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Just arrived via UPS today: the limited edition “Kuta.” Same plates as the Enduro, with a different pad and color way. Same great quality coming from Derek and his team. Looking forward to strapping it on in 4 weeks!

I'm currently at Wendelstedt Umpire School and @DerekGDS is here with demo equipment for us students to try out, naturally also including the DX Enduro D3O. I'm speaking mainly for me personally (currently an All Star Cobalt user), but I've heard pretty much the same from everyone else who tried out the D3O so far. I am super impressed by it. I almost forgot that I'm wearing it, because it's so light and it fits just perfect. I almost didn't want to give it back 😅 I am seriously considering buying it, despite still being quite happy with my Cobalt (well, except the fit around my shoulders) and it still being in great shape.

The umpires were incorrect for ejecting for MC. This should have been an unsportsmanlike ejection for fighting. Eject R1 and enter a substitute.

Congrats on moving to the next level. I think, overall, you will find HS baseball easier than rec or travel. For the most part, the players do more of what you expect them to do and you'll have less funky plays to officiate. I'm sure your training will cover HS rules. Some of the major differences: ALL obstruction is a delayed dead ball, and ALWAYS results in at least a one base award from the runner's position at the time of the obstruction. There is no "in the act of fielding" in HS. The fielder either has possession, or he doesn't. Force Play Slide Rule - it's different from the bonafide slide rule in OBR Runner's Lane Interference - pay close attention on how your association wants it to be called. Follow-through interference (sometimes called backswing interference) - same as batter's interference. Someone is going to be out. Pitching positions - I'm not up-to-date on them, but they'll be different from OBR Dugout Restrictions - nothing similar in OBR. Part of your "toolbox" to manage a game, which will be important in those freshman games that might only have one babysitter coach. You'll likely be asked to confirm game details a few days in advance via email with the coach or AD. Game date, time, location (JV field, varsity field), and if you'll have access to a locker room (more for varsity). Get examples of emails from a varsity umpire you trust. We always asked our umpires at all levels to arrive no less than 45 minutes before game time, wear decent clothes (business casual) and then go to the field and find the coach to let them know you have arrived and to reconfirm game time and when you'll come back for the plate meeting. There have been several times in my career that the visiting team will be late because of bus issues or traffic. Good to know before you show up 10 minutes before the game starts for the plate meeting and only the home team is there. Your association may do things differently.

Well, you see, AI allows for the block chain to harness the synergies of distributed crowd-sourced computing power. Couple that with the expositional increases of meta-cognitive, cold-fusion, solid state chips with kung fu battle grip and the purchasing power of crypto, and you have a technology that provides incrementally harvested returns that will, some day, be able to provide a replicatable economy of scale that can approximate a human brain with an accuracy rate between 5 and 113%.

The DX Kuta is a prototype we were field testing in 2025. The DX was simply a carrier for Covalta which is our chemically cross-linked closed cell foam to get some additional real world testing. The foam itself is engineered to be extremely good when dealing with high speed, localized impacts. It is already used in some pad cores and in the DX Mk2 as well in a limited role. The feedback was very strong but Covalta is being considered for different product lines so this is a limited edition product, we only produced 60 pieces. The Kuta itself weighs about 18% less then the DX Enduro with the same thickness. If anyone is interested in picking one up early, please contact me. What is remaining is likely to go on sale in mid-February. @blue32 stand by on the shins. We're working through a number of prototypes at the moment.

Do make sure to keep your blocks up-to-date. Assigners HATE declines and hate turnbacks even more. Some assigners keep the assigning fee when you turn back a game. You'll move up quicker if you are religious on keeping your schedule in order.

NFHS did define MC in it's 2014 Rules Interpretations. Why they never put it in the rule book, nobody knows. Contact or a collision is considered to be malicious if: The contact is the result of intentional excessive force; The contact occurs close to the bag or home plate or above the waist of the receiving player; or There was intent to injure. Malicious contact can occur without these conditions if determined by the umpire, but these provide a starting point.

Because this doesn't qualify as malicious contact. IF you want to lump pushing, shoving, throwing punches, etc. under malicious contact, then there is no point of having the fight rules. Malicious contact is grouped with the interference rule... we can't call interference during a dead ball since there is no play to be interfered with. That is why @grayhawk is correct with his ruling.

