umped up

I did not know that. He was a fairly new umpire and unsure of many things. Not that that matters I guess.

Before the game my partner and I discussed a few things including the way will use the stopwatch. After he finished at the plate meeting, he asked if there was anythiing he had missed. That's when I brought up the stop watch. Other than that.....

Yup that is where I say you had a mess up. Never ever saw things like that to a coach. Opinion has no place as an umpire. Out/Safe, Strike/Ball, Rule is right or wrong. Do not get into arguments on philosophy with a coach. Game is over leave the field with your partner. Definitely will keep that in mind. Thanks

Absolutely, I talked with him before hand. He said that he totally forgot about the stop watch on the warm up pitch. He was totally cool with me doing that. If I would have just added a couple minutes to my watch when he did that, Im sure that would have come to bite me in the rump from the other team somehow.

The game time starts whenever the tournament rules or local league rules say it starts. Some say its the first pitch and some say its the plate meeting and some say its the game time listed on the schedule and some say something else. Know your local rules. No it doesnt and most time limit rules that I have worked with have the same provision of completeing the inning. In this particular tournament, it was in the rules that the time started with first warm up

Hey big Dave, have you been working much yet this year? I'd love to partner up with you again soon. I was going to leave on my profile page how I heard about this site but couldnt figure out how to leave it. Thanks for the recommendation, this has been an awesome site to learn from.

Easy. It took 2 minutes to throw 8 warm up pitches and a throw to second, then the first game pitch. There ya go. That's about 30 seconds too long, assuming pitcher threw 8 in less than a minute. And the usual couple past balls, I'm sure.

Holy moses batman, Yes this is me. Dave, thanks for the kudos. Kudos? He called you a gay porn star... Exactly, which means I'm hung. :rollinglaugh:

Easy. It took 2 minutes to throw 8 warm up pitches and a throw to second, then the first game pitch. There ya go.

Holy moses batman, Yes this is me. Dave, thanks for the kudos.

We umpires need not use proper grammar! shut the f%$k up!

Awesome point. Great point. I guess one or the other happend ay? :ZZZ:

Round robin play. Games are 1:45 long. Game time starts on first warmup pitch. I always use a stopwatch to keep track of the time and I tell the coaches at the plate meeting how I will do this. I say on the first warmup pitch, as soon as that ball hits the catchers mit, I will start my stopwatch and that will be the official time. There is never a problem. I hate calling out a game time because there are too many discrepancies when it comes down to that final minute. I'm the BU in this game. I start the watch at 1st warmup pitch like directed. First batter of the game comes to bat and after the first game pitch, PU calls out a game time. Im like, what? I immediately looked down at my stopwatch (after pulling from pocket) and noticed 2 minutes have expired. I waited until after that half inning to correct the time. I went over to the score keeper and explained that we are using a stopwatch. She had 8:58 game start but since I noticed a 2 minute difference I had her change it to 8:56. (not that it matters, right?) I'm not sure why PU couldn't understand this. We even talked about it before the game as of why a lot of us use the stopwatch. He seemed to get it. Maybe by habit, he blurted it out. It comes to this. It's the bottom of the 6th, home team down by 2 with 2 outs. Theres about 4 minutes left at this time and Im thinking we are playing another full inning. Well, a walk ensues, then a base hit and before you know it the time is down to a minute before the game is official and this is the last half inning. Well, the time expires with a hitter still at the plate, I signaled to my partner by pointing at my wrist and a slicing my throat action letting him know the official time has expired. Just a nod of his head. Batter makes an out within the next couple of minutes. PU signals nothing so I put my hands up and said, that's ball game, the time has expired. The home team was being instructed to take the field. The coach comes out of the dugout with some time apparatus saying that there is 2 minutes left. I said, "no, the time has expired according to my stop watch". He said but the PU announced the game time and it was 8:58 and there is a couple minutes left here. I explained to him that we discussed this during the plate meeting and I start the time on the first warmup pitch and after hearing the PU announce the time, I went to the official score keeper (on his team) and explained it and changed the time to 8:56. This didnt matter at this point. He was sticking to the game time that was announced. He said that he wasn't aware of the change because noone let him know of it. At this time his players are askew on he field while the other team is in their organized little line to shake hands. I stick to my guns knowing that this game was played to it's entirety, "officially". He now was getting more animated and saying that I'm wrong, just plain wrong. He says, "you are doing an injustice to my kids, it's my kids your hurting here, that's not in the spirit of baseball". While I can see where he is coming from, I made the choice that it was official. The game was played in the allotted amount of time given. The thing that I may have done wrong was when I said to the coach, "is it an injustice to your kids or all the kids, If we play another inning and you end up coming back and winning, is it an injustice to now the other kids"? It absolutely is im thinking. The game was official and just because a coach want's me to put another 2 minutes on the clock because of the mishandling of time, the other team now loses and jerks a win away from them even though they beat them fair and square. I could only imagine the argument from the other coach who would have had a better argument. I learned to make sure coaches know of any changes (not just to count on the official score keeper) and if PU doesn't call when time is expired, I will. Did I do the right thing in making the game official?

