For example, let's say that they know that they will need 10 crews on X day, but they don't have the schedules yet so they send something out that locks in 20 umpires on a given day...and upon receipt of the schedules, redistributes those assignments across the ten crews. 

Or for the inevitable reschedules, last minute changes, or emergencies...to have umpires ready to go versus having to send it out, wait for a response, only for find out that they can't do it? Or be able to more definitively tell clients if they can/can't cover a reschedule in a timely manner. 

There would also be a possibility that an umpire who was on a placeholder could be scratched and not work at all. Let's say that they only work for one association and wouldn't necessarily be losing an assignment b/c of a placeholder. Multiple association umpires would likely have a problem with a placeholder assignment OR they could simply say...I have an actual assignment that came up, please remove the placeholder. OR...they could choose to not accept placeholder assignments and just wait and see. 

If yes, what is your experience with it...what are the good things? What are the challenges/frustrations? 

Thanks! 

what were your signals to the coach when you did not agree with the call. don't act like the head tap is the newest thing since sliced bread sign. what was "the code(s)" as time has gone by. share with us.

Had a game the other night where a couple pitches that I called a ball on the outside, the catcher would turn his head to his dugout and tap his helmet.

I didn't think much of it in real time, but between innings when I had more time, I was wondering if he was just communicating to his coach, or doing it to mimic MLB catchers who want the called ball to be reviewed.

I asked our assigner and he didn't think it was a big deal and "college catchers all have a secret signal to the dugout if they disagree with an umpire call".
I get that, but this seems to me he's letting everyone know he didn't like it and would have it reviewed if he could

Nothing?  Something?  Either way is fine, however, I wouldn't want the catcher consistently doing this on every ball he didn't like.

Lou Berliner Sports Park

31 diamonds

55 umpires

400+ teams

1000+ games

I've been TD for tourneys with three diamonds and a dozen umpires...I'm breaking into hives thinking about the logistics of this puppy.

As a UIC, is it easier or harder having everyone in one place like this?

I was USAF ('93-'14).

It happened a few hours from me, but in an area that I work tournaments in over the summer. 

Coroner's report released in Chrisman student baseball accident

https://www.news-gazette.com/news/coroners-report-released-in-chrisman-student-baseball-accident/article_e5fad31f-86f0-4b50-8da0-7481d1a40228.html

CHRISMAN — An autopsy of a Chrisman High School student determined that his death was caused by blunt-force trauma from being hit in the head by a line-drive baseball during practice.

The Peoria County Coroner’s Office said Bentley Wolfe, 15, was taken to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria a day after he was hit.

“Despite aggressive care and treatment, sadly, Bentley was pronounced brain dead” at 5:49 p.m. Friday,” the coroner’s office said. “Autopsy on Bentley demonstrates that he suffered detrimental head trauma due to blunt-force trauma.”

The high school hosted a prayer vigil Friday for Bentley, who played baseball and basketball and was active in the school’s FFA chapter.

HOUSTON -- Following the United States' stunning 8-6 loss to Italy on Tuesday night, among the biggest upsets in the 20-year history of the World Baseball Classic, manager Mark DeRosa said he misspoke earlier in the day when he said Team USA had advanced to the tournament's knockout round.

In an appearance Tuesday morning with Matt Vasgersian and Harold Reynolds on "Hot Stove" on MLB Network, where DeRosa works as an analyst, he said of the game against Italy: "We want to win this game even though our ticket's punched to the quarterfinals."

Team USA's ticket was not punched -- and its fate now depends on the results of Italy and Mexico's contest Wednesday night, the final game of the WBC's Pool B

Should Italy win and finish pool play at 4-0, the United States would advance, as well. If Mexico wins, however, it would finish at 3-1 along with Italy and the U.S. In that case, the tiebreaker that would determine which two teams advance to the quarterfinals considers runs allowed per out recorded. If the Italy-Mexico game goes nine innings and Mexico wins and scores five or more runs, the U.S. -- the odds-on favorite entering the tournament -- and Mexico would advance. Should Mexico win while scoring four or fewer, it would advance alongside Italy.

DeRosa said he knew that Team USA had not clinched a quarterfinal berth and was informed when he arrived at Daikin Park on Tuesday of his mistake.

"Just sitting on 'Hot Stove' at 9:45 in the morning with Matty and Harold and misspoke," he said. "Bottom line."

Team USA spent multiple hours in the clubhouse following its 5-3 victory against Mexico on Monday and, DeRosa said before the game against Italy, "There's some guys dragging today."

With Team USA resting a number of starters (including Bryce Harper and Alex Bregman), emergency reliever Clayton Kershaw warming up during the eighth inning and DeRosa not pinch running for Paul Goldschmidt as Team USA mounted a comeback after falling behind 8-0, the perception that the team believed it had advanced took root as DeRosa's comments spread on social media.

