Umpy

I did a Little League tournament this past year where some of the umpires walked around and swept off every base between each inning. Then I had a coach ask me if he could sprinkle some dirt on third base so the kids would be able to slide onto it easier. I had to tell him one of the other umpires would probably fight him about it.

I think the ruleset does matter here. The Little League rule (7.08 a.3.) reads the runner is out if "the runner does not slide or attempt to get around a fielder who has the ball and is waiting to make the tag"

'A' position has a better angle for checked swing appeals for right handed batters.

Don't get me wrong. Even though this play got right in the end, it looked bad. U3 should have "broken protocol" and called it since no one else was. Absolutely a pre-game topic. Its worth considering that U2 very well may have made a call and just been off camera and in a terrible position to get the call right due to trying to follow the Little League prescribed rotation. Everyone on the field may have done exactly as instructed and this just exposes a weakness of the manual more than an issue with any umpire. There's no way anyone was looking out toward 2nd base to see if an umpire was signaling safe or out.

At the 10:43 mark in this recap there's runners on 1st and 2nd, fly ball to left field. U3 goes out, and there's a play at 3rd with no one there to make a call. I reviewed the Little League 4-man guide and it said this should have been covered by U2, how is U2 supposed to get into a good position in time for a force play at 3rd? I feel like PU is the only one who's going to have a good look here.

I need something cheap enough to give away to coaches who forget the count.

I remember my bad calls a lot longer than I remember who won the game I made them in.

After working U3 on a bunch of 8-10 Little League tournament games this past week, I would completely believe he just wanted an excuse to leave.

It'll all be worth it when I earn my spot umpiring the totally real 10U LLWS on ESPN8.

My Little League experience has had mostly polite and pleasant coaches and parents (with a few memorable exceptions here and there). Kids and coaches, all eager to learn and willing to accept any explanations I give them. Even the ones that think I blew a call won't comment more than "Man, I really thought my runner got under the tag on that one" to which I always reply "yeah, it was a close one alright" The quality of baseball is definitely not always there. I did a 10U Little League game Monday where a kid could not find the strike zone. Complete blow out, Little League Home Runs, obstruction everywhere. THAT game drove me to madness and had me with second thoughts on doing Little League.

I think a more important distinction here is that in order for an Umpire to enforce this rule the defense has to make an appeal. The Umpire has been explicitly asked to enforce the rule, if you want to say its unsporting, shouldn't your ire be with the defense

I was watching this live and was immediately confused by if "in front of home plate" was referring to directly in front of the plate or generally in front of the plate. It looked like he stepped forward of the plate, but does that count as in front?

I dunno, in my last Little League game I walked over and gave the coach one of my spare indicators after he yelled at his catcher to tag the batter on an uncaught strike 2.

The comments on that video point to another channel that has a clip showing it hit the warning track. One of them is a bad video I guess, but which?

From the 2024 Little League case book, it doesn't look like there are any exceptions in Little League: RULE 7.08(f) SITUATION: With the infield playing back, a batted ball strikes a runner who is standing on second base. RULING: The runner is out for interference, the ball is immediately dead, and the batter-runner is awarded first base, no other runners may advance unless forced. (NOTE: Bases are not a safe haven from being struck with a batted ball except in the case of an Infield Fly. If a runner is struck by an Infield Fly while standing on a base, they will not be declared out.)

The Little League rulebook (7.15) states the Orange base is only a requirement for the offense when a play is being made on the Batter Runner. It also states that the Defense can use the Orange base in an uncaught third strike situation. They've thought of EVERYTHING.

This sort of confusion is partly why I have in the past pointed at calls and said descriptively what they were. Something like point at the catch and say "That's a catch" while signaling the out, then point at 2nd and say "Safe at 2nd" while signaling safe. You never know when someone is going to get confused on your call, why not make it as visually and audibly clear as possible for everyone? I've stopped doing it because the people who can assign me more prestigious games said its better to just say "Out" or "Safe" and that it will be obvious to everyone what play I'm referring to.

I finally got one tonight, so now I'm 1 in 14 games this year

I exclusively help out with my local Little League these days and I was thinking to myself that I can't remember the last time I've actually had an Infield Fly when the Infield Fly rule is in effect. Lots of fly balls to the infield, but never when the infield fly rule is in effect. Lots of times where my partner and I will signal the infield fly rule is in effect, and then on the next pitch (aka the next passed ball) everyone safely advances. Is this just Little League? Are Infield Fly calls common at other levels? I actually tried doing some searches to see if I could find how frequently Infield Fly is called in MLB but I've had no luck finding any stats online about it. So informal survey, how often do you call someone out on an infield fly (if fair)?

You can't wear black every time though, folks might think you only own one shirt! Gotta rotate some blue in so the players know you're not poor.

The couple bad misses I've seen in the World Series so far looked like just absolutely amazing frame jobs. If they didn't have the rectangle and dot graphics up I think we all would have been just as fooled.

For Play 2, that happened in the MLB just a couple weeks ago: https://www.mlb.com/news/marcus-semien-tagged-out-batting-gloves-alcs-game-4 The rules reference in that article cover Play 1 as well, but these are OBR

As I recall he got him with the follow through, and then released the bat. So I guess both? How would you handle differently in the two scenarios?

6.05 (c) interfering with the catcher's field or throwing the instructors comment in the RIM Now that I read it again it says that I can only call it a strike, so no penalty to the batter in either scenario: "If a batter strikes at a ball and misses and swings so hard he/she carries the bat all the way around and, in the umpires judgement, unintentionally hits the catcher or the ball in back of him/her on his/her follow-through before the catcher has securely held the ball, it shall be called a strike only (not interference). The ball will be dead, however, and no runner shall advance on the play." That still leaves my real concern though being how to manage this in games.

Doing a Little League fall ball game over the weekend and I had a batter hit an easy single and then also the catcher during his follow through and release. If I read the rules correctly I can only call the batter out for follow-through interference if he misses the ball. My understanding here is that since he got the ball in play there's nothing to be done but warn folks to keep hold of their bats better? And then if it continues, what, eject a 10 year old? What's the best approach when working with kids young enough that they are probably consistently doing it unintentionally? My catcher was pretty upset, I want to defend my catchers where I can.