Doing the 14AAA game, playing to get into the championship game. It was a great game with all the ingredients to make it great. Good plays, close calls, good pitching, high intensity from fans, players and of course coaches. It's bottom of 5 with the visiting team down by 1. 2 outs R2, base hit to F7. I back up 3rd base extended and read the play-throw. The throw is off line towards the 1st base side, the catcher moves up to intercept it and makes a sweep tag at the runner. I notice this and work to the 1B extended up the 3rd base line a tad to get good angle. F2 makes the catch and swipes at R2 and just catches his back cleat. I had a perfect look at it. (I have no idea why R2 leaped at the last moment but that's how he got his cleat) I wait momentarily, F2 shows the ball and I bang him hard. 3 outs! The fans go wild, players go wild with excitment and loud cheers. Great intensity from everyone. I look left at this flying object, lets call him the 3rd base coach and stops right in my grill and starts hollering. "you missed that call, you missed that call, he did not tag him, are you kidding me"? And he's yelling! At the same time he was yelling, I was saying, " he got the tag coach, he got the tag, he tagged him on his foot.....yes he did". I was a little louder than normal giving the ubruptness of it all. He again said, "there's no way he made that tag", I said, "coach, he got his foot, we're done here, get back to the dugout". He walks off mumbling under his breathe...takes a few more steps, turns around and yells, "there's no way, that's ridiculous". I turned his way for a moment and ready to warn him but he continued to the dugout saying no more. My partner gave me a short visit and we discussed it for a short moment. I told my parnter, " I'll bet you that the coach will be apologizing to me before the game is over". He said, "no way". " I'll bet you $10 he will". " Deal, he says". We shake. I can hear the fans in which the call was against saying "good call blue". The next inning my partner is talking to me and that very coach walks up to me with a big cheesy smile and says, "blue, I'm sorry bout that (as he extended his hand) I was just so intense at the moment, My wife even told me that he was tagged". He walked off feeling foolish for his outburst. My partner said, " you gotta be f$%*ing kidding me". I laughed. He gave me $10 after the game.

Awee f%&#em if they cant take a joke.

I'm confused....3rd base coach wanted you to call his runner out?????? I need to do a better job proof reading. "the coach in the 3rd base dugout", which is the 3rd base coach/manager for that team. My bad.

Someone said on this forum (wihout me looking back to see who) said," you can have game after game as the FU and it goes smooth as silk and all the sudden, S@$t breaks loose". Paraphrasing of course but something like that. I'm doing a 14AAA tournament which started yesterday and goes through Sunday. Last night no issues, well except for the 9:15pm start time that actually started at 10:45pm and me getting home at 1am just to get back up at 6am for a 8am start time. Oh well, maybe that's what set the stage for that crazy 1/2 inning. Sorry this may be a tad long but I didn't want to start new post for different things, hang with me here. Sitch 1 R2, GB to SS, I'm in the C, I stride pedal into the working area towards the 1st base side of the mound (or as close as possible) as I see the ball hit, keeping R2 in vision, clearing myself of the SS throwing to 1B, keeping in mind of possible R2 advancing to 3rd on the throw....which happened. BR out at first and the throw to 3rd was a little high, R2 dives to the outside of the bag and his momentum carried him beyond the bag while holding on....."momentarily" but gets back in time. The only thing I was slightly blocked by was the high base hiding his hand (fingers) at that last second. My angle was good, I swiveled my way to the open side when I saw this happening. I was sure he got back in time. As the tag was applied, I noticed no further reach from R2 or movement which led me to believe, he is on the bag or a hell of a salesman. "safe"! The coach and others in the 3rd base dugout of course let me know differently saying, "he was off the bag, he was off the bag". Coach asked for an appeal. I called time and went to my partner who was in a better position(straight down the line) to see if in fact that was the case. I asked him what he had. He said that the hand came off momentarily but got back in time of the tag. "safe"! Walk ensues, then a stolen base. Sitch 2 R2-R3 passed ball. R3 takes off for home but the ball ricochets back to the catcher off a pole. R3 stoppes and gets in a rundown while R2 takes possession of 3B. During the rundown, the coach and players were telling F2 to run him to the bag, while that was being said, R2 starts heading back to 2B. As F2 noticed R2 evacuating the bag and heading back to 2B, he made a quick throw to F5 which dropped the ball and both players are safe. The coach comes out of the dugout and told me that F5 touched 3B, Im like "what"? And so what! After further discussion, he claimed that R2, after touching 3rd and rounding it never retouched 3rd while going back to 2B. He was standing on 3B and actually used the bag to launch him back to 2B. Good try coach. You would think he would let that go but he swore R2 rounded and never retouched. There went 3 long minutes on a time limit game. BTW, (not that I needed confirmation but just for the record) PU had the exact same thing. Sitch 3 Single follows that play scoring R2-R3. Now theres 1 out R1. The insuing play is a hard 2 hopper to F4 positioned in double play depth and the ball hits F4 right in the heal and the ball rebounds forward. As F4 goes forward to get the ball, R1 collides with F4 then R1 proceeds to 2B. I have nothing there???? Here's where it got a little juicy. Here's where rule clarification is needed. It's easy on here or in a huddle of buddies to talk situations and get it right but when its hammer time and all eyes are on you in a tournament where you have paying customers and they think it's their World Series is another. All the sudden, the decision is NOW. My thought: I didn't call interference on that because the initial play was an error, he was not interferred with on that one. His error caused him to put himself in the line of fire. Is the fielder protected no matter what? Or is it on the innitial attempt? Well, again, coach comes out and argues the (no call) and all I could stand by was that he was no longer protected by that rule once he had the opportunity to field the ball. At this time, he's thinking, what the hell else can happen here. SO AM I! Stay tuned! Next batter walks loading the bases. Here's where it gets fun. (mind you this is all in 1/2 of an inning) Sitch 4 A gap shot to left center, runners running thinking it's in the gap safely but the CF makes a great catch. Runners then retreat. The runner on first however was a little over agressive. As R2 retreats back to 2nd, R1 already rounded 2B and passed R2. I Immediately called R1 out for passing R2 which was the 3rd out. As I was calling R1 out, he was heading back to 1st base totally dismissing 2nd base (which caught PU's attention) and cutting across the diamond. Wheeew! PU says the run crossed the plate before this happened. Here comes the head coach again out to argue. Im thinking, " Are you fricking kidding me"? Not the fact that he's out to argue, but the frequency in one inning that this is actually happening. He's arguing that it's a force out and the run shouldn't count. I was saying that once R1 passed R2 he was out, not by force but by illegally advancing past a runner. The PU noticed R1 crossing the infield and said the run scored before this happened. This of course wasn't when the out was made. After another 10 minutes of discussion and including the director, the run was taken off the board because the out was made before the run scored (right as R1 passed R2). The PU said that he misunderstood the argument and thought that we were discussing when he noticed R1 missing 2B on the retouch darting through the infield. What? Anyway..... Sitch 5 Question: I was told that once a runner passes another runner, it's a dead ball. Let's say the same situation happend as above but there was 0 out. CF makes the catch, R1 passes R2 for out number 2, is the ball dead at that point? Does the play continue? What a mess. I think after all said and done that the right calls were made. Let's hear it...............

