plateumpire29

"We sat here the rest of the game admiring the size of your balls for making that call."

Hey Warren, you still have that old cap? We have some clowns in our association who could use it to replace the rags that they're wearing.

'Atta boy!

I had a batter draw a line 4 inches inside of the plate after an inside corner punchout. I said, "excuse me, may I see your bat?" Quizzically, he complied. I told him to follow me. I then drew a line from the plate to the dugout, at which time I handed him the bat and gave him the big heave-ho. Lesson learned.

If I hear a discouraging word from an assistant, I tell him to shut up or he's gone. Haven't had to toss one yet.

@ Pete. Years ago I was working a Memorial Day Tournament championship game behind the plate. It was 13u, two good teams. In a tight game, the left fielder drops a fly ball to allow in the goahead run in about the fourth inning. With a look on his face like he wanted to kill this kid, the coach got nose to nose with him at the end of the inning. The following inning, it became apparent that the kid was deathly afraid of making a mistake and let several balls drop in front of him. The enraged coach yanked him before the inning was over. The kid ran off the field with tears streaming down his face. I was so disgusted with what I had witnessed that I baited the coach and ran him. Had that been my kid, me and that coach would have been dancing in the parking lot. I don't justify my actions and don't give a damn what anybody else here thinks of what I did. That piece of s$&) probably ruined that boy as far as baseball was concerned and didn't belong in the position he was in.

Out of the 28 or so high schools that our associaton serves, there are maybe three or four that have us work their JV or freshman games solo. During the summer, there's some rec ball and eight and nine year old travel that is one-man. That's about it.The rest is two man. I can count on one hand the games I've worked solo in the last 20 years.

Generally, when a coach yells out, "that's two", I come back with "let me know when it's three and see what happens." That's generally warning enough.

In a game that's already decided, no way I'd take it away from the kid. If it turned the game, I'd have to.

@ Umpire-Scott; you need to realize that, whether the age is ten or 35, we are dealing with a child's mentality. We are the ones in authority. We are the people who must lay down the law and make it clear that certain behaviors will not be tolerated. It really doesn't matter how it is said. In my example, the offending party was straightened out, and no one watching had a clue what had just happened. Once I had a coach chirping and I pulled him aside and said,"you realize, of course, that what you're saying is going in one ear and out the other." (The message? Moaning and groaning ain't gonna change a thing. I'm keeping it friendly, for now.) There were laughs and he knocked it off. Experience. 25 years of developing a no-nonsense reputation. When coaches know an umpire can't be pushed around, they generally don't try. My strictest rule for myself is to mirror the way I'm being treated. If I'm given courtesy and respect, I respond in kind. If not, it could wind up being a long evening and it is one that I will not lose.

Generally, in an upper level game, if the volume is such that only I can hear it I'm a little more lenient. If it's turned up to "11" where everyone in the park can hear it, then I'm issuing a ticket to the parking lot. If I have a pitcher who is demonstrating, and the level doesn't matter here, I send the catcher out to him with a stern message about being forced to throw the ball into a teacup if the antics continue. I can't remember that message ever being disregarded. It all has to do with cumulative experience when it comes to knowing the right time to eject. This year I tossed a college coach three pitches into a game. I was in "A" and he decided to stand at the third base line and scream at me about the opposing pitcher's mechanics. When he disobeyed my directive to go back to his position and keep quiet, I dumped him. When he came out to get his money's worth, I explained to him that I wasn't going to listen to that garbage for two hours, and that the conversation, as far as I was concerned, was over. The rest of the game was played in sweet silence! I knew, from experience, that if I didn't eliminate the problem, it would be just that for the remainder of the game.

Froze mine and the charge seems to last longer.

This summer has been one of the hottest on record in norhteast Ohio. We've had several guys go down due to the heat. I'm on BP medication so I am definitely vulnerable. Picked up the Rite Temp cooling vest in the beginning of July and wished I had heard of it much earlier. It will completely discharge in 1:30 to 1:45 in 100 degree heat, but it does me good enough to where I can easily make it through a long game in that kind of weather. I definitely recommend it.

Why all the arguing? There's is no need to scream it. Saying it loud enough for those in the immediate vicinity to hear is sufficient. My thing is that if one does it every time in every situation, it becomes habit and eliminates one more nasty situation in which one can find oneself.

From the angle and distance, it's hard to tell if the slide is clean. To me , the catcher appeared to move into the runners baseline to field the throw. The runner and baseball arrived at the same time. If I think I've got a clean slide, I've got nothing. My positionining would have been third base extended at roughly a 30 Degree angle toward first base to the third base line. This would have given me a pretty decent look at the slide.If i've got an illegal slide and MC, the call must be made with good timing and it must be sold, as the plate guy in this video did.