Kershaw was warming up, DeRosa said, because WBC rules limit pitch counts and he wanted to avoid using closer Mason Miller if reliever David Bednar reached 25 pitches. Kershaw, DeRosa said, "was the only guy we had left."

WBC Quarterfinal Scenarios for Wednesday

U.S. would advance if...
• Italy beats Mexico on Wednesday night, the final game of Pool B
• Mexico beats Italy and scores 5 or more runs in 9 innings
U.S. would be eliminated if...
• Mexico beats Italy while scoring 4 or fewer runs (both those teams would advance)

Italy had put Team USA in such a compromised position with an early deluge of runs. A team made up mostly of American major leaguers with Italian heritage, Italy nevertheless entered the game against the powerful U.S. team as distinct underdogs. That changed in the early innings, with three home runs and 4⅔ shutout innings from veteran right-hander Michael Lorenzen staking Italy an 8-0 lead it never relinquished.

"This is one of the best days of my life," said Italy manager Francisco Cervelli, a 13-year major leaguer who won the 2009 World Series with the New York Yankees. "I'm proud of my guys. They're young, but they play like they've been in the big leagues for 10 years. Their focus was there. And, you know, everybody in Italy should see this. We're doing it for them, for the kids. It can happen. It's possible."

Though Team USA's players did themselves a favor by tagging on six runs in the final four innings, the game registered as a distinct letdown for a group that considered itself the favorite to win the championship.

The game, with a pro-U.S. crowd of 38,653, started well for the American team, with New York Mets rookie Nolan McLean striking out the first three Italian hitters and registering two more outs in the second before Chicago White Sox catcher Kyle Teel dumped a home run into the Crawford Boxes in left field for a 1-0 advantage for Italy.

Following a hit-by-pitch, McLean surrendered a loud home run to White Sox prospect Sam Antonacci, digging Team USA its largest deficit of the tournament. It grew two innings later when Teel walked and Kansas City outfielder Jac Caglianone launched a home run to right field -- replete with a tremendous bat flip -- to stake Italy a 5-0 lead.

"Despite having the major league players that we have on this team and the high prospects and all that type of stuff, nobody on this team comes in with an ego, expecting to be treated differently because who they are, what they've done throughout their career," Caglianone said. "And I think that's something that a lot of these guys are going to take pride in. You kind of put whatever you did aside, and we're all fighting for one common goal, and that's to win and to keep going as long as we can and wear this uniform."

The 34-year-old Lorenzen, now on his seventh major league team, locked down a dangerous Team USA lineup that included Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber. While Lorenzen was not supposed to pitch in the game -- Italy was planning on piggybacking him with Aaron Nola in what it considered a must-win contest against Mexico -- Lorenzen mixed his pitches brilliantly and shut out the U.S. squad.

Lorenzen pitched against Team USA only because his team, the Colorado Rockies, did not want to disrupt its rotation plans for the regular season by having him throw a day later against Mexico.

"It's kind of weird throwing against your own country," Lorenzen said. "But it was an incredible night."

"Just sitting on 'Hot Stove' at 9:45 in the morning with Matty [Vasgersian] and Harold [Reynolds] and misspoke. Bottom line."Team USA manager Mark DeRosa, on his remark earlier Tuesday that his team had already punched its ticket to the WBC quarterfinals

By the time Team USA scored its first run in the sixth inning on a Henderson home run, Italy had tacked on three more unearned runs and put together a lead that was too big even for a spirited comeback. Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong punished a three-run home run in the seventh inning, Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony lashed a run-scoring single in the eighth and Crow-Armstrong homered again in the ninth to close the gap. But with Witt on first base after a single, Boston reliever Greg Weissert struck out Henderson and Judge to seal the victory for Italy.

The top five hitters in Italy's lineup went 0-for-22 -- and Teel, the No. 6 hitter, left the game with a strained hamstring suffered while legging out a double. He will be replaced on the roster, Cervelli said, with Andrés Annunziata, a 20-year-old who plays in Italy's Serie A league, a stark contrast to a U.S. team filled with MVPs, Cy Young winners, All-Stars and future Hall of Famers.

Team USA will gather at its hotel Wednesday to watch the 7 p.m. game between Mexico and Italy that will determine its fate and hope that the ticket-punching takes place 36 hours after DeRosa mistakenly suggested it had.

"You always like having your destiny in your own hands, and we had it right in front of us," said Judge, the Team USA captain. "We knew we were focused on what we had to do today. Italy is a great team, and they definitely showed it today. But yeah, whatever happened yesterday has nothing to do with what happened today.

"Now, we just need a little luck, and we'll see what happens."

