semper_fi_72

Well since we moved to Utah I have become Babe Ruth Certified. That was easy pay $40 and take a test online. Worked two 13 year old games on Wednesday nights and had a 3rd cancelled because it was scheduled on Graduation night. Past weekend worked a two day Fathers Day Tournament. 14 yr old brackets played here in Salina. Was originally scheduled to work 6 games Friday and 5 Saturday. A couple teams dropped out and was reduced to 4 Friday and 4 Saturday. First game was scheduled for noon. One team did not get a schedule change and was not there to play. To keep the tournament on track a change was made and the game was moved to 2 pm at a HS field about 30 miles away. I was asked if I would go there to work the game on the plate and they would get me a partner there before the game. Sure no problem. I also had to drive back to Salina for a 4 pm game and then a 6 pm game. Even though I was now only working 3 games, I would get paid for 5. The 4, I was scheduled for and an extra game fee for travel expense. That was sweet. All the teams playing are from towns/cities like within a hour and a half drive. It was some good baseball and my partner were decent umpires. When it came down to the championship game on Saturday I volunteered for the plate and we worked a three man crew. It was tied 5-5 in the bottom of the 7th with 2 out and bases loaded. Batter lays down a great bunt on a squeeze and just beats out the throw. U2 makes the safe call and the game ends. 7 innings in just under two hours. Had a game on the plate earlier that day that went the full 6 in just 1 hour 10 minutes. Pizza was provided for the umpires both days for lunch as well as water and PowerAide all day. I have a double header for 13 year old Babe Ruth State Pool games this Wednesday. Will be working with area HS Assignor on those. Have already meet him in person and he has heard of my umpiring ability from several people. A couple of tournaments are coming up in July that I am confident I will get games in. There is a big difference umpiring here then in Southern California. That being that it is mostly small town rural areas. Everyone knows everyone and I guess I just had the right people see me work at the right time on my first game. News and information travels fast. It seems my umpiring ability/skill has been more noticed here then it ever was in Southern California. There is a Fall Ball HS program when school starts back up in the end of August also. I have also been asked to keep the first Saturday in August open to attend a Football Official clinic in Salt Lake so I can Start working Football this coming season. I may not be working games every night any more, but I am sure am enjoying the slower more relaxed pace of living here. A traffic jam is 3 car at the 4 way stop in the center of town. In some cases it may be 2 cars and a couple of quads. Quads are used by older teenagers and adults as transportation around town. I need to get me one of those. Yes there is baseball in Southern Utah and it is good baseball.

You got hit in the top center of the helmet, not on the face mask? What would it have felt like if you were not wearing a helmet? You would have possibly been hit on the hear with nothing but a cap on. If you have a neck problem the weight of the HSM may be the culprit of your problem. Having worn it only 6 or so times over a unspecified period you may not have built up your neck muscles to support it. I have worn one for 3 straight years now and I wouldn't wear anything else.

HP Umpire does not rule no catch. You advise the BU what you observed and provide him the information. He is the one responsible for either deciding if his original call stands or reversing the call based on your information. Teach them right to start with. You never over rule a partner even if they are a Junior Umpire. Give them ownership of their calls.

Why would you ever want a game with him...lol

So when F3 started coming off the field, what did the BR and R2 do? I think their reactions to the play are also important in the outcome of your story .

Get the Jim Evens Balk DVD.

Mine fits my right back pocket very well also.

As long as you are putting it in your ball bag and not wearing it on your wrist.

Isn't that what you pay all insurance for. You pay it and hope you never have to use it. Do you really want to wreck your car to use your car insurance? Do you really want your house to burn down so you can use your home owners insurance? Do you really want to die so someone collects on your life insurance? I think the answer to each of those is a NO. But you pay for the insurance anyway.

No never used it. Other points: How was he negligent that he should even worry about it? Players playing in USSSA tournaments are covered by insurance for injuries. When I did games in Southern California part of our annual dues was for national registration so he may be registered and not even know it. If it was me in this case I wouldn't lose any sleep or give it a second thought.

Don't know if it is for Babe Ruth but is a State Tournament. 11-12 year old one week then 13-14 the next week.

Retired Marine Master Sergeant. Mr. Mom with my three lovely daughters. Best job in the world.

