scrounge

so what happened to the original R1? Did he tag and make it to 2nd or leave without tagging?

I think you handled it just fine. You acknowledged him, you warned him, you gave him every opportunity to stay in the game and he refused.

It may have been wiser to say a little less, just telling F1 to knock it off. Perhaps send the catcher out instead or first before a warning.

I dont think theres any official HS publication that calls it that. I first read about it on the internet in 1996 or so. Basically you draw a line from F3 to F4 to F6 to F5 and if the ball crosses that line then the runner is not out and if the ball doesn't cross that line then the runner is out. And Im sure you could come up with some shift or play where the theory doesnt work but its helpful in understanding the difference in philosophy between the HS rule and the pro rule. The plain language of the rule supports that. If the ball hasn't passed a fielder other than the pitcher, it's interference regardless of where those fielders are or if they had a play or anything. ONLY if the first test is "yes" does the second clause of the "other fielder having a play" test come into operation.

Even if F4 vacated and had no play, the rule still requires that the ball pass an infielder other than the pitcher. If not, the second clause never comes into effect. Out.

yeeks....I think I'll wear my helmet for my two wood bat games today.

Not this again....an indicator or not is completely ancillary to the issue at hand of whether to step in when disagreeing with the count. It's just a tool, dependent on how the user uses it. Alabama says don't carry, Ohio says carry, others choose as they wish. Neither is intrinsically correct.

oh, holy hell....

All kidding aside, this post does bring up an interesting dilemma as to what the proper response would be. Should you go with: a - lowering your chin slightly, deadpanning and saying "Seriously?" or b - softly chuckling and walking away :)

I wouldn't worry it about it much. 16U travel teams (and parents) are probably bigger jackwagons than anything you'll run into for HS summer ball. So you're young....be confident without being a Napoleon, know your rules, keep good timing and you'll be fine. Actually, breaking into HS varsity and college ball in the summer is prob better than doing it in the reg season. Go for it.

Heck yes, they will. I did it myself Sat morning coaching my son's 11/12 yr old rec team. R1, 3B was in place for a fast grounder when it hit something on the grass field and jumped way up, hitting him right on the side of the face before bounding into (and past) the LF. I looked quickly at the runner to make sure he wasn't advancing to third and bearing down on the 3B laying in the baseline, screaming his head off, and started running directly to him. I don't even think I called time.Turned out we were REALLY lucky, it was a glancing blow to the cheek near the nose, no teeth involvement but you could see the ball's stitch marks. Kid spit a little blood but much, but he screamed for a good 10 minutes or so. I think he was in shock, but luckily one of the parents on the other team was a doctor, so he got immediate attention. And you know that with the little guys, the coach will be running on the field ASAP as well..... Also, you always have to keep in the back of your mind all the parents with the video running. How would it look if a kid appears to be seriously hurt and you, as the one in charge on the field, does nothing while waiting for the play to come to an end????

I agree completely with that as well. I say err on the side of caution - if it's clearly just a twisted ankle, monitor and play on. But anything involving the head or chest or looking serious will get a pretty quick "time". And for little guys, anything remotely serious - ESPECIALLY near the head - is getting an immediate halt, rules be damned, we're going to go see what's wrong and we'll worry about the game later.

Maybe it was too much too soon for her. Perhaps it would be more effective to just hit a few points and hit them in depth with her. Timing, positioning, pickoffs, and timing. And to work on timing. You could take the rotations and balks, IFFs, etc. Talk to her on the field ("I've got the ball, [her name]"), have her come in every couple innings to see how she's doing.

Had my own game-ending call, though a rather unsatisfying one. U15 high school, decent JV/freshman quality. Felt great behind the plate, consistently calling lower in the zone, not much above the belly button. Both coaches even told their pitchers, stay low, that's what's being called, to the point where a coach told his hitter "don't complain, that's been a strike all day". Anyway, 7 inning game is tied and goes into the bottom of the 9th inning. VT pitcher just can't hit the zone, gets two outs on bad swings for weak hits but then loads the bases on a hit and two walks. Count goes to 3-1 and pitcher goes both high and outside, close but not that close. I hadn't called that a strike all day. Maybe if it was just high or just outside, but I couldn't give both. So the game ends on the walk-off walk. I braced for the inevitable "you just want to go home", but amazingly no one said it. One fan - the local high school JV coach - did yell "oh come on, you've called it all day". Huh? The same coach was the one just one inning later saying that my zone was LOW all day. Oh well.... I didn't really want it to end like that, but that was the situation that presented itself to me.

well, except for all those ugly piss-yellow "M"'s all around, not bad!

this sounds like nitpicking of the 5th degree on the part of the offensive coach.....

A full bar for parents at a youth baseball tournament??? Why not just issue them those little mini-bats they used to give at MLB promotions to really make it easy for the mob. Half off an order of feathers with purchase of a pint of tar on Sundays?

90% of the time that would have been perfect positioning for a swipe tag....this was one of those 10% of the times that the swipe tag came from the 1B side of the plate. Stuff happens. If the runner would have just stayed down and slid thru, he'd have prob gotten the call.

It might be one of those tournaments that require the umps/coaches to sign a card after the game. And seriously - 9 pm start with no apparent time limit? Finishing after midnight?

Well, since it's a game based on NFHS rules, it broke the rule about verbal interference. And I don't see the OP as 'looking' for things, it was presented to him and handled.

I'd stop it immediately...they're directly talking to the other player in words he'd expect his coach to say.

Even with replay I can't tell if Part 1 is a bad call, the final angle is a bit straightlined. Part 2 looks like a good call - maybe super-duper-slo-mo says that there was a microsecond where there was barely contact, but maybe not as the fielder was already heading up.

Unless you're doing intense activities for over an hour (continuous, intense exercise) or are an elite athlete, there really isn't much benefit for sports drinks over plain old water.

Just to play devil's advocate, not saying this is anything I do at all, but I sometimes wonder if we'd be better off with a little movement. Something is moving - either your eyeballs are moving or your head is moving, but moving is unavoidable. I get the camera analogy, though I think that's more applicable to BU or other times when your entire body is moving. But there's another analogy that comes to mind from my days as a tanker. Maybe for some, our eyes are more akin to a tank cannon being stabilized. Can you really track a fast-moving object by moving tiny little eyeballs or by keeping your eyes locked in and (slightly) moving your much larger head? Again, just thinking out loud...

Yep, the scorekeeper was a mom behind the dugout (a moderately cute mom...but I digress). She didn't notice. Interestingly, two innings later she did notice and stop the game for a batting out of order situation. Even though we were playing under free substitution and no lineups!