tankmjg24

OBR rules with modifications, 19U league. Batter hits a pop fly foul into the on deck area. Both F2 and F5 merge on the ball. The on deck batter sees F2 coming and steps back out of his way, but makes contact with F5 who he does not see behind him. F5 lunges for the ball and it hits off his glove.

Had 2 ejections in a 14U championship game today. First came after manager comes out to argue and finishes with telling me "you are not worthy enough to umpire our games". Next was the assistant coach (acting as replacement manager) telling me that "your partner and you are full of SH*# today". Best part though is both coaches feel as if they said and did nothing wrong and that I need thicker skin. The sad thing is some who run the park feel the same way. Sad

14 U Championship game and I am the field umpire in a 2 man crew. Things had been chirpy from the first pitch from Team A (If I was PU I probably would have had a few ejections, but partner felt that giving warnings were more appropriate). Top of 3rd inning, Team A is batting with R1 and 1 out. Batter hits a grounder towards F4 and R1 veers towards F4, stops running in front of F4, and then does a little stutter step. I immediately signal interference and call out R1 and BR. Manager comes out to argue and crosses the line on a few points and eventually is ejected. (You all are horrible, that is a BS call, yada yada). Game continues and the ining ends and I jog out into short RF. The assistant coach huddles up his team prior to running out on the field, and yells loudly "Do not worry boys, you all are loosing because of a horse SH*# call". I go over and eject the coach who then wants to argue that he was not talking to me and can say what he wants to. (For the record, the score at this time is 5-2). Just another fun day at the ballpark. I will never understand why coaches and players cannot deal with the fact that the other team may be better than them, but instead have to make excuses and find a way to blame someone else.

It was not that I did not know who he was talking about (it was pretty obvious he was talking about the runner on 2nd), but more the fact that to me he was arguing the wrong thing.

FED rules. R1 AND R2 with 1 out. Batter hits a ball into the right center gap and both runners are running. F8 makes an amazing diving catch for the second out. R2 is halfway home and keeps going while R1 is right past second and attempts to retreat back to 1st. F8 jumps up and throws to F3 who is at first retiring the retreating R1 for the third out. R2 had crossed home prior to the out so I scored the run. The coach comes out arguing that there is no way the run scores as he did not legally advance because he did not tag up. At no point did he ask for an appeal, just kept arguing that the run should not count. So my question is, do you consider the above an appeal and grant the 4th out erasing the run, or do you make the coach state that he is appealing the runner did not legally tag up? Thanks

Thanks for the responses. Regarding a conference, I had started to make my way up to 3rd to cover the possible play at 3rd as a run down had ensued. Instead of just going back to home, I made my way around the mound and cut my partner off on his way back to A position and asked him if he saw what had happened. When he said no he was watching the ball I then called the obstruction. Probably took 5-10 seconds in all. My main worry was that he had somehow saw it and did not thing obstruction had occurred and then I go fishing into his territory. We did have a postgame. Made some progress, but not a lot. My suggestion to him was to watch the runner going around the bases as that is his responsibility and maybe glance to see where the ball is if need be. His response was how in the world is he to know if a play was going to happen without seeing where the ball was. Like I told him, if he had been with the runner like he was supposed to have been he would have easily seen the OBS call and made life easier on the both of us.

There was definitely no intent to throw towards a runner. Sounds as if I am overthinking. Illegal disengagement = balk. So if a coach runs out to argue and asks the difference between that and faking a throw towards a base, the simple answer would be intent correct?

In my game last night I had a text book obstruction call situation, but only problem is it was not my call, but my partners which he did not see. FED rules with R2. I am the plate umpire and partner is in C position. Ball is hit into into center field and R2 attemtps to score. F8 makes the throw to F2, but it is high and goes over the head of F2. As I am turning my head towards home to watch R2 touch the plate, I see the BR making a turn at 2nd to go to 3rd. As he does, he has to avoid F6 who is in his way. My partner is looking at the ball which is behind home and sees none of this. F2 throws to F5 and BR is out by a good 10 feet so he gets into a run down eventually being thrown out going back into second. I go out and ask partner if he saw the contact by R2 and F6 and he says no. At this point I call the obstruction and award BR 3rd. I will spare you the conversation I had with the coach, but a big part he kept complaining about was that this was not my call but my partners. My response was simply coach any umpire can call it if they see it. Eventually I got him in the dugout and the game continued. Had my partner been looking right at it I would not have said a thing. He was not though and stated that he was watching the ball which was behind home. Thoughts?