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Well you know I agree with you on this. Dick Cavenaugh of the Big Ten apparently went straight to college ball years ago. My question to umped up is Were you a former catcher. Catcher's seem to pick up umpiring quicker since they were handling pitches all their lives, but of course excellent umpires have come from every position, and of course some may never have played at all or past Little League. Also, being more mature, you should be able to handle situations better than an 18-22 year old. Thanks for your humble apprecition of your good fortune. Don't apologize, just run with it and see where it takes you. Where you end up will depend on the level of speed you can keep up with, from all that I have read here. You will eventually max out, and hopefully that max out point will carry you all the way to D1 or whatever your goal is. Working the dish and game management skills are what get you to the highest levels. They need good plate umpires everywhere from what I have read. You seem to be ahead in that area. Now, get with your mentor and learn as many game management situations as you can. They have probably seem or heard of just about every situation out there and how to handle them from their own mistakes. Stay ahead of the curve. Of course there are still things out there that haven't happened yet, and all the good officials try and use their past management skills in new situations. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you just cannot win. Hang in there and learn. Good luck and ask away, MST and the other good umpires will help you out. Thank you, I really appreciate that. I have no problems asking questions. I did catch some in my career but it was maily SS, 3B and CF. I probably caught 5-6 years total. Thanks again for the support.

"orange". . Just wanted a reason to use this moticon. Love ya taylor.

Why did you balk him? Did you mean he feinted to first? If it was third, then I have nothing as long as he stepped towards third. My bad. When he stepped back on the rubber, he feinted a throw to 3rd without making any step towards third. He just swung his arm in that direction. I guess the reason I even mentioned him stepping back was because he did that the first time, which didn't really matter. but the second time was the same except for the step.

Good stories! We all have them and it's great to laugh at them. I had a similiar story. Last week, the pitcher stepped off the mound and feinted a throw to 3rd, gets back on the rubber and does it again very quickly but this time not stepping towards 3rd, I called balk. Everyones like.....What? The pitcher has his hands up like "WTF". I walked out and explained that the initial time he stepped back but not the second time. After all that was settled the insuing pitch was a strike and I'm thinking "what the hell is the count"? I went through my KS3 call but as I started doing this, in my mind, I wasn't sure of the count so I kinda let up on my mechanic in wonderment. It was like a bottle rocket that fizzled. I Started off hard and ended with a dud. That was my motion. I looked down at my indicator and there were 2 strikes on him. That was the lamest KS ring up ever. Someone told me when I used the word "scrimmage" that it was inappropriate. I'm like "what"? He said, when you say scrimmage, that's a football term not baseball. Ok! So I guess it's a practice game. Food for thought.

How did you get that link

perfect, thank you

I wanted to copy this link to the video but didn't have the link. What happens here is this: Last inning and 2 out, a switch hitter comes to the plate as a righty. F1 then switches hands to throw right...... B1 notices and switches to lefty........again, F1 switches again. This goes on again but the game must go on. coaches come out and talk about this for some time. As far as hitter/pitcher, who has to do what here?