TNCoach

After playing for over 12 years, coaching for about 12 years, and umpiring for 3, I'm being a dad and watching. I was beyond the OF fence. I told my wife that's an out, doesn't have to be intentional. It was catchable. Hit just beyond the glove even with the contact. Coach didn't question the call. They ultimately called it foul. I didn't know why, but assumed they had incorrectly called it so based on the idea the batter was vacating but still in the box maybe or didn't intentionally interfere. Ultimately batter was out at first on what I thought was a makeup call. I knew I would get the correct information here. Thanks!

And I meant interference in the title. They went back and forth on the call.

Batter pops up a bunt foul. Batter backs up to get out of the way but steps into the catcher's way. Catcher crashes into batter. Is this interference? Does interference have to be intentional on this?

So MLB Obstruction question. I'm sure it's been discussed but unable to find. I think it was 2014. Dribbler hit to the pitcher/1B. Both converge. Batter runner attempted to move to the inside. Ran into pitcher who just fielded the ball. Obstruction was called. I viewed it as with P and 1b, one was protected and one not. The one who wasn't protected was guilty of obstruction since he caused the fielder to deviate. Anyone familiar with this? I believed the umpires were correct. The other said the umpire was incorrect because both has a right to field, just one wasn't protected. They said should have been out because he was tagged.

I've not coached nor umpired in a few years now. Been enjoying being a dad as my kids are in high school. What rule is applicable here? I don't have a copy of the rule book anymore.

I'm sure many of you have seen the HS Championship game where the uncaught third strike and no tag was made. The players continued running the bases while the defense celebrated their "win." What is the rule on the catcher putting the ball in his pocket?

I guess in the situation, I thought I was right. Was positive. Wasn't trying to be confrontational, but he took it that direction. I was like, calm down. It's JV. It is fine. But wasn't sure how you handle an issue like that so it doesn't go to that. It became obvious the call wasn't going to be changed.

Its a JV. I wouldn't protest that. It is what it is really on something like that. And TSSAA does not have a protest anyway. The base umpire and I were talking next inning. She agreed it was a force play. So that wasn't going to help. I did ask if he would. But he would not. I did hope he looked up that answer later. I asked him to.

After coaching, then taking a couple of years to officiate, then back to coaching last year for a very abbreviated season, I am back as an assistant this year. R3 and R1. 1 out. R1 stealing on pitch. Ball hit to LF. LF makes catch for 2nd out. R3 tags and runs home. R1 gets thrown out going back to 1st for out 3. On way back to 3B dugout, I ask the HP umpire if the run crossed before the 3rd out was made. He said yes, but it does not count because of the "force play" at 1st. I said it was not a force play, but it was a time play, so if the run crossed first, the run should count. I was not yelling or anything, but he said it was a force play. I said, that type of play doesn't happen often, but that is a time play. The run should count, but I don't want to argue that. It wasn't a close game anyway. It was just going to get us a run on the board we could use as a momentum boost going forward. (It was a JV game and several of these have not played much). This was only their second game this season as many teams do not even have a JV game because their numbers are limited because of covid I assume. I am 99.9% sure I am right. Well, probably 99.999999% sure. I wasn't looking to argue, but he got really mad that I was even asking. So I just let it go and walked off. So, was I right? And, how should a coach handle it on a similar issue? His point wasn't that he was an umpire and had been for x years and knew the rules. He said he played college ball and was a catcher and knew what he was doing...

Middle School has a max of 85 here. 1-19 pitches is 0 days rest. 20-35 is 1 day. 36-50 is 2 days. 51-66 is 3 days. 67-85 is 4 days.

Haha. Nah. Now, I did have a player miss the steal time at first three pitches in a row, so I yelled at him from the 3B box and tell him he missed the sign three times, so he needed to steal this time.

That's what I have usually done in the past. I had a team where we stole home probably five or six times one season. I normally alerted the home plate umpire so he did not get caught by surprise.

Thanks. Trouble I am sure I am going to run into is coaches and umpires who don't know the rule. I will have to talk to them in pre-game to make sure they do to avoid problems. At our level, we get new ones and such.

Okay. So, I can sub him out, then bring him back in, but only once per inning. So a pitching change is also not a charged conference, correct? Those would not count toward that? What is the caveat with the pitches at the end of what you quoted? The rule book has not been placed in my queue yet on the app. How many warmup pitches does my replacement get? My pitcher coming back in would get none, correct?

Okay. I have been out of umpiring and coaching for a few years enjoying my kids in their prospective sports and working on my masters. Both the baseball coach and softball coach have stepped down within a short period of time. My kids go to school with me, so I will be at the games anyway since they are playing. They got me to coach both. Baseball pitching rules have changed and I have no clue what I am doing with softball, but that is another story. So with the new pitch count rule, I am at a small school. 40 per grade level or less pretty much. So I am not going to have a lot of pitching. So I am trying to think creatively in case a situation comes up. I have to download an app and wait for my state agency to load the book on my app, so I am in a holding pattern on that. My question is, can a pitcher come out of the game in the middle of an inning or otherwise, go to a new position, then re-enter as pitcher from a new position on the field. For example, I have my number 1 in the rotation going. He pitches to hitters 1-6. To save him from using pitches, can I move him to RF, bring the RF in to pitch to 7-9, then switch them back? I believe that was something I could do before. I coached during the inning count days where it was X amount of innings and a partial inning counted as a whole, so wasn't really something I contemplated back then. I just see this as a way to save some pitches from him, to allow him to go deeper into games that we are sticking with the other team in. Thanks (NFHS, but Tennessee Middle School if it makes a difference between states for any reason on pitch count rules)

Then, when three hits, four is supposed to bat next, but he is on base, so five is batting out of order.

Baseball is the worst sport to have an automatic EJ for leaving the bench in my opinion. Basketball? Fine. Football? Fine. Those are equal in the number of people on the field. Baseball, I know fights are often initiated by the batter on a pitch, but it gets initiated often by the defense. Let's say a batter comes up and the catcher starts mouthing and jumps him. Then a couple more players on the defense jumps him. You've just allowed, by the automatic EJ rule, a mugging.

It was a steady rain, no puddling, but a bit heavy at times. We were going through balls like crazy. I'm coaching this year, not umpiring school ball. Anyway, we had a big lefty come up. He swung, hit a grounder, and the bat slips out and goes flying to the first base side on deck circle. Umpire immediately calls the out. I think he grounds out there anyway, but wanted to just get a question answered on if there is a difference in a purposely thrown bat and a bat that slipped because of rain. He said it was a safety issue and any bat thrown was an out. (My batter doesn't wear batting gloves) We played just enough for a legal game and got out of there. It was just beginning to puddle. No other bats were thrown.

Issue came up tonight, which wasn't a big deal, but one I questioned. Is there a difference between a purposely thrown bat and one that slips out on the swing in a heavy rain? FED...

Also, for argument sake, the R2 and R3 neither tagged up, but they got the out on R2 after R3 crossed the plate. Unless they appeal R3 not tagging up before they leave the field, R3 scores.

Does a courtesy runner or the original batter get credit for scoring a run?

I know in my state, we join the association and they send the rule books to us (me as the Athletic Director) and I give them to my coaches.

Pretty sure if pegging a runner with a ball was an out, we would have a lot of problems.

Pitcher begins to deliver the pitch and the ball goes rolling toward the first base foul line and stops about 25 feet short. There were no runners on.

I liked the old look better, but understand software changes and the need to change the look at times. I hope the indexing finishes soon because I search to find old info often so I don't have to ask again. I'm not sure that is the whole problem though because I can search google, but the links are dead... Hopefully it is just indexing though.