Jeapugrad

It's what works for me. Might not work for you but it suits me just fine.

I literally say "come up hacking" at my plate conf. But then again I've been taken to task on other threads...

Under the letters to the hollow of the knee and two inches off each corner, give or take, hitable pitches. Come up hackin' boys

Just explaining myself. No need to jump my SH*#

If the coaches know that you are a no nonsense umpire, why the warning? I wouldn't call it a warning. It's part of my standard dialogue for one man games only. It works for me and saying what I say has not once been an issue. Reading between the lines, I'm telling them essentially OBR 9.02a without stating the rule. In 206 games work in 2012, 30-35% were one man games. I had 13 total ejections, 10 in a 19 U wooden bat league that plays 3 seasons (spring, summer, fall) and the other 3 were malicious contact ejections in 1-man games. The 10 in the same league, the LP is a giant pussy and doesn't suspend ejected coaches so there really is no penalty for an ejected coach. They just can't continue to manage their team for the rest of that game and the continue to get tossed knowing their is no real punishment for their behavior. How many times on this site have you read on a malicious contact ejection, the HC is ejected for arguing the malicious contact? They might question the ejection but I'm able to talk them off the cliff when I remind them that the player lowered his shoulder to take out another player. If they are hot, I ask them if its really worth a 4 game suspension? The player is already getting two games. Is it worth not being able to physically be in the vicinity of the field for four games? And then they chill the eff out. How I interact with players, coaches, and fans (yes, I wrote fans) is far different than how I do in a two man crew on a 90' diamond. Here everything not on a 90' is a one man game. I'm over the top friendly, I joke around with everyone, tossing in an every so often quote from a famous baseball movie, and people in general eat it up. In the third or forth inning, between innings I always walk up the line to the parents sitting in the stands on the losing team and say in an exaggerated and sarcastic tone "Sorry ladies, I'm taken. Simmer down, simmer down." And it always gets a laugh. Now i am 6' 1", i weigh close to 300 pounds, i have a face ugly enough that it can stop a clock, just for a point of reference. or then there are the times Have a good day at work when a father comes out to warm the pitcher cause the catcher was the last batted out, I always ask the father if he's properly equipped or done having kids. Umpires in general forget that we are not only there to make sure neither team gets an advantage, apply the rules, and call balls/strikes, fair/foul, safe/out, but we are also there to provide customer service to these leagues as a whole. Before Memorial Day weekend, unless I'm doing the 19U wooden bat league, I'm not on a 90' diamond. I'm the most requested umpire for 8U-12U teams. We literally have leagues here that are only 8U, 9U, 10U, 11U, and 12U. I have no problem coaching coaches to a degree at the 8U/9U/10U levels because here these teams stay in tact until the kids play high school ball. You're going to have the same players with the same coaching staffs for a few years playing one another. For example, if a player turns to his left instead of his right and the defensive coach is screaming from the dugout "tag him, tag him", I will tell him for all to hear as long as he doesn't show intent to go to second base, it doesn't matter which way he turns, provided he's going directly back to first base. Everybody gains the knowledge, players, coaches, and fans, and it provides less headaches when they reach the 90' diamond. I'm not the world class prick that I may have given you the impression that I am. I'm not asking you to subscribe to the ways the I choose to manage my game. It's my game, it works for me, and I'm going to continue to do it. Parents spend thousands of dollars a year for league registration, tournaments, gear, uniforms, umpire fees, gatorade, seeds, etc. I feel it is my duty as an umpire to prepare them for the next level. Feel free to disagree with anything or everything I've said but I'm a damn good umpire and I've earned the respect that I receive from the teams in these leagues because of how I handle myself and what I do on the field. If I've had a game where a catcher at the 12U level is catching low pitches underhanded, I'll ask both HCs if I can speak with them and any player who catches for their teams after the game, and I'll provide a mini clinic after the game. Anybody can call ball/strike, fair/foul, safe/out, and apply the interpretation of the rules. Anybody can umpire a game with a little training, but in my opinion the difference between being an average umpire and a good umpire is how you interact and handle yourself with everyone, including fans to some degree, on the ball field.

It's works for me so I do it

Have you attended either five week program?

After 18 years in my county, everybody knows... I don't play games.

IMO on the subject of jewelry, tell the kid to take it off. He'll take it off. Nobody wants to be "that" jerk umpire.

Yelling and screaming working a 1-man 10U game? Not me. I tell HCs at the plate conference, especially when working alone, if you yell and scream about calls during the game, you will be ejected. Period. Set the tone at the start and they'll behave. If they don't, you run their asses and be done with it. If you want to act like a world class asshat, I'm going to treat you like one. There's no need for that BS. There aren't radar guns lined up behind the backstop, nobody on a 10U field is getting a college scholarship on game day, tell them to STFU (nicely) and let the kids play for f's sake.

