IABlue

It was clearly voluntary release. This is pretty much the very definition of it. If you don't think that is a catch then there are dozens and dozens and dozens of outs that you are leaving on the field throughout the course of your season.

Clearly an out at the plate. Not even questionable. Bad call. The play at 2nd is interesting and not unlike the "voluntary release" thread from a few weeks back. Runner's foot knocked the ball out, not sure how that can be considered control unless there is some kind of interference ruling, which this clearly was not. Looks like two blown calls on the same play.

What? Seriously? You can't get more cut and dried than telling an umpire, "you're a piece of sh!t." I don't care if Little poisoned his cat, you can't say that without getting run. I'm gonna go ahead and say that if the dude poisoned his cat, he should get a little more rope than normal.

Fantastic call. Should have dumped the guy, though.

What the hell does this mean? It couldn't possibly be any simpler or more self-explanatory. Maybe you can find a gradeschool kid somewhere that can explain it to you. Either counters are MANDATORY for everyone, or they are optional for everyone. If you cannot comprehend that statement then I don't know what I can possibly do to help you out.

You should be getting an e-mail notification saying that there are "changes" to your game. Your assigner is probably not doing something correctly.

I agree on the bases, on the plate your job is to track the count and this a tool to do so. It's like not wearing plate shoes, a personal choice but not a smart one. Who the hell are you to tell people what to use/carry/not carry behind the plate? Just because you are incapable of mentally keeping track of 5 or so pitches per batter does not mean that others are so handicapped. I will also point out here that a veteran coach in my area noticed that I wasn't using one the other day and complimented me on it after the game. I impressed the hell out of that guy.

I also used to feel "naked" without a "counter" (proper terminology), but was determined to do away with it this year and have not had a single issue through a full college and then a full high school season. I will say that I have noticed that guys staring at/obviously clicking their counter after strike 3 or the third out of an inning look like morons. Glad that's not me anymore. One key factor is how often you have a working scoreboard at your games. I did work one HS game without a scoreboard and that one was a little dicey, but as the season has progressed I find myself correcting the scoreboard more and more frequently. My last point is that anyone who would ding a PU for not carrying a counter but feels that the BU can get by without one is an idiot. Either everyone should be forced to have one, or either should have their choice. Saying that it's mandatory for PU but not BU is beyond stupid and frankly I have trouble taking someone that thinks like that very seriously on a baseball field.

First one ever... http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/major-league-baseball-umpire-let-go-after-drug-violation-070213

It is beyond ridiculous that the national anthem is played before sporting events. They have absolutely nothing at all to do with eachother. You might as well play it in a movie theater before watching a movie or at restaurant before dinner. Just stupid.

Are you kidding? Everyone screws up a rule from time to time. Hell, they even do it in the major leagues. I've seen even great rule umpires that have had a momentary brainfart. It happens to all of us on occasion. Now if they blatantly don't know a rule or insist it's one thing when it's really something else, show them in the book and maybe they can learn something from it. But if a guy just spaces out on the field once in a blue moon but can recognize his mistake in the locker room, no harm/no foul.

Definitely taught by ASA (as well as NCAA), and I have never seen a softball umpire worth a crap that didn't start out working ASA, so basically any softball umpire than has a clue what they are doing will be brushing bases and rubbers frequently (usually the bases too often, but the rubber should be done every inning or so).

OK, I'm not going to pile on here and assume that you were in the right for 99% of what went on and that the partner in question is a gigantic idiot, but I will take exception to the quoted passage. According to your own version of the story, this is 100% factually accurate. The other guy wanted to stop the game and you wouldn't let him. What exactly is the big deal with acknowledging this fact? Once a decision is made to either halt or continue play, that needs to be owned by the umpire making this decision. There should be no attempt made to hide who was responsible for this call after the fact.

The pitching plate is swept so the base umpire can watch to make sure the pitcher is in contact with the rubber and not committing an illegal pitch. The bases are swept for a similar reason, as base runners cannot leave the base until the ball has left the pitchers hand. It makes it a lot easier to see these violations when the plate/bases are clean. I've worked a lot of softball, and cleaning a bases has nothing at all to do with watching runners leaving early. It has everything to do with being able to see the base when the next play is made there (force or tag). And yes, softball umpires tend to do this WAAAAAAY too often.

How are you supposed to call the game if you can't see the bases?

There are certain people that can get away with murder simply because they've been around for awhile and/or they're a good guy and they have the respect of the coaches. It can be frustrating early on, but your goal should be to stick around long enough and do a good enough job on a consistent basis that someday you become the guy that everyone respects enough where you can make a mistake and it either goes unnoticed or is immediately forgiven.

How do you know who your partner is until you accept the game? In the Associations I am in with Arbiter with, I can't see who my partner is until I accept the game. Then once you accept the game, you turning back a assigned game instead of declining a game. Either way you may not get you a lot of points with the Assigner. This will vary by group. My college associations have partner info blocked until you accept, but for all of my high school assignments I can see who my partner is before I accept/decline. I would never take a high school game unless I knew beforehand who I was working with. This is another thing that will vary by assignor.

Guy was safe at 3rd, but deserved to be called out.

Not a chance that was an out. No way.

Voluntary release can also mean "makes some other controlled movement with the ball not associated with the momentum of the catch / tag". So in your ridiculous play once the fielder starts jogging under control to the mound any release will meet the voluntary release portion of the catch. Which is a complete contradiction from your earlier statements in this thread, as mstaylor has clearly pointed out that after tagging the bag, the guy then starts a new movement which causes him to lose control, yet you have somehow decided that this does not qualify as a voluntary release. You should probably make up your mind which way you want to argue this point before you continue. Don't worry, we'll all take a timeout and wait for you.

The language in the definition of a catch sucks. Nobody waits for a voluntary release before making an out call, if secure possession has been established and momentum dissipated, we call that a catch. Called strike three. Catcher sticks it. Umpires A) Waits for catcher to roll the ball back to the mound B) calls the batter out. This is the correct answer, and shows the difference between who's really paying attention and knows what they're talking about and those that know the verbiage in the rules but don't understand how to apply it during an actual game.

The play at 3rd was an understandable miss, but the play at 1st was horrible and wasn't even all that close.

I always love this type of reasoning. So if a guy catches a can-of-corn pop up in deep centerfield for the final out of an inning, begins trotting towards the infield on his way to the dugout, nears the pitching mound where he's going to leave the ball, stumbles and falls and the ball comes out, this would NOT be a voluntary release and thus not the 3rd out of the inning, at least according to your argument. That's a ridiculous distortion of what Fittske is saying, IMO. Just look directly at what he quoted, secure possession and firm control. The time aspect he then mentions is about continuing action, with I thought was eminently clear from the context of the rest of the post and others. In my judgment, a flailing defender who flips the ball after falling did not have secure and firm control. When did he lose it? Can I definitively say he had possession the micro-second after the tag but it started slipping out just after? Nope. To me, he's safe in this case. No it most certainly is not a ridiculous distortion. It is the logical extension of his argument, used to demonstrate the absurdity of said argument. Go ahead and try to explain the difference, but you can't.

Again, why not? He has possession of the ball when tagging the base. Whatever would happen after that is completely irrelevant, in terms of a force play.

I always love this type of reasoning. So if a guy catches a can-of-corn pop up in deep centerfield for the final out of an inning, begins trotting towards the infield on his way to the dugout, nears the pitching mound where he's going to leave the ball, stumbles and falls and the ball comes out, this would NOT be a voluntary release and thus not the 3rd out of the inning, at least according to your argument.