catoblue

I found this post on "The perfect storm of umpire-specific hilarity" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Post Of The Month May, 2010"

Gotta take the other point too: a coach that goes and polls the crowd = Whooooosh!!!!! :hopmad:

I'm thinking she was there in the bikini JUST to distract the umpires - another coach looking for an advantage hehehehe!

... so WHO is on first?

Back to the OP, here's a link to a slide deck that covers two man " the Little League way" follow the link and click on the Two Man Rotation link : http://www.ncllbaseball.com/Umpires.aspx In a nutshell: No runners - A 1 runner on 1B - B Any combo of 1 or more runners with someone beyond 2B - C Ball hit to the infield, stay on the outside, Ball hit to the outfield, come in. Remember angle to the play is much more important than distance, so try to get a good angle on any play. This can be tough with LL kids, because they don't always go for the play that you would expect them to, so you have to really concentrate on reading the players and letting the ball lead you to the play. I hope this helps!

Welcome to the crew!!!!

I had a game like that last Saturday - I caught myself on a couple things that nobody else picked up on, but felt good about my game and got the same sort of reaction from both coaches after the game. It's a great feeling to hear that a game you feel good about was appreciated by the everyone else involved.

+1 Yep!!!! My thought as well.

I found this post on "Eventfull Season" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Post Of The Month May, 2010"

"Making mistakes simply means you are learning faster." ~Weston H. Agor

or in my case, spitting bubbles and trying to get the soap out of my teeth!!!!!

LL Majors & Minors - no association for guidelines. I say strike on swinging strikes just for timing & rhythm. I'll turn the volume on balls up one notch so they can be heard by the benches. Called strikes can be heard by F8

I don't "Call" swinging strikes, I simply point to the side and say "strike". The conversational tone is low enough that I doubt anyone other than the batter and catcher can hear me. As with balls (same low conversational tone), I find it helps with my rhythm and timing. Now, back in my "Norm" days, STRIKE! was my call regardless of called or swinging. That was a few years ago, and I've fixed that.

This is kind of a cool thread. All of this discussion brings back a lot of memories of how I have progressed over the years. Once upon a time (like 30 years ago), I was a teenage "Norm". Some High School buddies of mine were working LL Seniors games and told me they need more umps AND that I could make an easy $5/game. So, I think Why not? Well first off, I am given a rule book to read - I do. Then I take a test - I pass, then I get my first game. Here I am behind the plate in maroon & white sweats, white high-top Nike's (late '70's), shin guards outside my pants, balloon protector, backward hat under my mask. Training? - read the rule book I did the whole season like that - didn't know any better, but really enjoyed it and once I had started calling the Senior's games, I started getting calls to work Majors and Minors games. That summer, I started working Beer-league softball games (unlimited arc), had fun with that too. I got so that I really enjoyed calling ball games. I graduated that year and was off to the Navy for the next six years. When I was fortunate enough to have shore duty, I called men's fast pitch league games on the base. That was fun too. At this point, everything about me is still pure "Norm". When I got out, I was away from any kind of baseball/softball for a few years, then I got divorced from my mistake - I mean first wife, and met my "real" wife. We eventually got married and I gained 2 step kids as a bonus. It wasn't long before the younger of the two, my step-son, was old enough to play T ball. I signed up to coach, and got asked to join the BoD. We're a rural community in Upstate NY. Back then, before soccer came to town, we would have a grand total of around 300 kids in the league (T-Ball through Majors). We have never paid umpires, and much of the time, the umpires were dads pulled from the stands and coerced into calling the games for us. Uniforms? Mechanics? Rules Knowledge? Nah, not a lot of that to go around. Now of course, most of the BoD also called games when they weren't coaching them, and I was no exception. So I started all over again as another "Norm" calling LL games. Then, as the season wound down, and Babe Ruth games started, I started seeing "real" umpires down at the complex. These guys are from the local chapter of the state association. I watched them work and really liked what I saw. First off, they showed up in matching uniforms. They used "inside" chest protectors, they made sharp, crisp calls, and they looked like the "real-deal". Starting the next season, I started wearing a powder blue shirt, to call games. Not professional, but better than before, and I went to a clinic that was held in a neighboring town - learned a ton!!! So now, I'm at least a bit more familiar with how to umpire a baseball game. This goes on for a few years, I somehow become UIC for the league and even hold a couple clinics of my own. I call maybe a half dozen games a season, and then my step-son ages out and I drop off the BoD, done coaching but still call a half dozen games/year. Three years later, my youngest, starts T-Ball, and I'm all-in again, but now, there are all new people on the BoD, soccer has come to town, so our total registration is around 175 kids spread across all divisions, and our Majors and Minors now travel to neighboring towns instead of everything being in-house. We start sending all of our umpires to clinics every year. By the time my youngest hits Minors, I'm calling my half dozen games a season, along with coaching, and we decide to host our district 10U tourney. A bunch of us go to the district clinic so that we will have enough qualified umps to work the tourney, we all get district Umpire shirts (my first real Umpire shirt!!!) and are told to wear them with navy blue pants - which we all do. At the same time, the league buys it's first pair of inside chest protectors, which we are all to use. Now we're all starting to look like real umps and call games like real umps. This goes on for a few years. Fast forward to last year. We've now got 3 or 4 of us (including me) that call games on a regular basis, and I'm getting ready to hang up my coaching had for good as my youngest ages out. Now I'm thinking more about umpiring, start reading up, searching for information on the web. I find the forums at ABUA, and bump into Warren, who invites me to join here. Meanwhile, I'm buying my own equipment on eBay, get my first "real" umpire uniform, and start soaking up everything I can about umpiring - from rules, to mechanics, to situations. My ultimate goal of joining the association and getting "big boy" games is still a couple years off, until my youngest boy graduates and is done with all of his sports, because once I commit to working games for the association, I want to be available when I'm needed instead of just on the rare occasion where I have nothing else going on. Ultimately, I want to be one of those "real" umpires that I saw during those BR games 15 years ago. I'm a work in progress. I have gone from many years of being "Norm", to being something better, and will eventually get to the point where I want to be. To bridge that time, I'll continue calling LL games, getting experience, working to improve my knowledge, mechanics, and skills. Until I saw the association guys at the BR game, I had no clue that umpires outside MLB were any different than I was. Bottom line is that you can be "Norm" for a long time, like I was - not because you don't strive to improve yourself, but simply due to not knowing any better.