Restriction can be worse cause you're humiliating a grown man by treating him like a child. Or so I've heard from a dugout

Indeed. Evans.

^Ive seen plenty of dudes in dresses... Don't think we want to go there...

^no. I'm a straight up no BS kinda person in all aspects of life. It's not the dress that makes you look fat, it's the FAT that makes you look fat.

Be ready to leave your car 15 mins before game time, arrive on field no later than 10 minutes before game time, and I guarantee first pitch will be thrown on time if not early. Call for head coaches 10 minutes before and do it forcefully but not in a dickheadish manner.

Sounded like a personal ad if you asked me. LOL

In my association, only the guys who are on the Board work the upper echelon of games the association has. The Board is comprised of mostly hand picked members and only three spots are voted on every two years. A current Board member will nominate a member and no one has the balls to nominate anyone else so they get elected without an opponent. I ran last year, my schedule has suffered, and I'm being sent to the furthest fields we work for club baseball. It's sad. It's like high school all over again. Granted the highest regular work the assoc has is varsity but they also bid on college showcase tourneys. I have worked games at a much higher level and I've been told I should be thankful I get games on a 90' diamond. It's a complete effing joke. I closed out Arbiter for the most part and I'm being asked to work Memorial Day weekend. Please open up your blocks. We have a full slate. TFS.

On this subject, I LOVE the so called "I'm the crew chief today" guys. I had some joker tell me last week he was the crew chief because he has been umpiring for 27 years, 17 as a slow pitch softball umpire and the other ten as a baseball umpire. I told him maybe when he works his first high school game, then, and only then, can he hold my jockstrap (figuratively). Hell, I've been in the association five years longer so he doesn't even have that on me. Take your crew chief mantra and shove it up your...

Heck, I may have dumped him on the pickoff move. If he can't calmly come out and talk to me like I'm a person, he's not going to get it the 2nd or 3rd time you warn him and the problems with him continue. Eject early to eject less.

I don't think the stories were intended to be published on a website

Not sure if this is the appropriate place for this but I had an opportunity last week to hang out post game with a crew. The crew was Gerry Davis, Brian Knight, Mark Carlson, and Mike Muchlinski. Muchlinski and I attended the same Evans 5-week class in '99. We spent the evening watching sports in a bar and it was a great night hanging with those guys. An experience I won't soon forget. Lots of great stories.

Ahhh yes, because baiting people is the way to go.

Honestly depending on the age level, I'd handle it differently. Anything 12U at lower, I'd ignore it. 14U, depending on whether it was a competitive league with skilled talent or an in-house league, I'd handle it differently. Skilled high level 14U, if it was loud enough that others heard it, I'd respond loud enough that everyone would hear it. It'd be direct and more less a warning. What happens usually is the head coach will walk out of the dug out, ask me what he said, turn around and humiliate the kid by removing him from the game, again, usually. I've had this backfire where the coach comes out because he's just as pissed off as thd player, and he's probably going to be tossed for saying something really stupid in the heat of the moment. Its probably around 80/20, 80 being the message is sent and 20 somebody's being tossed over it. In-house leagues I'd take it as some punk ass kid who will likely never see a high school field and it wouldn't bother me as much. Mommy and Daddy want to see little Johnny play rec baseball so he's not smoking pot, getting out of the house and not playing video games all day, and the kid is probably being forced to play ball to appease his parents. 16U and above, I'm addressing it right then and there, as I view that is deliberately questioning my integrity. By 16U, they have to have talent to make teams, and they know better. Kind of the same approach where the batter is hugging the plate, catcher is set up on the inside and you're in the slot, and you have no idea if that up and in fastball grazed the jersey or not. You call it a ball and watch the reaction of the player. If he runs to first base, as if it hit him, then it hit him. If he steps out of the box, digs back into the batters box, and then you do a moonwalk better than the late Michael Jackson on a called third strike, and then has the audacity to turn around to you and complain that the pitch hit him, I say "how long have you been playing this game? If it hit you then you run to first base. By now, you ought to know that." Bringing it back to the topic, its kind of the same philosophy, he ought to know by 16U what he can get away with and what he cannot. And that's something he's not getting away with, especially if I wasn't the only one who heard it. I'm not dumping him for it. If he continues, he'll be dumped, but I'm not going to tolerate like I would if he were 10 or 12 years old. He should, by 16 years of age, know better.

Dummy Hoy came back to life it sounds like...

It's always funny when someone else, cup or not, takes a shot to the boys but its never funny when it happens to you!