fallschum04

This had the potential of happening in last night's Indians-Tigers game and I was wondering what the rule at the MLB level would be. I looked in their rule book, but couldn't find anything specific. Under MLB rules (obviously), batter gets "hit" by the pitch and is hurt on the pitch. They then send in a pinch runner to first base. However, after the substitution is made, the Tigers review the play and find it hit the bat that the batter had let go of first, then ricocheted into his arm. So the now pinch runner has to come to finish the at-bat instead of being on first base. My question is: would there be any way, if the batter had not been injured on the play, that he would have been allowed to re-enter the game to finish his at-bat? I could imagine this situation if it's in the late innings of a close game and a team puts a pinch runner in for speed, then he has to come back to bat after the review.

I've been umpiring for a while now (at least with my certification). I haven't been able to do many high school games due to my work schedule so I've never had to keep a lineup card as most, if not all of my games, have been continuous lineup. My work schedule has changed and it allows me to work earlier which means more high school games. I am wondering through the experience in these forums, what are some of the tricks and tips to keeping a consistent lineup card? I remember talking about it five years ago in my certification classes, but over five years of not using it, I forget some of the tips that were told to me.

I'm not sure where its an OHSAA fine or just my umpiring association's fine, but we are not allowed to wear our OHSAA uniforms for any non OHSAA sanctioned ball. If someone reports us, we face a $100 fine.

I worked a 10U travel game the other day. I could tell just by the time we started the game that he was a rookie umpire who has a lot to learn on a baseball field. First of all, I can't get a hold of him the day before or the day of the game so I'm trying to find him in the parking lot. Ten minutes before the game is supposed to start, I walk to the field to see if my partner is there. Nothing. One of the coaches informs me that he was at his car on the complete other side of the parking lot from where the umpires get ready. I go to the his car to meet with him and he's got all his gear on and insists on doing the plate. Nevermind the fact that he was wearing his high school shirt (which in Ohio is a $100 fine if someone reports you) and it was the only shirt he brought so I had to follow his lead and wear the high school shirt. We get to the field to do the pregame with the coaches and I had to lead the entire conference without him so much as saying a word. Once the game started, I could not believe how much he wasn't paying attention to the action of the game. During the TOP half of the first inning alone, he had to ask me for the correct count four times. When a player had fouled the ball out of play, he would stand there waiting for the pitcher to throw the ball not realizing he had to put a new ball in. This continued for the rest of the game. (Thank God for a mercy rule that ended this game at an hour and a half.) I'm surprised that there wasn't more chirping from either bench during the game. The only complaint that I heard was from the scorekeeper in the pressbox (who I've known for a long time) who came up to me between innings and basically told me that the home plate umpire was horrible and shouldn't be umpiring. Nothing was wrong with any of the calls he made throughout the game. His strike zone was right on and he missed maybe one call, but his mechanics and the way he conducted himself throughout the game were straight up abysmal. After the game was over, he told me he went up to the coach of the team that had a call go against them and said "I'm sorry" and "I owe you one" to the coach. I just kind of glared at him and told him that he shouldn't say that to any coach ever. It was an easy game to do barring all of the mechanics errors (not to say that I'm perfect. I missed a couple mechanics out there too.) Some people just need a lot of work to get onto a baseball field and do a good job.

I got it from my local library and expected to take the maximum three weeks to read it. I finished it in 3 hours. It's very interesting even though some of the writing seems to sound like he was writing down verbatim whatever he could remember. But all in all, a very good book. Some of the stories in it are pretty funny.

I had the almost the same thing happen in a 10U CYO game and if anyone knows anything about CYO coaches, you know that one team was beyond ticked off. At least it wasn't to end the game, but it was for a strike three. Kid is up, maybe the fourth inning, they've got a good rally going, bases loaded, two outs, 2-2 count. Kid thinks the ball is going over his head, so he ducks his head over the strike zone. Ball drops right to his head, hits him on the helmet. He starts running down to first. The PU (I was BU) calls "Ball hit him in the strike zone. That's a strike. Strike three. Batter is out." Parents were all confused. They didn't know that was an actual rule and the coach was livid. We let him have his say, but we weren't changing that call. He eventually cooled off and even told us "Good game" afterwards. He told us he looked up the rule after it happened on the bench and told us we were right. It's nice to hear that from a coach when a call like that happens.