Alright guys and girls, I may be overthinking this one. Situation was high school varsity with R2 and R3. F1 toes the rubber and is looking in towards F2 getting the sign when the coach from the dugout yells out "step off and work from the windup". F1 then takes his front foot and goes back off the rubber. I call the balk as he did not legally disengage the rubber. No one says a word and the game continues. I have now been thinking rather this would have been legal and I jumped the gun. My thought is that F1 can do a move towards second with his front foot and not throw and would be legal. So am I just overthinking now or what?

I walk up the line of the team that is running out onto the field. The coach approached me a few steps off the dirt and initiated the conversation. I responded as he started a dialogue not a monologue. In my opinion it was not an argument but me replying to his statement.

Playoff HS baseball and I am PU in a 3 man crew. Bottom of 6th inning with 1 out with R2 and R3 in a 1 run ballgame. Batter hits a short fly ball to RF and F9 catches it while R3 tags to attempt to score. The throw goes up the line a few feet and F2 catches the ball right at the start of the dirt as R3 is sliding in. F2 tags R3 high hitting him on the shoulder, but R3 has yet to reach home plate. I bang the out call. As the manager is walking back to the first base dugout he decides to comment on the play. He looks at me and says calmly "that is a big run (it would have tied the game) looked like the tag was too high". My response was "Coach your runner had not made it to the plate yet". The manager now has paused and is looking at the home plate area. He then responds with "No way, you can see where he slid". (You in fact could but the slide over the plate was after the runner was tagged). I respond to this with "Coach there is no discussion here, your runner is out now let's play baseball". I then turn and walk away from the conversation. Coach wanted to continue the conversation but I am far enough away from him now that he is yelling in my direction. It was loud enough that everyone in the park could hear (even over the PA system). He yells "No way, there is just no way, you are making stuff up now". I yell back in his direction with a stop sign up "Coach that is enough". He then walks back into his dugout as he is shaking his head. I feel as if I handled the situation well. In our postgame feelings were mixed. U2 says he agreed with the way the situation was handled. U3 (who had walked down and was listening and watching) felt as if the coach should have been dumped when he yelled that I was making stuff up. In his opinion everyone in the park heard it and that this was the coach challenging me. I feel as if the stop sign with warning was enough to shut him up (which it did). Thoughts?

Alright guys, looking for some feedback on a situation my crew and I had the other night. Game is being played between two huge rivals and is a tournament seeding game. Winner will get a first round bye while the loser has an extra game to be played. This incident occurred with the score 5-3 in the 5th in favor of Team A and everything has gone smooth so far. I am the PU in a 3 man crew. Team A's player hits a homerun and as he is about 15 feet shy of home when he stops running. He reaches down and makes a motion around his waist that resembles a WWE title belt reference. He then reaches up in the air with both hands (almost like a college defensive player does when trying to get more noise from the home crowd) and then sprints into home. As soon as I see the runner start his antics I start telling him to "keep going don't stop runner". It was rather loud so he either chose to ignore me or did not hear me. At the same time, his coach has started down the line and is yelling something and pointing towards his bench. I could not tell what was being said but find out later that he was yelling to his bench coach to tell the kid not to act like an idiot. I go up and meet the coach. I feel as if the coach is doing his part, and tell him that I am issuing a team warning (to which he has no objection and agrees that his player went overboard). Again, all of the above conversation is going on up the 3rd base line as I had met the manager (who was the 3rd base coach) as he started going towards home when he was yelling to the bench coach in his dugout. I am not aware of what is going on behind me as I am talking to the coach and have my back sideways to the field. Out of nowhere the coach stops talking to me and begins to sprint over towards his dugout. This causes me to turn and see what is going on. At this point I notice that the pitcher is over in front of the other dugout and he is yelling and making motions. My first base umpire is standing between him and the dugout and is trying to get the kid to go away from the dugout. By this time Team B manager has come out of his dugout and is making his way over to his player. Eventually everything calms down. So to place everyone at the beginning I am talking to the 3rd base coach up the line, U2 is back behind 1st base, and U3 is standing near C position shading towards third (he had came in to watch the touch of the BR at 2nd then 3rd and had stayed there so he could see me talking to the coach). Once things started to get interesting U2 got in between the pitcher and dugout and was yelling for him to walk away. U3 stayed at the 3rd base dugout and was watching for any players to leave the dugout. I started to make my way over to the 1st base dugout where the action was occurring. 3rd base coach (who is manager for Team A) is in his dugout controlling his players and Team B manager has his pitcher at the mound and is talking to him. We as a crew decide to bring both coaches together and issue a warning to both sides and give a few seconds for all the testosterone to go down. Team B manager tells us that apparently after the batter crossed home the pitcher felt as if he turned and smiled in his direction which caused the pitcher to become upset. U1 had been watching the BR and said that this may or may not have occurred as he could not tell for sure. Team B manager agreed with us that his F1s action were uncalled for and tells us that he is making a pitching change and will take care of it. Team A's coach tells us that what his batter did was bush league and that he would also take care of the situation. The game continues on without another incident and Team A wins 7-4. So let's hear some comments. Thanks