Follow Up: Got a call today. He wanted the complete and correct spelling of my name text to him. He was contacted by someone in the area HS unit, that had been contacted by some one who seen me work last night. He said expect a call, as he wants to get a exemption and have me certified for Utah HS ball right away and join the unit since I just moved in, instead of waiting till next spring. Some Summer and Fall Ball HS Ball. I am just a little amazed how fast some things do travel in small towns. All I did was go out and call a normal game. Apparently you never know who is watching you at a game is true.

Well it only took 12 days after arriving in Salina, Utah to get unpacked and settled in and back on the field. Meet with the County Rec Director and worked my first 13 Yr old Babe Ruth game last night, on the plate. Also took and completed the Babe Ruth online certification yesterday. Game was pretty good. After the game a women comes up to me and says welcome to the area. We need good umpires. You should contact Chad ******** in Richfield. He is always looking for good umpires. He is my brother in law. I said I spoke with him today and he is using me during the Fathers Day Tournament and the two week State Tournament in July. But if you want, give him a call and let him know you watched that guy Lou you spoke with today and let him know how you liked my umpiring. She said I most definitely will. When speaking with Chad he also asked if I was interested in working other sports. I said not when I was in California but I am now since baseball will not be year round. Said he would get me started with Football and Basketball when the seasons came around. I am really enjoying life right now. Wife is working and I am being Mr. Mom with our 3 girls and we are having a blast. The good things about small town living: 1) everyone knows everyone. 2) no traffic lights. A traffic jam is 3 cars waiting at the 4 way stop at the center of town. 3) Walmart and Sams Club is 18 miles away but when you get on I 70 you probably won't see another car and it is a 80 MPH zone. 4) You know when anything happens with the Fire Dept because everyone hears the Siren to recall the Volunteer Fireman. 5) You don't have to pre-pay at the gas station if your using cash. Fill up and then pay. Oh and Gas is $3.64 a gal. Sorry to my SoCal Friends. Oh and when you do go in to pay it is Hi Lou how are you today? Hows the family? Thanks Rebeca things are great and the family is doing great also. Just need to get a few more things done: 1) Utah Drivers License. This is important not for Driving but to get items #2 and #3 as a Resident. 2) Fishing License 3) Hunting License Any way will end it here. Life is great and I am enjoying it with my family in the great location of Salina, Utah.

Magic Going didn't see this till this morning. Wish you had called me. We were scheduled to leave on May 15th but this past Monday, my wife was contacted by a old friend who heard she was coming moving back to Utah. 2 hours later she had a job and we moved everything up a week. U-Haul leaves Friday May 10th now. Umpired my last game on Monday night at Eastvale which was a good Big League game. Missed you out there this season. Take care and enjoyed working with you.

He must suck that is how he got the assignment Congrats Brother

If it was a Hockey style throat guard like I wear after a fractured Larynx that I had on same type of foul except of of a full swing.

I know where Richfield is. It is where our Big Store WalMart is located. Also have made a contact so Southern Utah Umpires and said I can probably get games in a big tournament they have coming up in July in Richfield. He also said they have Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken in Salina and to check in with the Rec Dept there once I get there. So things are looking good already. Let me know when you head down and perhaps we can meet up some day.

Time to close a chapter on life and start another one. Family is moving to Salina, Utah. Yep, country living. Population 2,492 is about to be increased by 6. Not exactly a major population area....lol Won't be working year round baseball any more but that can be replaced with fishing and hunting and a lot of wife's family. If there is any one on here that has contacts in that area and they want, what I believe is a real good Professional Umpire who Umpire Amateur Baseball, please send me a message. League I am currently working 5 days a week with ends on May 10th and we will be loading up and departing May15th and moving into our new place on May 16th. Things have slowed down for me this year with the back surgery anyway. I am any where from 30 to 50 games behind my past years game counts with only 36 games so far this year. Back is doing well but losing Feb and half of March hurt the game count. It also made me realize I don't need to work so hard and at my young age it is time to enjoy life a little bit more. So will keep you posted on the Baseball in Utah.

Did 6 games on the bases the last 4 days. Feels good to be back.

Sounds like one of those Umpires who keeps repeating his First Year. How the Hell did he move up??????

