carolinablue

Here's my rule.... I would have told the opposing coach to return to his dugout (and he would have done so) before you and I continued our conversation. After speaking with you, IF I had some information that the opposing coach needed to know I would have walked over to his dugout and had a conversation with him. Not a good idea to go to the dugout IMO, meet him halfway at most. keep it one on one.

My partner tonight asked me about a play that happened in a softball game he worked and I wasn't sure what the answer is so I looked the rule up. I don't work softball so I'm applying this to baseball. A batter attempting a drag bunt gets hit in the foot with a pitch but his foot is outside the batters box. 5.09(a) says the ball becomes dead and runners advance one base, or return to their bases, without liability to be put out when he gets hit while in legal batting position ( not quoted word for word ) but 6.08 (b) does not mention while in legal batting position but does say that if he is hit by a pitch that does not entitle him to 1B, such as he was swinging or the ball was in the strike zone or appaently he's out of the box, the ball becomes dead and no runner can advance. So, I'm thinking it's just a dead ball, and the pitch is a ball, and nobody goes nowhere but thought I would run it by you guys to make sure.

And if you don't call it you get in the argument with the offensive coach. Unless you are envisioning a play different from me (and I think from others), this is a balk that has to be called. The OC did indeed ask if that was a balk. I simply told him I didn't have a balk on that and that was all that happened. I got lucky in that regard, it could have been much worse being it was the bottom of 6 and the tying run was on third. That's why I came home and posted this to get some help on it.

Exactly what happened.

That's why I didn't call it. If he was in set I would not have hesitated but from windup he gets no advantage. Not saying I'm right just giving my thought process. I wasn't sure, that's why I asked.

I feel stupid for not being sure about this but it's better to ask and stop being stupid than continue in the stupidity so... HS game, R2 and R3, pitcher in windup with both hands together resting on knee. He gets his sign and doesn't like it so he lifts his hand out of glove and gives the universal circular motion for " I want another sign". Is that a balk?

Both pitches were just a bit inside. I wonder if something prior happened that fueled all that.

Had our first association meeting tonight. Not as cold as up north but still plenty cold here. I felt like saying. BASEBALL, BASEBALL are you kidding me, don't talk about BASEBALL, in my best Jim Mora voice.

Some of my LL strikes don't even have 1% of the zone.

Hi guys, I haven't posted recently. I have been kind of taking the fall off from umpiring after working a record amount of games for me this spring and summer. I also had a job change and am now working day shift and not night shift. No more surfing the web all night at work. My son is playing fall ball at our local LL. He is 10YO and playing minors. He had an interesting game today that resulted in another candidate for a bumper sticker. The league he is playing in is covered by my association and the umpire today was a guy I have seen but never worked with. It was an unscheduled game between the two teams from this league and from the first pitch it had that " seventh game of the world series atmosphere". In about the third inning I saw my associate toss my son's coach for arguing balls and strikes. Then at the end of the fifth ".I heard him call the game on time. Both teams were at the line to shake when I heard a voice say " It's a tie game". This is 21/2 hours in and I'm thinking don't do it bro, don't do it, ah but he did. " One more inning " he said and back to the dugouts they went. I swear that umpire's must have a sixth sense or something, kind of like spider man because I could smell trouble in the air. I guess it comes from being in the middle of so many games, you can see the warning signs innings ahead. I told my wife that this wasn't good. Anyway, that one more inning turned out to be 45 minutes and the game never ended because there was a collision at the plate, parent's on the field, curse words yelled and punches thrown. Nobody hurt but that's when my associate thought it wise to call the game, 31/2 hours after first pitch. I know this was just LL minors but it could be any game with a time limit at any level. So here's my bumper sticker: NOTHING GOOD CAN HAPPEN AFTER A TIME LIMIT HAS EXPIRED!!!!

Come on, somebodies got to take a chance for the betterment of the whole. We need to know. Unfortunately my wife won't let me.

Heard my son's coach ( 10U ) telling them during infield practice yesterday that if they were throwing to a base and a runner was in the way to go ahead and throw the ball and if it hits the runner the umpire will have to make a call. I talked to him after practice.

Do they just arbitrarily assign the crews for the whole tournament or do they try to identify the better ones as the tournament progresses and give them the better games, such as winners games and championships?

I may be old school but I say don't fix what ain't broke. That seems to be a bad habit these days IMO. Baseball is a great game just like it is, human element and all. If it were not so it would not have been around for more than a hundred years. Since man can't achieve peferction, I say don't screw with near perfection. All this stuff they are trying to fix is a part of the game they are going to miss when it's gone.

Bam would never work if he did.