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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/16/2019 in all areas

  1. This letter has been making the rounds across the country in different states and different groups. Great letter.
    2 points
  2. Michigan has adopted this also ............. https://secondhalf.mhsaa.com/All-News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/7847/Dear-Mom-and-Dad-Cool-It
    1 point
  3. Call/text/email your partner a day or two in advance and arrange what you’re going to wear. No need to have uniforms hanging in your car...a great way to get your car vandalized.
    1 point
  4. Neither one. NCAA mechanics in all sports are designed around a more complex rule set and have more exceptions and more elaborate mechanics. NFHS has vastly more officials than NCAA, many of whom have little or no "professional" instruction, and many of whom have rather limited mobility. A mechanic might be "good umpiring practice" for fit individuals with proper training, but not feasible for many FED umpires. Part of the objective of FED mechanics is to simplify, simplify, simplify (this priority is probably second only to safety). As baseball is a complex game, simplification is possible only to a certain extent. Compromises are made. But it is possible to be simpler than CCA mechanics and still have a reasonable set. My state has its own mechanics manual that's neither FED nor CCA nor MLB. So that's fun, too. If the mechanics are intolerable to people, then they should not work the games that impose those mechanics. Nobody but umpires ever cared who takes the BR into 3B. I never quite understood the outrage surrounding this issue.
    1 point
  5. I understand why "ball" "strike" "safe" "out" are in the rule book -- these are communications with players and coaches (and fans). But "rotate" and "I have information" and "you kicked the s*** out of that call" and "milf about 1/2 way up the bleachers on the first base side" are communication only between umpires. These belong ion the mechanics book and not in the rule book, imo.
    1 point
  6. Show me a coach (except those who also umpire) who reads the umpire signal section of the rule book, and I'll show you what it looks like when an Umpire-Empire member faints. LOL
    1 point
  7. (Hijack alert) For a high school game: Scene: The home plate area. The plate umpire is standing behind home plate facing centerfield. The base umpire is standing on the opposite side of home plate (in fair territory) facing the plate umpire. The head coach of each team is standing in the batter's box closest to their dugout. ME: (shaking hands) Hi. Matt Sullivan. Good to meet you. Dick Jones (Home HC): Good to meet you. Dick Jones. Me: (shaking hands) Good to see you again, John John Smith (Visitor HC): Good to see you, Matt. Me: Dick, you're home so I need your line-up first. (reviews line-up card). Going straight nine today, Dick? OHC: Yes Me: All your subs listed? OHC: Yes Me: (Takes line-up card from VHC). Johnson DH'ing for Stall your second baseman in the four spot? VHC: Yes. Me: All your subs listed? VHC: Yes. ME: (Puts line-up cards in line-up card holder. Puts line-up card holder in breast pocket with pen.) (IF NEEDED:) Do you each of you have a copy of each other's line-up? OHC & VHC: Yes. Me: Are all players legally and properly equipped? OHC & VHC: Yes Me: Are all bats, helmets and other equipment, legal? OHC & VHC: Yes Me: Gentlemen, I'm required to mention "sportsmanship" at the plate meeting. I just did. Me: Dick, take us around. OHC: (gives ground rules) Me: (if not volunteered at the end of the giving of the ground rules by the OHC): Dick, is there a national anthem or are you announcing starting line-ups? OHC: Yes. (Turning to other head coach) John, we'll call out your players first and then our players. If you can just have them line-up on the foul line. Then we'll play the national anthem. Me: Sounds good. Good luck, gentlemen. (Everyone shakes hands). END OF PLATE MEETING That is my actual script. The plate meeting is short and sweet. I don't tell jokes. I'll fake a laugh at a coach's bad joke(s) (to not hurt their feelings). I'm 100% professional. I'm setting a tone for the rest of the game. Please note: (1) I don't go over the mercy rule. Why should I? Do I go over the obstruction rule at the plate meeting? The mercy rule is just like the obstruction rule (or any other rule) in that they're all in the rule book...the same rule book they use year after year after year. Why should I pick the mercy rule out of the book out for special mention at the plate meeting and not another rule? (2) I don't issue any sportsmanship "warnings" or "commands" at the plate meeting. (In fact, if you can't tell from my script above, I'm annoyed that I even have to mention "sportsmanship" at the plate meeting.) I treat the coaches like adults at the plate meeting. They don't need threats. This is not a varsity high school coach's first rodeo. They don't need any threats at the plate meeting. They don't need to be told "not to run at us" or to "approach us like gentlemen" or to "ask for time and walk to the umpire to talk to him". All I want to say to umpires who do this at their plate meeting is, WTF??? You want to know something else? The umpires who issue "threats" or "instructions on how to approach an umpire" are usually big umpire wimps who are afraid to eject a coach when that coach doesn't follow the "warning" the umpire gave at the plate meeting. In other words, the threats are empty. (3) I don't tell them to "hustle on and off". You know what? That's their job. If they don't hustle on or off quickly, I can give a warning during the game that there may be consequences (such as less than five warm-up tosses). I have also found, that umpires who lecture about "hustling on and off" are usually the umpires who: (1) talk to their partners between innings multiple times during the game, (2) call "foul ball" on obvious foul balls OR watch a foul ball (that is hit way into DBT) until it lands. What they should do is either throw a new ball to a pitcher or, like me, pop a new ball in F2's glove...immediately. I get told often that I have "quick plate games". Some umpires tease me and say "I'm lucky". I say bullsh!t. Besides calling strikes, the key to quick games is getting a new ball in play immediately when it becomes dead. If you come watch me umpire, you will see that on most high foul balls that are clearly well out of play (into DBT), F1 will have a new baseball in his possession before the foul ball even lands. (That also requires that you keep your ball bags full. Do that by get new baseballs at natural breaks in the game.) Umpires who lecture about "hustling in and out," tend not to do any of these things. Do you think I care a lot about how plate meetings are conducted? [Hijack is now off]
    1 point
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