Umpy

As a strict literallist, she stopped and stood on the orange base for a second, which means she was no longer returning "immediately to the base". I would be too chicken to call the Out though. I was conscripted into umpiring Little League Softball district and state tournaments this year (I had at the time 3 games of Softball experience, but hundreds of Little League baseball, so they figured I was qualified enough to do Bases) and in the brief "here's how to be a softball umpire" briefings I got from several former Softball LLWS umpires there was a LOT of emphasis put on the not standing on the Orange base when the pitcher has the ball. It definitely got in my head overthinking about the orange base not being safe except in your first time past. I don't know if its something pushed a lot in LL Softball training, but the trained guys sure pushed it a lot on me.

The way MLB handles plate blocking is definitely the way my thought process arrived at this being obstruction. It would seem like a rule being applied inconsistently if that behavior is only disallowed at home plate, but I suppose there's much more injury risk running home than diving back into 3rd.

Play in the top of the 5th inning a Connecticut runner is initially called safe diving back to 3rd and upon review it is overturned to an out. In the extensive replays they show it looks like the fielder had his foot and leg completely blocking the base before he had the ball in his glove. I would have called this obstruction since he was blocking the path to the base before he had the ball. Would this be overumpiring on my part? (video should be time stamped to the right spot, but if its not the play happens at 8:42)

It can't be lodged because it would be a violation of the 3rd Amendment!

I should clarify, the guy who insisted the base umpire should take all fly balls was in a 2 man situation. I am confident THAT was not appropriate mechanics, but I'll try anything once.

I'm in the Pacific Northwest, and all the rain this weekend has unfortunately knocked the schedule around so much that all of my 3-man opportunities have been downgraded to 2-man opportunities, so this conversation has become purely academic. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Looking at that priority list, the only thing I think I'd be compromising by taking a step off the line would be Fair/Foul, for Safe/Out on backpicks I'd probably be even better equipped there. In Little League games I usually find the plate umpire aggressively insisting they will take all Fair/Foul responsibility and all fly balls (with the exception of one guy I worked with who aggressively insisted the base umpire should take all fly balls in all situations), but that's probably not something I should adapt to if I ever want to do State or even Regional assignments. I would imagine more passionate umpires would be more keen to split responsibility. In regards to doing what's taught, I'm not sure there is official Little League mechanics taught for 3-man, there's the 4-man guide you posted above but nothing about 3-man. I've been verbally told some basics (when to be in B or C, when to rotate) but otherwise it's mostly been "follow softball mechanics" which is what I've read up on. Someone told me that West Region and East Region disagree on a lot of mechanics and there won't be anything official published until they do.

Leaving early

I know there are a different mechanics in different versions of 3-Man, but an umpire in D position is going to be able to easily line up their eyes to see both 1st and 3rd at the same time, why wouldn't I want to take advantage of having the best angle on two bases? I think this was taken from Softball mechanics, I've been told there's no OFFICIAL standard for 3-man mechanics in Little League because different regions can't agree on the best mechanics, maybe this is one of the differences dividing folks?

I've got some 3-Man games coming up with Little League district tournaments next week and I'm looking for some input on D position. I know when we're supposed to be in D/C/B/A, but I haven't found any materials or videos online that really help me out with best positioning around D as the play evolves (if you know any good material for that, I'd love to review it). I attached a diagram I whipped up in MSPaint to help explain my thoughts. Situation 1: R1 and R2, I'm going to be starting in Position 1 right on the foul line. With a ball in play and expecting a force out at 3rd, I think I'd want to stay approximately in Position 1 if the ball is coming from F6, F4, or F8; approximately Position 2 if the ball is coming from F7, and approximately Position 4 if its coming from F1, F2, or for some Little League reason F3. Situation 2: R2 only, I'm going to be starting in Position 1 right on the foul line. Ball in play or runner stealing, I'm going to try to move into Position 3 to see a tag. But so too is the Little League Third base coach. Should I just body check him? Or should I be moving somewhere else? Situation 3: R3, R2, and R1. In Little League my responsibilities start with watching for R3 or R1 leaving early so I'm going to be starting off the foul line a bit somewhere around Position 2 to get a good view of 1st and 3rd base. Ball in play, I'll move similar to Situation 1 depending on where it was hit to, and then move toward Position 3 if there's a tag opportunity. If R3 is off the bag and they try to get him on a back pick, I'm unsure the best place to be. Position 2 doesn't seem like the best angle and I'm not sure I'd have the time to hustle into another spot. Is my logic sound or are there some good angles I'm just leaving on the table? I know I am over thinking this, but a 10U Little League tournament with 3-man is the perfect time to focus on honing the craft.

Another option would have been to simply slide to the other side of the base. The distance is the same. 40 inch bases?

The solution is probably 20 inch bases. Heck, 30 inch bases.

This is why pre-game discussions/meetings with the other member(s) of your crew are important. Or a between innings meeting(s) when your partner didn't roll up to the field until halfway through the plate meeting. Better to review signals late than not at all!

To be fair to the kid, he was pretty consistently hitting the ball to the outfield, if his leg was still healthy he probably would have still had insane stats. If his leg was still healthy though I'd bet he'd have been playing in a higher level.

It definitely has the "this rule was created to solve a specific issue and we have not play tested it to see how it will be gamed" feel to it. To accommodate a child that was able to bat but no longer able to run due to an operation on his leg my league adopted what they called an "Adaptive Runner" rule that had a runner start at an orange cone 60 feet past first base on the foul line, the runner would run to the orange bag double base as soon as the batter hit the ball (the batter stayed in the box). Halfway through the season the rule had to evolve because the "Adaptive Runner" was doing things like leaving early, starting with his back foot on the cone to be closer to 1st base, and launching after every pitch regardless if the batter swung; the batter the rule was made to accommodate was hitting something like .800 I was involved in the initial concept of the rule but coming up with rules is hard, its tough not to leave a loophole in there to be abused once the competitive juices get flowing. Now that I write it out this may actually be up there with the final boss of weird local rules, I am part of the problem.

I second this sentiment even if you're not PLANNING to move up. I only do Little League these days but I wear gear ready for older divisions because I know with the shortage of umpires the day will come that someone tries to talk me into doing 18U again on short notice.