You also generally only do this when the BR is running to First Base or there are other runners on. Here it sounds like it was just the Batter, so the only thing you have is HBP, Foul, Strike or Ball. From the location it doesn't seem like a Strike needs to be considered. No need for BU to call out a Foul.

No. The home team is responsible for keeping the official book. The official pitch-count is kept each inning by the base umpire with a click-counter. At the end of each half-inning, or at a pitching change, he tells both sides the official count then resets his counter for the next pitcher. In my experience, they're wrong about 25% of the time because they have more important things to do than keep up with the pitch count. (My guess is they accidentally hit the counter on pick-off throws as they are usually a pitch too high when they're wrong) Nobody has a clue how to keep a book or do stats. I taught myself with some web sites, wikipedia, and the rule book. GameChanger is great for the average scorer though it can't fix a lack of understanding of chapter 10.00. It's very close, though. A few more improvements and I'll switch over. Make the Visiting Team responsible for pitch count and make the score keeper and pitch counter sit together. Should never be a umpires responsibility.

How did you teach her how to make all the judgements that are necessary in one game? i.e. hit vs error, SB, FC, WP, PB, or E for an advance, etc. The guy who introduced me to GameChanger, and scored his son's team, would constantly score any extra bases with a ball-in-play as stolen bases. I never could break him of that. He was also clueless on how to charge errors. As with most parents, he had no interest in reaching Chapter 10. GameChanger is coming along nicely but I'm not yet ready to give up a paper book. Two big issues need to be fixed first, IMO. 1. You have to score the action in chronological order. There's no way to continue scoring the current batter until you have finished scoring all previous plays. This becomes an issue on a complex play with a lot of advances, maybe some errors, and outs. With a paper book you can start tracking the pitches to the next batter while still finishing out that last play. With Gamechanger you can't. 2. Better access to pitch-count information. With LL pitch-count rules you have to have access to all pitcher's pitch counts at any time. GameChanger will only show you the current pitcher's count. It also lacks any any way to account for mistakes by the official pitch counter (the BU in our league). With paper I can adjust my "official" pitch count to match the pitch counter's count while still keeping my correct ball/strike count for each pitcher. With GameChanger I have to keep the "official" pitch count on a separate sheet. I also keep more stats than GameChanger. They stopped development on their Android version this year. Not really a big loss, though, as it was lagging way behind the iOS version on features. Game Changer gives you pitch count for all pitchers. With LL you do still have to keep Pitch Count on a separate log. The pitch counter is required to sit next to the score keeper. The Visitors are required to provide a pitch counter. Check at the end of each inning with pitch counter and you don't have any issues. I have had said 21 pitches and they say 20. Simple they missed one so they add one to the log. As far as your first issue. If you are falling behind on plays, you need more practice. I can score fielding errors, throwing errors, passed balls, stolen base with a throwing error that gives the runner another base and get back to the next pitch before the pitcher is ready. Also not hard to teach someone what a ERROR (Fielding or Throwing), PASSED BALL, WILD PITCH, HBP. Especially in Little League games. They happen on almost every play. I have already had parents who track their kids on it ask me why I didn't give a Stolen Base or why he only got a single and not a double. They aren't use to proper scoring any way. My wife also learned in a couple of games and she had no score keeping experience. My 10 year old daughter is picking it up and playing with the app at home doing practice games. I make up what happens and she scores it on the app. She has also been sitting with me and operating the score board during games.

Our league has over 1500 kids enrolled and about 75 umpires. Not sure how you could possibly get that many volunteers. Pay starts at $20/gm for PeeWee and reaches around $45/40 PU/BU for Major and above. Do they pay scorekeepers? One of our local, well run, leagues here pays the scorekeepers. They are a part of the Umpires group. The league just adds it the cost to the registration fees of the players. Parents vote on it every year. Always passes. The league I am working with is also a very large league. 50/70 and above is all Inter District. They do a great job of fund raising each year and never have any issues with funds for anything. This league is paying Umpires, Score Keepers and Snack Bar workers. I won't mention pay amounts but it is equal to if not better than already stated. With the pay and the fact they like me and let me pretty much have first shot at the schedule. They have me for their season.