competition starts with everyone standing together, hands across hearts and TOGETHER hearing that we are one nation. We’ll break up into Patriots and Jets later, but, for now, we are one…. Now it’s changed. The National Anthem is being discarded as “antiquated”, “obsolete” and “racist”. Burning, spitting on or turning your back on the symbol of the country is now considered “courageous”. Holding your hand over your heart is now “promoting white supremacy”. Right is now wrong and wrong is now right. What is “legal” but “wrong” no longer matters, as long as its “legal” IMHO Screw legal, can we do what’s RIGHT?!

Actually, there is good "media" to be found. The problem is that the majority of AMERICAN consumers of media don't demand good journalism. We don't demand it by the fact that we watch the crap that comes across Fox News (right) and MSNBC (left)...and a host of other entities. If the shows on these networks didn't get the ratings, they wouldn't be on the air. There used to be a time when a news department at a network existed to bring prestige to a network. CBS obtained the nickname in the 1960's and 1970's of "the Tiffany network" because of the prestige its news department had brought to the network. The network did not see its news department as a revenue source. Rather, it saw it as something that brought a different kind of value (a non-monetary value) to the network. Thus, they were willing to lose money on a news department in return for the prestige it brought the network. In summary, journalism was valued over financial reward. That changed in the 1980's and 1990's when networks saw news divisions as potential sources of revenue, and became more concerned about the news department's bottom line rather than the prestige it brought to the network. Today we (the American people) are to blame. We vote for this type of news coverage every time we watch it. And we do watch it. The ratings show that we watch it. These news departments/channels are very profitable...so they continue to give us this crap. Television network and radio shows are now created to intentionally have a political slant...while still calling itself a "news" show/network. I live in South Carolina. I eat at a lot of local restaurants all the time as part of my job. A lot of them have televisions hanging over their bars or in their dining room. The one thing these restaurants have in common is that their televisions...almost all of them...are always on Fox News. This is the case at the Chinese restaurant, Japanese restaurant, hamburger joint, BBQ joint, etc. Fox News is always on (unless the Gamecocks or Clemson Tigers are playing. And that's the only exception!!!) The other very concerning thing to me is the amount of people who primarily get their news from Facebook. A recent study suggests that 50% or more of Americans primarily get their news from Facebook. This is hugely troubling because Facebook is full of blatant lies ("fake news") posing as news. And so many people fail to use critical thinking skills...to the point that they believe everything (or most everything) they see in their Facebook news feed. (And BOTH my liberal and conservative friends make this same mistake.) By way of example, my mom is ultra-liberal and my brother is very conservative. I spend about the same amount of time on each of their Facebook pages posting replies to their posts that link to snopes.com to basically tell them that the story they posted is a patently false "news" story. As to my original point in this post: good media is out there to be had. One is just required to go looking for it. For instance, I have found some on my satellite radio: BBC (which scores high marks from media watchdog groups for being politically neutral.)

Some of you know my feelings towards government. I'm neither a righty or a lefty. But Hokieump and others have made comments about the media and I feel they (equally on both sides) are exasperating the situation for their own gains. This in turn divides the country greater than the issue itself. Then they don't let the issue go after the horse has been beaten to death. Also have you noticed when they interview people on the street about topics they deliberately select the absolute worst people to represent either side. They can never find someone with at least a 5th grade education who can make a clear, succinct point, be logical and not default to worn out bromides and clichés or even name calling. The media's problem is they can no longer differentiate between fact and opinion. They cherry pick facts which support their world view and over-engross on the commentary/opinion. If you give me the real unfiltered facts I can form my own opinion.