Sounds like R1 and R2 would be correct. The defense stopped playing when the umpire wrongly called the third out. It is umpire judgement where to place runners. So there's really no wrong or right rulebook answer. Umpires can award or return runners on bases to nullify their error, but the placement should be conservative. Unless R2 was basically at third by the time F3 caught the throw, I'm good with R1 R2.

I have it from a reliable source that Purchase Officials is one of the official suppliers of the Annual @wolfe_man Garage Sale and Black Shirt Gala. 😉

Derek- thank you very much for reaching out and resolving the concerns. I really appreciate your efforts!

Please email me directly derek@gerrydavis.com so I can look into the issue for you. If I cannot assist I'll forward to the appropriate person who can assist further.

It really comes down to broader market access, operational simplicity and stronger EBIT margins.

So a rec youth game on a day that ends in -y 🤣

Naturally.

F3. (You'll get it if you think about it.)

B4 batters at bat ended when he became a runner. Fact that play was made on r2 (why; who knows) means nothing.

Not until it has a kid playing in the game.

Yeah, but it will still not be able to figure out a batters strike zone in real time.

IF… and that’s a very big IF - I ever sell again. You’re banned from the sale. 😇😂

It's almost like they took a loophole through the back door to change a rule. Calling it an editorial change in association with the double first base is a cop out. It's more like "we need to change this rule to match our interpretation. Let's just call it an editorial change and be done with it"

Pat is the owner of Purchase Officials and they’re working with +POS from Dan Parsons. +POS stands for Parsons Officials Supply if I remember correctly. I will let Pat speak to the rest. Purchase Officials Supply is an excellent company to do business with and I’m speaking from personal experience.

Damnit, @DerekGDS . . . I'm contemplating getting out (or taking some time off), and you just keep throwing out reasons for me to stay . . . 😋

I had this happen during a college game. Home team pulled the tarp late, standing water in foul territory (the entire length of the 3rd base line wrapping around home plate) and in the outfield (the entire length from first base to 2nd base just beyond the dirt), along with frozen ground that was thawing was going to make it that we simply could not safely play on this surface that day. Visiting team (in the 3rd base dugout and had to walk through the water) was adamant that they were not going to play. Home team was just as adamant that they were. I got a phone call from my coordinator, who received a call from the conference commissioner, and was told to go check the field condition. Home HC was saying that we were going to play... I asked him to bring his AD down to the field. I walked the AD around and pulled out the line "Our number 1 priority is the health and welfare of the student-athlete." I also told him that if they insisted on starting the game, the moment that someone slipped anywhere on the field, we were going to pull them and we would not be playing anymore. He made the decision to kill it for the day.

It can. I have had at least one situation where a HC really really wanted to get a game in and the weather was simply not cooperating. The mound was a mess and the batters boxes had standing water in them. After inspecting the field with my partner we spoke with both head coaches and one was insisting that the field was playable and everyone else recognized the situation for what it was. In the mean time, the rain kept falling. My partner and I explained that we felt the field was unsuitable and posed a significant risk to pitchers and batters alike. I mentioned that once the game started that the umpires had sole discretion to stop play and that if he wanted the game to start it would, but then it would be terminated after the 1st pitch. He finally recognized the folly of his position. Most people are reasonable when it comes to the safety of the players. The rule is more applicable to calling games prior to the teams and umpires arriving for a game at a field that would never be playable.

Bruns cleared this up in one of his "Responses to Submitted Rules Questions" memos his put out on February 28th last year. The memo was 7 pages, but here is the relevant section:

Interesting that Arbiter sends out a 1099-K while RefQuest (which performs much the same functions) sends out a 1099-NEC. The limit for the former apparently will be $20k; for the latter $2k. None of which changes how / what I file.

Disclaimer: I am not an accountant nor have I played one on TV. We independent contractors also need to be aware that just because we did not receive a 1099 NEC does not mean it was not reported to the IRS. If you look at your transcript at he IRS website there may be 1099s from payers who did not send them to us. Ultimately, each tax payer is responsible for their own reporting of income. The 1099s are a courtesy and if a tax payer is not reporting taxable income they are subject to the whatever the law proscribes.