I'm keying off the batter. If he's hopping around right away, shaking his hand, I've got a hit batsman. If he doesn't react, I'm looking for the ball (hopefully, I've also noticed whether it struck him in the box ,or not), whether it is fair or foul. If I don't have a pain reaction from the batter, I have it striking the bat. If the batter thinks quick enough to put on an act, God bless him, he got me. That's an awfully tough one to get right. Over a career, if you're in the 90 percentile on that call, you're doing all right.

This is precisely why, be it during an evaluation, or not, I spot a partner not putting the ball back in play after a any kind of dead ball, I am adament about correcting the situation. I tell them to get in the habit of doing so, even with the bases empty. Do it every time.I tell them that it's one of the preventative things that can save them a very large a$$ ache at some point.

Excellent toss. A few years ago I had to end a game when a coach wouldn't leave the field after being disqualified. A week later I'm on the plate for the same team. At the plate meeting, the coach asked me if there was still a problem. I told him that I had already forgotten about it and hoped that he had too. He smiled and thanked me. Didn't hear a peep out of him the entire game.

The problem is with an explanation like that, a myth is being perpetuated. It may have stopped him but for the wrong reason. The better, more appropriate response would have been the batter did nothing to interfere and F2 tried to make the batter interfere. Whether it stopped him or not is beside the point. The response would have been better supported by the rules if a protest is filed and the coach would know better if one of his batter's, while still in the box, gets called out for INT. At least, he would know his argument of "both feet in the box" is not a valid one even if he tried to pull it out of his a$. Now, it is a headache waiting for another umpire. Now you're talking about judgment, as in who initiated the contact, which, of course, is non-protestable. In this case, "both feet in the box" is a very important ingredient. If I were to use your response, which is also valid, that issue is now debatable, according to the defensive coach. Chances are pretty good that the result is a prolonged discussion as to who the offender is Yeah, but you're talking about a myth. Again, it doesn't matter how long it takes to discuss it. It matters if a coach decides to protest or not. In mine, he can't. In yours, he can b/c the rule says nothing about being immune if in the box. I just wonder what would you say if he didn't stop there with the myth and knows better. Now, you look worse and what is your backpedaling move? Now, will you blame the catcher? It will look like you are grasping at straws now when it would have been easier to say what the catcher did in the first place. If, instead of going back to his dugout without another word, the coach had asked about the contact, I certainly would have told him that the catcher initiated it. In general, when someone asks me about a play that happened in the past, I politely tell the person that I really can't render an opinion since I didn't see it. I would cite the rule as it might apply, but, since I didn't see exactly what happened, couldn't give a definitive opinion. That coach, who had 40 years in at that college, wasn't going to embarrass himself by arguing when his catcher was so obviously in the wrong.

The problem is with an explanation like that, a myth is being perpetuated. It may have stopped him but for the wrong reason. The better, more appropriate response would have been the batter did nothing to interfere and F2 tried to make the batter interfere. Whether it stopped him or not is beside the point. The response would have been better supported by the rules if a protest is filed and the coach would know better if one of his batter's, while still in the box, gets called out for INT. At least, he would know his argument of "both feet in the box" is not a valid one even if he tried to pull it out of his a$. Now, it is a headache waiting for another umpire. Now you're talking about judgment, as in who initiated the contact, which, of course, is non-protestable. In this case, "both feet in the box" is a very important ingredient. If I were to use your response, which is also valid, that issue is now debatable, according to the defensive coach. Chances are pretty good that the result is a prolonged discussion as to who the offender is

Understood. The batter can be in the box and still interfere, but in this example, the batter did nothing to warrant the call. As I've pointed out in another thread, with enough experience, if one smells a rat, generally there is one.In a D-3 game, I had a catcher deliberately make contact with a batter on a throw to second. First thing I looked at were his feet. The catcher made it too obvious because he leaned into the batter as he made the throw in trying to draw a call.. His head coach came out asking for interference and I told him the first thing I looked at were the batter's feet and they were both in the box and I had nothing. That stopped him in his tracks and the argument was over.

true ... but ... while 99.99999999% of the time he's good there, ...he can STILL interfere w/ both feet in the box.... True, but he didn't.

In looking at the video, the batter clearly had both feet inside the box at the time of the throw. I've got nothing.

Apparently mine must have been pretty special...lol

I think it's called a metaphor.