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I fear the worst. I wish we had some sort of point of contact outside of his forum username. I'll hold out hopes that either someone does or he is still around to say so.

Appreciate the perspective. New league to me, remember this is LL with varying levels of engagement and understanding, and I've run into so much apathy and arrogant naivety lately I'm a bit jaded. Case in point: saw a parent plate umpire without shins on. When I engaged to tell him that wasn't a good idea, it turned into a 5 minute debate. He didn’t think 8U “threw hard enough” and “there’s only one more inning” so no need to bother with league provide shins in the shed 10 feet away. I kept pushing and he eventually went to call pitches from behind the mound.

"He was pushed" - Ronnie Gant

I support your dissent...this is absolutely correct. ~Dawg I can follow that. By rule LL says it's either for the offense. Nothing about the defense. Attaching the cites that didn't come through previously. The league UIC agreed with my take of not letting the defense make a play in this situation.

I had one like that maybe 15-20 years ago. Probably got it from Honig’s at that point. The timer was useful for tournaments.

Which would very likely be backed by your coordinator and all the way up the chain of command.

I support your dissent...this is absolutely correct. ~Dawg

Working in public relations, we said “Your absence says more than your presence.”

I asked quite awhile back, but I thought somebody said he was still here. Conspicuously absent for too long …

I get your point about it being less dangerous than warming the kid up … until he starts talking to another player/coach/his wife/the fence/bookkeeper/etc. I’ve seen it. Partner chased the coach out. I didn’t have this experience at the time, but now I would be pulling him aside and telling him “there is no rule other than my authority, and I had a partner, a fellow umpire, take a warmup pitch the to temple and had to be rushed to the ER. We aren’t doing this while you are on my field.” Then follow up with local org/game management.

I don’t even care if it was in front of their dugout or his dugout. Chucking the bat into the air like that is purely reckless. Ejecting all day long.

Going to dissent again … for any breakaway bag, you should use the location of where it should be, not where it ended up, for everybody. Doesn’t matter who knocked it loose. It’s an equipment rule, not an actions of the player rule.

Yeah, I’m usually pretty much in lockstep with you @MadMax, but I’m going to dissent here. I do like the “batter cannot disappear” analogy, and I am OK if you are applying it immediately. However, the pitcher does not have the right to linger or “fake it.” It is a unique situation in that the pitcher really is NOT part of the play. IMO, that is what I am looking at. What is the pitcher doing to either absolve or implicate himself? If he truly has not had a chance to move, I’m willing to consider that. However, inaction by choice is still an action. In all my years I’ve had two actual attempts at the HBT, one was successful, one we called a balk (after conferring to be sure what we had). I’ve had two more (that I recall) where the ball was never put back into play after a dead ball.

I watched this game in real time. R1 was initially safe but F3 was watching R1 and placed a tag on the top of the shoulder as R1 came up. F3 then got excited and placed the tag on the front of the shoulder and did push the runner back some but he never pushed the runner off of the bag. R1 then adjusted his foot to move it to the white bag. That's how I saw it.

Had a "that's new" play this morning. R1, 1 out, short fly ball to RF, R1 holds up, ball falls in front of F9, attempted F9-F4 putout. F4 stretches and break away bases dislodges. F4 catches ball off the bag, BU called R1 safe. I looked into the RIM (2023, don't have newer though I doubt there is an applicable change) and can only find the below about it dislodging from a runner and how the runner can be protected. Am curious if anyone had encountered this? I feel fine about the call. You can't penalize the offense for something the defense did (even if inadvertent). I can see an argument that says Out because F4 was where the bag belonged but that feels like a stretch. Overall, "tough break coach and get the bag fixed" (the mooring is too low so the magnet isn't touching the bag) makes sense to me.

Should have.

Well, what's the alternative, Jim? Coach takes a pitch in this scenario and then the umpire(s) get blamed? No thanks...and if they don't put a local rule in to protect the coaches, then I am absolutely telling the coach not to do that. ~Dawg

Dong ding ding....we have a winner!!!

You attribute more confidence than you should to some NCAA umpires' rules knowledge. Many are there for game management ability and pass the NCAA test with the help of their association's group test session. Not that that's a bad thing. Good umps will dig in the rulebook to refresh their knowledge of some particular question. But there are others who are happy with their test score and don't care to crack the book open ever. You might have missed this thread:

I feel you dawg (always wanted to say that At the same time, it is less dangerous for the coach then when he was warming up the pitcher a minute before.

Yep. That's the camp I'm in too. The elements mentioned above ARE elements, but probably not for this play.

F3 faked a throw and hid the ball. No problem. F1 faked a catch and lollygagged behind the rubber thinking that he couldn't be on or astride it. F3 then tagged the runner. Now we have a hidden ball PLAY with F1 on the dirt. That's a balk.

The rule doesn’t exonerate a Runner who absentmindedly steps off the base, thinking that the fielder (F3, typically) has thrown the ball back to F1. To @Richvee’s point, this is perceived as a “natural” extension of the pickoff attempt play. How often have we seen a youth F3 repeatedly tag a returned R1 as he climbs back up (hand on base, foot on base, stand up)? The F3 doesn’t hold the tag on, but instead tags him at each of the steps in the sequence, thus requiring the umpire to give a safe (or out) judgement at each of those tag attempts. On each of those, are we checking to see where the F1 is? No, that’d be ridiculous. Extend that further… we have a F3 receive a pickoff throw, with a cursory check of the Runner (legal, step & reach). He fakes the throw, and immediately spins around to tag the R1. Are we checking as to where the F1 is now? No, to do so is absurd. So what’s the difference? What’s the determining factor? It’s a passage of time, or series of other events leading up to it. Those, as @jimurrayalterego points out, are adjudged, not blatantly codified. Sure, the rules establish what constitutes it as a violation (ie. Balk), but just as we cannot expect the Batter to disappear on a steal attempt by R2 of 3B, so too we cannot expect the F1 to completely vacate the mound on every pickoff attempt wherein his F3 attempts to catch the R1 off the bag. Can’t say that. NCAA 4-man crew, and either: A. The umpires (plural) weren’t checking to see where F1 was (in space), because they interpreted the F3’s “hold and delayed tag” as an extension of the pickoff attempt, or B. They were checking, and F1 was not in violation.

You probably have the straps attached to the side bar too low. They should be just below the top bar of the vision bars. Also the top strap should be shortened to bring the lateral strap up. The harness should not be “clamping” the mask to your head. It should just be holding it in position resting on the brim of your hat. No time right now for me to attach pic.

Howdy folks, I have my first game behind the plate on Tuesday and have been making sure my mask fits. However, if I have it in the correct place for protecting my chin it seems like I'll either have to wear the strap over top of my ears or have the strap push down on my ears. Am I doing something wrong where the side strap is meant to be fully above the ears or is that simply how a mask works with certain head shapes? Thanks!