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Our city 13U "Competitive" league. One of the best leagues around with quite a few good players and teams. The local HS's form teams, based on their feeder middle schools, and we draw other teams from towns within a 50 mile radius. It's not unusual to see a few of the local HS coaches in the stands scouting potential transfers. Top of the 1st and I'm BU. R1, R2, batter hits a basic single to CF. Ball comes in to F4 in short center and as he trots in to the infield, he looks at me, raises his hands and asks for time. I said, "For what?" He said, "So I can throw the ball to the pitcher." I told him that he wasn't getting time for that and to throw the ball. (There's a bit of a backstory to this, but I'll get to that in a moment.) He gave a strange look, but tossed it to the pitcher. I heard zero from the dugout. They tried it one other time that inning. At the half-inning, the expected... VC: "How come you won't give my players time out? BU: "For what?" VC: "So they can throw the ball to the pitcher." BU: "So they can what?" (BU fun time commence!) VC: "So they can throw the ball back to the pitcher." BU: "I'm not calling time for that coach." VC: "But the runners are stopped and we don't want them to take off." BU: "So you want me to give the defense an advantage?" VC: "A what? How is that an advantage? You're giving the offense an advantage!" BU: "So let me get this straight (I'm actually kind of enjoying this), you expect me to grant time after every hit so the runners won't run and you can return the ball to the pitcher without worrying about a bad throw? VC: "Right!" BU: "Ain't gonna happen." VC: "But we always do! I coach my Varsity to do that in their games and they get it!" BU: "Not in MY Varsity games, coach. And honestly, I haven't seen that done anywhere except Coach Pitch." (OK, fun time ending... ejection sequence commence) VC: "But other umpires do! How come you won't?!!" BU: "They can ask, but it's Umpire's discretion whether or not to grant time in any situation, coach. My discretion says, ain't gonna' happen. They gotta' be able to throw the ball back." VC: "HOW COME? I just want to know why..." BU: "I'm done talking about it, coach." I turned and walked. He didn't follow. Ejection sequence aborted. No probs for the rest of the game. The infielders ran it in and made the short throws to the pitcher. Every now and then, in other games a fielder will ask, I say no, and that's it. I guess if you can get it, go for it. The backstory: we have a couple of umpires who used to grant time for this. One wasn't paying attention one night and called it as a runner was past third and halfway home. The appropriate chaos ensued. He doesn't do that anymore. I have a couple of other "Time!" fiascos that I'll post later... Maybe you have one? So I guess after all of that, "Hey Blue! Time! I need to throw the ball to the pitcher, and just in case I make a bad throw I don't want the runners to run!!" Do you give it? With me, Ain't gonna' happen!

I think you were grabbing the $hitty end of the Stick when you called this one. When there are no lines you have to be very lenient with this one. If you are tracking the ball properly it would be hard to see the contact of the ball with the bat and also the foot with the ground. Keeping the area around the plate clean? Really?? Try not to look for things and be Nit-Picky. That's what Grabbing the $hitty end of the Stick means.