BrianC14

Well that's a crock. Ask them if they pay the teachers the same way. Rubbish.

Roppongi district (Tokyo) is great for after hours. Restaurants, night clubs, etc. I'd say leave the gear at home and enjoy the culture.

What's "funny" about it? Nothing illegal the way it's described.

Miller Lite... that's a punishment.

Well thanks for your opinion. I didn't say it was the only mistake I made, it's just the most recent.

THANK YOU! In my area, nobody uses Fed mechanics. But there's always that exception, where last week, "Heaven's Gift to Umpiring" tells me he's going to cover the plate from inside the diamond on a particular situation. Then, in real time, (he's at the plate in game 2) decides that since he didn't signal a rotation (R1 only) that he didn't need to rotate up to 3B on a base hit. Meanwhile, I'm left to stretch myself out between 2B and 3B as B/R hustles his way into 2B. Fed mechanics should be banned.

Living dangerously.

Well for me it doesn't happen terribly often; pretty rare, actually. But the other day, in the middle of a game, with absolutely no external pressure or tension in the game, I rang up a called third on the batter. It was a close pitch, so I gave it enough emphasis to sell the call. As soon as I make the call, I had turned toward the dugout with the 'punch out' (nothing real demonstrative, I usually let my voice take care of the emphasis). But as soon as I finished the mechanic, I immediately followed it with "OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" and was looking directly at the home team manager (his batter in the box). He's got a big smile on his face, both his hands are up, and he's saying "It's OK, it's OK." I had just 'rung up' the batter on strike 2. D'oh.

Several years ago (5 or 6) I took a foul ball to the titanium cage on my Wilson Shock FX, and it dented one of the bars just above my left eye. The dent wasn't huge, maybe 1/4" bend, though I did end up with concussion symptoms fairly quickly. Since it was still new, I called Wilson (Chicago office) the next day, and asked about a replacement. They seemed pretty surprised that it was actually dented, so I took some pics and emailed them. They called right back and said they'd send a new one that day. I asked the customer service guy what I should do with the damaged one, "do you want it back" and "could I see about getting it repaired so I'll have a backup". He said they didn't want it back, and further, he was adamant that I should not attempt to use it anymore, citing warranty issues, and said something to the effect that titanium is not something that responds well to repairs. The bend occurred along the horizontal bar, right between two weld joints that were spaced about 2.5" apart. Now, I'm no metallurgist, but it seems to me that he was implying that repairs would render it weaker than the original. Maybe someone with experience with metals can chime in? And as always, your mileage may vary.

So I'm following the "Coach berates..." thread in "Ask An Umpire" section, and it got me wondering... when you make a mistake - a big, ugly, brain-cramp-induced-oh-my-gosh-I-kicked-the-living-crap-out-of-that call mistake - - do any of you openly berate yourself during a game when you have one of those moments? Tee it up. Full disclosure: I have been known to.

Awesome. Love the tip of the cap by Nelson, but geez, that haircut.....

I agree, he's pointing over there for some reason, but as I see the angle, he doesn't appear to be looking in the direction of PU, but rather toward first base. He also appears a bit angry, and I wonder if he wasn't chewing on F3 for not attempting a play "over there" at third. Seems as though if he were trying to get the attention of PU, he'd have to be turned much farther behind him, toward home plate, as PU is (was) only a few feet up the line.

The point of the video, as I read the original post is this: " Since the plate umpire has to rule fair/foul on the bunt, he will not have touches at third and this would leave the base umpire to get touches, correct? Please discuss how you would handle this situation. " Two-man mechanics are ripe for holes in coverage. One thing can be seen - briefly - the base umpire doesn't have much responsibility on this play. I think there's a case where he could at least take a peek for the touch at third, especially since it *seems* that PU has his focus on fair/foul and the developing play at home, but since we can't see in this video any of what PU is doing until it's all over, it's impossible to know if he was able to look up to even glance at 3B. But the base umpire certainly has time and opportunity to look to his right for the touch of 3B - or hey - maybe even an obstruction. And as Mad Mike has already pointed out, that they didn't appeal on any of these, so we can never really know what might have been seen and/or called.

What's "natural" about batting?

I had a similar situation years and years ago in my first year of umpiring, while working a "peanuts" 'league of 8 and 9 year olds. Team A is just unable to do anything right, and clearly the game is no fun for anyone. At one point the Coach of Team A asks for 'Time' and calls the whole team in to the pitcher's mound. Given the circumstances, I give the coach some extra time on this visit: sweep the plate, get a drink of water, walk slowly to the line, then finally head to the mound. Half way there I begin to hear that he's swearing at these little kids - swearing that would make a drunken sailor blush. As he sees me approaching, he suddenly changes things to a positive tone, and turns quickly and actually starts JOGGING off the field. I follow him as far as the 1B line and tell him "Coach, just keep going, you're done for today." He turns around and immediately begins to act - and I do mean "act" - incredulous, shocked, surprised, outraged, and starts going Earl Weaver on me, to the point where a few parents now want to know why I tossed him. I inform him that I heard specifically what he was saying to the team, and he immediately backs down. As he starts heading for the gate, I inform him (so the parents can hear) that he should explain WHY he was ejected. He of course, simply turns toward the parking lot and leaves without a word. In looking back on this, I realize that I had no real authority to dump him, other than maybe relying on the sportsmanship code that the league had in place. However, if I recall, most sportsmanship codes have the context about acting in a sporting manner to members of the opposing team only. That, and given the very young age of the kids, I just felt that if I didn't do something right away, who would, and more importantly, who would ever know about the situation? I was not a board member, nor did I know anyone associated with the league, I was just a newbie umpire who was working for an umpire association that had no affiliation with any leagues, other than being contracted for umpires.

Thank you, that's what I understood in your original post. If noone has "caught on" it's not being appealed, and we'll never know if the umpire(s) saw it or not. The video doesn't show either umpire or what (or where) they might be looking at the time the R2 should be making the touch of 3B.

I knew I'd seen that mask somewhere before.

I've been getting this message fairly frequently over the past week to ten days: using Chrome. Error Occurred Sorry, an error occurred. We're gathering some information so that we can correct the issue. Please Click to go back to previous page

A lot of teams where I work (HS & college) assign bench players to watch specific bases for missed touches. If coaches know the rules well enough (and a missed base certainly seems like a pretty straightforward rule on which to appeal) then the assigned player notifies the coach, who instructs his team to appeal the missed base. Looks as though this team didn't have that going. In this video, R2 appears to have cut the corner by a good 10 feet. Thanks for sharing this, great clip.

Yup. Gettin' it all straight before doing anything rash. Reminds me a bit of Tim McClelland's call : (although, on further review.... yikes).

I have seen them, and was disappointed to see that NB used the polyester fabric in them. My past/ current experience with that material is that it is difficult to keep clean. Can you share your experience on the shoes from the cleaning side? Thanks.

Got to love his timing. Nothing is rushed.

I like the way you think. Though mine would be a Shield.

I love happy pitchers. I love 'em even more when there's a time limit. You want a new one? Here you go. Oh? Another one? Sure! Here you go.