rulebook

Last year, I had a game suspended for about 30 minutes due to a swarm of bees. Not much to do but have a seat and wait for them to move on.

Not necessarily an automatic ejection for me. The rules give the umpire discretion to judge whether it's a "minor" offense so I would consider warning first if the profanity/gesture was discreet. In HS, an ejected player is often also disqualified from the next game so it could end up costing the player 10-20% of the season.

Name. I'm not sure what rule set "Club Team League" uses, but assuming OBR the rule citation is 6.01(a) "Each player of the offensive team shall bat in the order that his name appears in his team’s batting order".

At a HS varsity game yesterday... The pitch comes in at the knees and a little off the outside corner. PU really sells the strikeout with a huge call and "starts up the chainsaw" to ring up the batter. The batter gives him a funny look while the catcher quietly says, "That's only two". Oops. The next pitch hits the same spot and the umpire meekly signals and says, "Strike three".

We have games interrupted for helicopters about once each year. The field is the closest landing spot for helicopters that have to rescue hikers that get lost or injured on nearby trails.

I think we're saying the same thing. A muttered comment that is delivered while turning away gets a little more leniency than than the same same comment delivered during a tirade.

I like the 4-step procedure (ignore, acknowledge, warn, eject) for dealing with argumentative people. "Personal" comments would only make me jump to the warning stage unless they were loud enough to be heard across the field. I would reserve jumping straight to an immediate ejection for the more egregious offenses like physical contact, throwing equipment, profanity, etc.

With the catcher's attempt to field the thrown ball. Rule 7.11.

I believe JaxRolo meant that there might be others who shared his opinion that it should be called a strike, but were hesistant to voice their opinion.

In OBR, the first general instruction to umpires is "Umpires, on the field, should not indulge in conversation with players". Even in a relaxed fall-league environment, I don't think an umpire should instruct a player directly. At the most, maybe mention something to the coach between innings and let him instruct the player if he chooses.

Sounds pretty routine for a 8-9 y/o game.

I have no problem with either of the check swing calls because they are judgment calls and the umpire had a good look at them. I have no problem with the ejection either because of the thrown equipment. The problem I have is with the umpire striking a pose to mock the player's reaction and then staring the player down for an extended time. This body language only escalates an already tense extra-innings situation. Both the player and the umpire reacted poorly.

CDP = Cooperstown Dreams Park CC = Crew Chief?

I agree that it doesn't sound like a cross up. If the catcher was expecting a high fastball on one side of the plate, it is not too hard to adjust to a high fastball on the other side. A cross up that would give the catcher real trouble is when he is expecting a breaking ball in the dirt and gets the high heat instead. But in any case, the catcher would at least try to stab at the ball if he really was crossed up.

Around here, baseball is played all year so there is no offseason. What do you guys do in your offseason? Go through withdrawals, officiate another sport, break down game film of that banger you missed at first base, ...... ?

I've never had turkeys land on the field and delay the game. But once in a while we get helicopters landing on the field. Our fields are the closest landing spot for search and rescue helicopters when they bring lost/injured hikers down from some nearby mountain trails.

If you had noticed that the K'd batter was still there, you probably should have verbalized that was three strikes. But in general, it's not your job to tell the offensive team who should be batting. It's the defensive team's responsibility to monitor this and appeal if they choose. In fact, Rule 6.07 Comment says, "The umpire shall not direct the attention of any person to the presence in the batter’s box of an improper batter. This rule is designed to require constant vigilance by the players and managers of both teams."

OBR 6.06©: A batter is out for illegal action when he interferes with the catcher’s fielding or throwing by stepping out of the batter’s box or making any other movement that hinders the catcher’s play at home base. EXCEPTION: Batter is not out if any runner attempting to advance is put out, or if runner trying to score is called out for batter’s interference. OBR 7.08(g): Any runner is out when he attempts to score on a play in which the batter interferes with the play at home base before two are out. With two out, the interference puts the batter out and no score counts.

Agree. EJ the HC for obscene language. Carol would probably thank you. Do you think the visiting team was still stealing with a 13 run lead in response to the HC's antics or are they just classless as well?

This thread gave me flashbacks of a game last week. Similar weather conditions, similar score. In the 4th inning, the visiting team was already ahead by at least 20 runs. Every single batter that came to the plate laid down a bunt and they still scored 2 runs that inning. Brutal.

Sounds like the kids are just following the example set by the coach. If any boy on my son's 15U team acted like that, the whole team would be running laps after the game.

Yes, "flashing the glove" means that the middle infielder initiates a pickoff attempt by signaling the pitcher with a flick of his glove or hand toward second base. The fielder breaks to the bag immediately after the signal, so this play was probably not on in the OP situation. More likely, the middle infielder missed a signal putting a play on or the pitcher was just confused.

Let me play devil's advocate and offer another plausible scenario. Maybe the catcher wanted to walk the hitter who was 3 for 3. The coach knows it's a meaningless game and signals to go ahead and pitch to the batter. But the pitcher doesn't want to give the batter anything in the zone and runs the pitch too far inside. The OP said it was obviously intentional, so maybe there were other situations earlier in the game that led up to this. But if the description of this situation is all I have to go on, I have a warning at most.