MT_Blue

nice to know im not the only one whos been in position to get hit , my legs actually feel fine....outside of the normal weight lifting pains, i did find out i have another game tomorrow night with the same partner i had on Saturday, im actually looking forward to it. Ken

Well less than 20 min ago I finished my first double header of the year, was behind the plate for the first game and everything went fantastic, had one embarrasing moment of taking a wild throw (warm up pitch) off the shoulder while walking over to relay a substitution, but other than that it was a fantastic and fun day, btw the second game was just as fun on the bases. Cheers all Ken

Fantastic, nice to see him not just sit back and take it, I must say the cartoon adds a great visual lol :)

This will be my 7th season umpiring and for softball its kind of hit and miss (because of school, and snow on this end of the state....) but during the early summer months (may-june) I usually do 4-5 a week mostly single games, after june things slow down where I am and I only get one DH every week or so Ken

That is a little crazy.....we just got another nice 2 day snow shower in bozeman....

now, multiply by the complex conjugate, divide by pi, and then take that number by the constant R (-8.314e^-3) then find percent error......... ;p my thoughts

Most of this is a shining example of what NOT to do......only thing I remember is him talking directly to both teams for his 'pregame confrence'....I stopped watching directly there after

I used to but as mentioned above I as simply as it sounds started blinking more to keep my contacts moister and haven had a problem since.

The age range is 10u to babe ruth (sorry can't think of the age range off the top of my head), I have until the first weekend in may to put it together,I'm thinking of three sessions first being introduction to mechanics, second being more mechanics and rules, and the third kind of a situations test of sorts. Each session I'm hoping will last an hour and a half or so and I'm hoping to run one if not two a week (with two 'classes' pertaining to one 'session' listed above). Sorry this wasn't in the original post Ken

Hey all, Feels like a long time no see....stupid school.....but just thought I would throw this out there so here we go. I was approached recently about giving a 'clinic' to new officials this upcoming may before baseball season stars (which sadly enough is 4 days after I get home from school) but in my attempts at putting together an outline I come up short....so the question is, has anyone ever put on a clinic or for that matter a study club-ish meeting for new officials? Regardless of yes or no does anyone have advice on what specifically to hit in terms of mechanics, rules, pre/post game? Any advice would be great, Hopefully ill be able to check this more often now, You stay classy umpire-empire Ken

Great post, and being one of the first ive looked at since ive started getting ready for this season im excited to get everything started again :)

My strike zone for youth (Cal Ripken Minors? sorry i can think of the age group being up since 3....) is a little higher and wider than i normally go, however i fall into the trap of not being able to tighten back up when i go to do say legion ball after doing a full month of little league....

I wish this would happen where im at...but sadly our aging group is starting to get worn out..... As for doing LL, i have fun with it personally, it is however nice to escape to some older levels occasionally

I havent heard anything about it not being required, i know our local commission requires it just to cover 'just in case' i would say it would be nice not to pay 60 more a year but sadly i dont think its happening anytime soon :rolleyes:

In the first case mentioned it would be automatic...captain hook would have his day, in the case mentioned later where the f-bomb was dropped from the phrase i would say for me it would be situational, if the player had an attitude it would depend on previous engagements so to say, and if this was the first one i would probably issue the warning.

Hey all, I finally got a break from studying for finals to take a look at this thread.... and really umpiring as a whole (at least in my opinion) is a business regardless of level and involvement. whether your the assignor OR simply the official your part of a business thinking of the assignor as a direct supervisor and the official as an employee. As far as getting paid i dont feel like that is a gauge of whether its a business or not because being 'paid' is a subjective term, payment might be something physical like actual money or a check OR it can be simply the satisfaction of knowing you made a difference (yes YOU did no matter if you want to deny it or not) in a childs life by giving back to the game. I personally started with the later in mind considering the program i work for primarily gave me alot of enjoyment while i was in school, the money was only a perk. Either way you look at it your involved in a business 'machine' to some degree and regardless of your definition of paid you ARE working for someone/thing hense its a business to what ever degree you want to make it to be......Anyway my 2 cents.. p.s. as usual sorry if its rambling and non sensical i always seem to find somethign of interest after i get done studying etc so my awnsers might not always be clear.... Ken

Morning all, This may seem like an outlandish question/ topic but i found it mildly entertaining.....Just as a bit of back ground as i mentioned in my introduction post im attending Montana State, and majoring in Environmental Science....well this morning i think i heard at least in my opinion the best explination of agroecology i have ever heard..... now mind you this professor thats lecturing (ironically enough he is still going at the time im writing this), is an argentinian man who studys agroecology and is a major sports fan. his question: Is Modern Agriculture on steroids? The awnser is somewhat complicated BUT he managed to spice things up, within the first 15 minutes of the lecture he made 4 barry bonds references including a before and after picture of him, a graph depicting his home run numbers throughout his career, a graph depicting his total hits over the course of his carreer as well as one other refrence to bonds during the actual lecture. Continuing on the sports scene he went on throughout the lecture refrencing different sports figures (who have been in controversy of course). Now i know the jury is split on the decisions of how people think of various athletes and i am not posting this to cause a comotion i just found it kind of entertaining to find out one of my professors was kind of crazy and also a sports fan. ~Ken:meditation:

im pretty sure ive had this before i set foot on the field.....:P

First off, i have seen a lot of good answers here and am enjoying the feedback, and to answer your question Pete, to this point i have been fairly fortunate, only one of the original cases i had in mind ended in a true Ej, and hence i caught a little flack for it in the usual places (the during and immediate after). Now going back to the original question for a moment, I personally have only ever had 2 ej's One from lack of experience and knowledge and the other (which mentioned above) was in essence a gimmie..... It was actually a quote from a 'hotshot' local college umpire that sparked this question. His response to these problems is: " act as though your umpiring with your mother standing on the other side of second base, you let the coach argue his point but the minute he says something to offend me or my mother, send him packing." I know everyone has limits, and like i said previously im enjoying the feedback. (p.s.) sorry if this sounds a little weird in places....had the one last paper due today before the break so last night was a bit of a stretch...:P

Morning all, This may not be the right place for this but if its not im sorry and feel free to move it, but reading through this section of the forums got me thinking about my 'career' to this point, and how many times i just let things slide....so i pose the question how much is to much, I know people have their limits, but at what point does everyone say enough is enough and then the imfamous Captain hook Ride again? `Ken

My Fiance gets me for this alot actually.......... As for me i put down once a month but like OP i keep one near by for times when i find myself in the 'think tank.' as the season gets closer how ever i pick it up to casual reading in between classes. :hi5:

one...two....FOUR...oh wait....

sounds like you've had alot of fun over your 25 yrs, welcome to the forums!

sadly this is becoming a reoccuring theme in games where im at....i usually just ignore it and move on ... i probably would have rung him up though....