For context, I primarily umpire varsity HS (which is the level for this specific question), and I take a lot of pride in my professionalism (both actual and perceived) as an umpire. It's important to me to not do things that are considered unprofessional.

I'm assigned to umpire a game for a school that has an MLB HOFer on their coaching staff. It just so happens that this HOFer spent a few years on "my" team. In addition to his superstardom as a player, he has always (while playing and since) had a reputation of being a truly decent person and someone who contributes in positive ways to most things that he touches.

To be clear, I have ZERO concerns about my ability to remain unbiased, but...

Is there any scenario where I can try to get a picture with him, ideally while I'm in uniform, without sacrificing anyone's perception of my professionalism?

My guy says no....

P.S.  He's a lot taller than he sounds on UE.

"“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”

Well, except for the last part...

https://www.thisisuncharted.co/p/startup-hiring-brutal-honesty-shackleton-constraint-signaling

"You might have guessed, I went down a Youtube rabbit hole about polar expeditions. More specifically, how one of the most dangerous and underfunded expeditions in history built the most loyal and legendary crew ever assembled.

It all started with the most legendary founder-led recruitment message of all time.

Legend says Sir Ernest Shackleton posted this ad in a London paper before his 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition:

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”

He didn’t sugarcoat anything. He didn’t try to “sell the vision.”He sold the pain. And 5k men applied.

He didn’t hide the constraint. He featured it.

And that did three things:

Filtered for resilience: No one stumbled into that expedition by accident. You had to want the hardship.

Increased commitment: The harder the entry, the stronger the identity.

Bonded the team: Everyone joined eyes wide open, ready to suffer together.

This was psychology. And Shackleton intuitively understood what modern hiring still forgets.

People who volunteer for a hard path are wired for it. When you choose hardship with eyes open you stick. The tougher the entry the stronger the post rationalisation and loyalty.

In other words the constraint is the feature."

So, the IRS have said in their revised tax law posted above that the REPORTING threshold for payers to contractors specifically using a 1099-K is now $20,000, meaning...if an umpire makes less than $20,000 annually from one payer, that payer is not legally required to report that income on a 1099-K. However, this link goes on to say that, just because the reporting threshold has been raised, the PAYEE (in this case, we, the independent contracting umpires) is still legally responsible for Federal and state income taxes, where legally required. (Some states don't have state income tax, of course...)

My question for the tax professionals who might be reading this is...As an independent contractor who will likely earn LESS THAN $20,000 this year, how do I report/account for my umpire income to the IRS and my state income tax man for the purposes of knowing what I am responsible for an ultimately know what is the correct tax to pay?

~Dawg

The cost seems to be about the same. What, if anything has improved over the last 7 years? 

 

However, I'm not trying to complain, but am pretty curious how the accounting works for this. So, for anyone more familiar with this, what's the general breakdown of where the money goes? I can pretty easily figure out part of it goes to Arbiter and part of it goes towards rulebooks, but I'd assume there's other things I'm missing. 

I have never really had any issues with my knees. But after a game a little while ago, I could feel my knees being a bit irritated. And since than it comes and goes. It is still very managable. But I want to prevent it from getting worse. I have looked through this forum, but can't find preventive measures. Mainly dealing with knee injury when it occurs, what pain killers to take, what brace to buy. But no exercises to strenghten the muscles used as an umpire. 

Does anybody have a program for this or simply a few exercises that help? 

TIA

The guides they sell seem like largely stuff from NFHS but there's also some beginner stuff like "101 tips for better umpiring" and also they seem to have an annual prep baseball guide but it looks they took down the 2025 version and the 2026 version isn't ready yet.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/sports/how-hard-can-umpiring-a-real-baseball-game-be/vi-AA1OHb2s

Anyone here have connections to someone in JP who could possibly help me out?

So, I was working at a private, Christian school and as with most religiously affiliated institutions of learning they have a prayer as part of their pre-game procedures. Amongst the many invocations, prayer requests, etc. was the following, "...and Lord...oh Lord...please bless the eyes of our officials here tonight...please enable them to see every play clearly and true."

I then when out and worked the match and I heard not one disparaging word from a player, coach or spectator...

Fast forward to this morning on the baseball field and...we're back to disparagement on the regular of the umpire. And it was two games featuring 4 different teams and...same level of disparagement in both games. Also, I am still wearing my same prescription glasses which I also had to wear during the volleyball match.

I'm just very confused to know what this all means and how I am supposed to feel so...I'm going to listen to the complete recordings of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and think about things for awhile. By all means, if you have any insights, brothers...spiritual or otherwise, please...do chime in.

~Dawg

a 6 foot plus 12 yr old throwing 82 mph.

Anyone want to bet the Chinese team will be disqualified within 6 years due to cheating and lying about kids ages and or locations where they came from?