cbiesecker

I'm guessing the lighting in the umpire's locker room makes navy look black.

Besides being an umpire, I also keep the book for my son's 12U team. Tonight I was the scorekeeper. R2 and B2 hits the ball hard to the hole between F5 and F6. F5 moves to his left, knocks the ball down, and ends up lying on the ground. While on the ground he gets the ball in his glove and as he's trying to get up, his feet and R2's feet tangle. R2 was running behind F5 at the time. F5 isn't able to make a tag on R2 nor is there time to make a play to 1st. R2 gets to 3B safely. The umpire didn't make any calls. After the team came into the dugout they wanted to know what I would have done. I told them that the umpire got the call right. There was neither interference or obstruction, and it was just contact and a failed tag. It's probably a HTBT, but can there be contact between the bases that is sometimes nothing?

12U game working alone using OBR. Hard grounder to F5 that eats him up from a bad bounce. He knocks the ball down but can't make a play. He takes his glove off and is holding his wrist. BR stopped at 1st and isn't advancing. Play relaxes. DC requests and I grant time so that he can attend to his player. I take the opportunity to clean the plate. When I turn around I see the DC showing F5 where to play at the cutout. I tell the coach to stop as there is no coaching while attending to an injured player. I know that I should haven't turned my back on the situation, so lesson learned there. But my question is what if any penalty can be assessed. In the case of a pitcher, it would have been a mound conference. But what about an injury visit to another fielder?

Another umpire from PA. Welcome!

I left it out. And as Jax has pointed out before, there was no trouble reaching into my ballbag.

Starting my 2nd year and had my first game tonight, solo, 12U, 50/70 field. All my lurking on UE helped me out. Strike zone was better. Called more of an oval shaped zone. BTW, the catchers name was written in marker on the back of his glove. Banger at first, clearly heard the "pop" of the ball and then saw and heard the "whap" of the runner's foot hitting the bag. Banged him out, knowing that I got the call right. Ball hit to F4 and bad throw to F3. Ball goes to the fence and BR goes for second. Ball barely beats the runner to second, but F6's tag is slow in getting down. I also see F4 looking at the ground behind the bag. I call him "safe". Dugout is grumbling, and I smile as F4 picks up the ball. Kept my timing slow, one play - one call. Thanks, UE for all the great discussions. BTW, my biggest judgement decision all night was whether to tuck in my jacket or leave it out.

Tried the Battle compression shorts with the Nutty Buddy tonight. I wasn't impressed. By the third inning the NB was working its way up. By the fifth it was partially sideways. I used the boxer briefs / jock combo last season without any problems. I'll be going back to the combo method. Curious if anyone else has had a similar experience.

In Pennsylvania we were given the same interpretation for the windup position. Having the heel of the free foot touching the front edge of the rubber is not sufficient. Some part of the free foot needs to be on top of the rubber or clearly behind an imaginary line running across the front edge of the rubber.

My copy of the VUC arrived today. I took advantage of the UE deal. Looking forward to reviewing it this weekend.

Changed my vote to one. Met Dan tonight at a cage session. Great guy. Hopefully we'll get a chance to work together sometime this season.

Pennsylvania is navy shirts for baseball. My association also requires charcoal pants. I don't know if charcoal pants are a statewide thing, or just something my association requires.

I've found that the Under Armour boxer briefs work real well as the base layer.

Good transaction with: FranklinT

Response from the Babe Ruth League: "Our rule books were printed before the MLB instituted this new rule. Therefore, it will not be reflected in our rule books. While leagues can adopt the new rule for local league play, that will be on a per-league basis. The new rule will not be enforced in tournament play for the 2013 season. The rule will very likely be added to the rule books for the 2014 season."

The new feint to third rule is not in the BR/CR 2013 rule book. In fact the example play of the 3-1 is still in there as being legal provided its not done in practically the same motion. I have submitted a feint to third rules question to the Babe Ruth League. I'll share the response once I get it.

Just picked up the WVG TW pads from FranklinT. Looking forward to trying them out.

Questions about where to place the runners for OBR. In OBR - R1 remains at 1B and R2 remains at 2B? In FED - R1 is awarded 2B and R2 moves to 3B. In the event the R1 failed to make it safely back to 1B because of the OBS, would he still need to retouch 1B before moving to 2B or risk being out on appeal?

Since I only have 1 year of experience and will be doing FED games for the first time this year, I'll bite. "Time!, Batters out! You (pointing at R1 standing on 2nd) back to 1st."

In my situation, F4 was playing normal depth, behind the runner's path to the base. After F4 fielded the ball he turned towards the runner for the tag, that's when R1 started to move away towards the infield. I was calling and signaling the out just as the ball popped out of the glove. So I added a sweep of my arms with an "out of the baseline", and then signaled the out again. This still didn't stop the coach from coming out to ask about the call.

F4 cleanly fields a grounder and has control of the ball while making a tag attempt on R1 who is moving towards him. R1 veers over 3' towards the infield to avoid the tag. F4 pursues him to the edge of the infield grass and then lunges with his glove to make a tag. The ball pops out as the glove touches the runner. What do you got? In my situation I had judged that F4 had control of the ball up until the point he lunged with his glove to tag the runner. By that point the runner was already 5' or more out of the base path. I called the runner out for being out of the base path. What if F4 didn't have complete control of the ball and was juggling it during the tag attempt. I'm thinking that even if the runner had gone more than 3' outside of his base path, he would be safe since it's not a legitimate tag attempt for lack of ball control.

Mine just arrived in the mail. All I got to see was the covers until my wife snatched them away since they are a Christmas present.

My son and I attended the 12U World Series in Aberdeen this past summer. Cal was there watching the game from the picnic area near right field. There was a line of kids waiting to meet him, including my kid. He had something nice to say to every kid he met and he even took the time to pose for pictures. I thought the environment was top notch. The boorish behavior from parents that I see at many tournaments was minimal to non existant. I was impressed and plan to go back next year.

12U, inside pitch, catcher totally misses it, hits me square in the NB and bounces out in front of home plate. Coach says to his catcher "nice block". I say "That was me". He gives me a wide eyed look as I tell his catcher "You gotta get those son. Now throw it back and lets play." I'm a believer in the Nutty Buddy.

First year of umpiring. Worked the Majors division in both 46/60 and 50/70 for my local Cal Ripken league. Just found out that I got the 46/60 championship game. I'm on the plate and my UIC is working the bases. I'm excited.

That's what I thought. I could just see this play happening at a youth game and the coaches wanting to know why the batter isn't out since F2 caught the foul ball. Can't even imagine the noise that would be coming from the parents. Though thankfully the likely hood of a youth F2 making this play is slim.