I found this post on "In Defense of Norm" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Post Of The Month May, 2010"

Well, the percentage can swing the other way by one. I had never called balls before, and this poll started before our season. Having read that it helps with timing, I decided to give it a try, and right off, I felt that it did indeed help my overall timing and rhythm behind the plate. First game, I think I managed to make myself call them 70-75% of the time, and second game on the stick, I called over 90%. Last 2 games have been bases, so I haven't worked on it any more. (I only do 2 games/week) Now, as for how I make my calls... Called strike = <stand up> "HIKE!" <hammer>, Called 3rd Strike = <stand up> "HIKE... HEEE!" <chainsaw> Ball = " ball" in a conversational voice, <no hand signal><stand up> Swinging strike = <stand up>"strike" in a conversational voice <point to the side>

I had a somewhat similar no-call play at the plate Saturday. R3 coming home, Throw on the way to F2, R3 slides then F2 catches the throw. R3's foot ends up about an inch off the plate at the end of his slide (hasn't touched HP yet). F2 standing there with the ball in his mitt, not making a tag attempt, I'm standing there waiting to make a call one way or the other. R3 figured it out first and rolled his foot over onto the plate, about half a second before F2 figured it out and started to bring his glove down for a tag - I call and signal SAFE!. So the question here, in a slightly different situation, was my no-call correct?

Distance is about the same, but you have a lot more going on in front of you where it is much easier to get straight-lined by a player (fielder or runner). The inside-out, outside-in mechanic is what is taught on 60', but if the situation/play allows, you can still come in to the working area for a better view of the play at 1B.

One thing to remember about the poof play (7.13©) is that it only applies to an batted ball that stays in the infield - AND if any outs were made, leaving an open base, the runner gets sent back instead of going "poof". Now, a similar question that goes along with this rule... How many of you use a signal flag for this?

Balls left, strikes right - the only guys I've ever seen do different are the same guys that give a closed right fist over their head for full count with the "full count" verbal. These are the same guys that are generally ball/strike, safe/out only umpires - anything that involves other rules, these guys take their interpretations from playground ball they played as kids (hands are part of the bat, automatic out on a BOO, one base on an overthrow, tie goes to the runner, a runner's base path is a straight line between bases, it's not HBP if the ball bounces fist, a foul tip is foul, etc.). NOT guys I wanted to see calling my games when I coached.

I use Heel-toe too, and call only 10U and 12U games. My lock-in for these little guys has the inside of my elbow (on the batter side) touching my thigh a few inches above the knee and my wrist behind my calf. When I get hit in the arm, it's usually in the meaty part of the forearm or the muscle on the outside of the bend of my elbow - which hurts, but since it isn't hitting bone, nothing has caused anything more than a bruise so far. My other hand (outside from the batter) is directly behind F2, so I'm comfortable putting it just above my knee, fingers out.

We only use umpires in Majors and Minors, T ball, and Machine-pitch (we call it pony) are purely instructional and do not use umpires, so it works out pretty well with the Minors coaches calling Majors games and Majors coaches calling Minors games. Umpiring in a division that they are not coaching, eliminates any perceived conflict of interest. We have probably 4 or 5 of us that no longer coach, who also call games, so that helps too.

Glad you had a good start!!!! My first game had almost no pitching, lots of walks, was 85°, got through 4 in 2:30 (with no new after 2:00) BRUTAL. Second game was this past Sat - a good game, got through 6 in 2:05. Not sure, but probably have one Thursday.

One thing that helps with our league, is that several of the coaches are also umpires. Since our league opted to use volunteers, we always have a shortage of umpires, and the way we work around it is Majors coaches call Minor games, and vise-versa. The best part of this, is that our coaches have a much stronger appreciation of their umpire's job and actually take the time to read the rule book - and we rarely have any chirping at all - at least from our teams, now when we play teams from our "extended" league, it's a different story. The other communities all pay their umps and the coaches have no idea what it's like to call a game, and many have never opened the little green book.

If you dread teaching the basics - then if you ever have a chance to attend an "Al and Al" clinic (LL official coach training), jump on it. Best thing I ever did as a coach. You'd be amazed at how doing even half of what you learn will improve your effectiveness as a coach.