Who doesn't enjoy a good sequel? After a first year of working rec with a couple sprinkles of travel, I'm ready for both a more thorough level of training and a higher level of play, and that sure sounds like trying to work high school baseball this year! Our first meeting of the year is tonight over Zoom, which feels like a good place to start this thread. I appreciated everyone's advice last year and if you have anything specific for working HS in terms of a higher level of play, weird quirks of NFHS vs OBR, etc I will still continue to be all ears! I'll also probably be using this to document what else I end up working this year, I'm hoping to go the whole year only working games on 90-foot diamonds, but that'll seemingly be up to the org I worked with last year that has u15 rec and some travel.

Just like D1, the home team has personnel or managers who do it. The away team, of course, have their observers there too. They gather the bats before the game(s), perform the testing, and return the bats with stickers noting a bat has passed.

Version 5.0.X of the forum software has officially launched. I am not going to be an early adapter, but I am following some discussions of people who are and the response the highly positive. I will continue to monitor, but unless something crazy comes up, I plan on doing the upgrade in mid-February. Besides not wanting to be an early adapter, like many new software updates there are a ton of small updates that have already come out. They're literally already at 5.0.15... And I don't want to do a lot of small updates. I'll let the dust settle first. I am always very hesitant to send an email out to all members, because I hate emails, and from 30+ years in HR I know the vast majority of people won't read it any way 🤣 However... I am planning on sending out 2 emails to all members. The first one will probably the week before letting people know that if you're like me and login using your username, that will no longer be an option. You will have to use the email in the system. So please check the email address we have for you. If it is out of date you may not be able to log in I know many people have used their work email addresses and they may no longer work there for example. First, Select the dropdown by your username and avatar in the top right. Then Select Account Settings Then you can see and update your email address.

The OP clearly describes a petty but retaliatory (intentional) act after a fake tag during a dead ball. If he ends up on the ground, I don't think you HTBT. 😎

We call it a ground rule double but it's really a book rule, called "automatic" in the OBR scorekeeping rules, and this thread will enlighten you:

My state has complied with Hopkins interp of RLI but some of you have used "if the act does not interfere with a fielder or a throw" in 8-4-1-g-1 to justify not complying with the interp. Your 2026 book does not have that criteria any more. RLI as Hopkins wants it called is now by rule.

It took me a few games to get used to them, but I prefer them in every way over the T hooks (rust, snags) of my first CP and the plastic buckles (lower profile, more resilient) of my Cobalt.

Correct about the outlet store. Don’t forget dealers are established businesses with relationships with customers. Most of us have vendors we go to if we are casually shopping. Most officials wouldn’t think to google Smitty and order from them. The dealers have an “in” in the marketplace. A big part too is having a good relationship with dealers who sell and push your product. Selling direct destroys that.

Didn't Smitty used to sell direct? Seems to me I had bought some items direct from them several years ago, including some great closeouts (navy "MLB style" convertible pullover that I wear, since Illinois is still stuck in the age of jive). It doesn't always make sense to run the front-end for your own product. It is a lot more involved and detailed than most people realize. When is the last time you went to your local Coca-Cola or Pepsi plant to buy soda? Grocery shopped at a farm? EDIT: Maybe they only run that outlet store.

Agree with adopting slowly. But you also have to adapt or die. 🤣 Appreciate you.

I don't see how there would be a code difference on who leads off. B4 did not complete their time at bat because the ball was foul. The catch never happened because the ball was dead the moment of the interference. We leave it live only to determine the fair/foul status of the batted ball.

Don't shoot the messenger. They called an "Editorial Change".

I and others posted all your points when the interp first came out. Just call it like they want, or not in your neck of the woods. Once it was made clear in my neck of the woods there were no complaints. And I don't like calling it that way as I also don't like balking F1 going to the mouth on the rubber with a runner/s on.

People like me who are staunch advocates that interpretations should not override rules as written. This play was a dominant case the last few years. Hopkins issued an "interpretation by memo" which was not in any published source and was the exact opposite of what the written rule said. What happened to "Rules are hard to change and it can take years, so that is why we govern by decree"? See, rules are not hard to change, and it can be done when the right person wants it done.

I have C on this. I believe they clarify U1 position so umpires don't get confused thinking possibly in 2-man, it might hit you while you're inside (making it interference), despite there being no runners on.

Maybe we should ask Hunter this question.

In Texas all the chapters of the State umpire chapters should have board and members meeting. A financial report is usually given and given the volunteer aspect of the officers it may not be detailed. But if you are in attendance, which is lacking to a great degree, in your state I'm guessing they would address your question. How they would respond to it should guide your future involvement with them. Or not, just pay the money and get your game fees.