I have tried to give a similar scenario to them as @Jocko stated. In this scenario they agree that it would be considered dead but claim this is a different situation. Seems as if I am fighting a losing battle.

The issue is not whether that area is considered dead ball territory or what the award is. Everyone is on the same page that the area past the imaginary line is dead ball territory and everyone agrees that the award is two bases from TOP (unless the fielder does something to make the ball go into area). The issue is that some (actually the majority) say that if the ball is played on that it cannot be ruled dead. Here is an example that occurred the other night. Bases are loaded and there is a left handed hitter up to bat. He hits the ball right down the line and the ball tails into this area. The right fielder gives chase and fields the ball about 5 feet into this dead ball territory. All the runners scored and BR ended up with a triple. According to those that would not rule the ball dead, it is in play because the fielder played the ball and did not raise his hands. I know that this is not the correct ruling and once we as umpires see the ball go into dead ball territory to rule accordingly. The problem I am having is trying to convince everyone else to rule this away.

So if you want a visual picture I have tried to draw it out (I am no artist though so take that into account). The gray lines are the foul lines and the blue line is the portable fence. As you can see the portable fence does not extend all the way to the real fence. You have to draw an imaginary line from the end of the portable fence and everything past this line is considered dead ball territory.

Alright everyone, my association covers a middle school league (FED Rules) that uses a portable fence on a regular sized field. The portable fence does not cover the length of the entire foul territory though and ends about a foot past the foul line. I believe that once the ball clears the fence that the ball is dead. This has only happened a few times but it has. Others say that if the ball is played on and the fielder does not raise their hands that the ball cannot be ruled dead. If anyone has a rule cite please let me know it. Thanks

High school varsity played under FED rules. R1 and R2 with 1 out and there is a fly ball hit to short right field. R2 goes back to second base and the coach is yelling for him to tag. F9 catches the ball and R2 takes a couple of steps off 2nd and makes contact with F6. R2 goes back to second base and F9 makes a perfect throw to F5. In my judgement R2 was not going to attempt to go to third and had he attempted would have been thrown out easily. I think that him running off of 2nd was more of an attempt to draw a throw and see what happens. I signaled the obstruction when I saw it, but once everything calmed down left everyone where they were as I felt R2 would not have made 3rd. Should I have gave R2 third or did I do the correct thing leaving everyone at their bases?

The following occurred in a 12U USSSA game. R2 and R3 and the batter hits the ball into right center field gap. R2 and R3 score easily and BR gets a stand up double. As R2 is crossing home, he steps on the corner of home plate (barely, but he does touch it). The bench coach for the hitting team has come out of the dugout to pick up the bat (as he claims) but starts yelling at R2 to go touch home as he missed it. R2 just kind of stares at him then the coach pushes R2 back towards home. Defensive manager comes out to argue that the runner should be called out due to the coach assisting the runner. I explain to him that the runner did not miss home and since he had already legally scored he could not be called out due to the coaches actions. Pretty certain that I am correct but looking for feedback. On a side note, this was in the first inning and the first set of runs that scored. I promptly told the bench coach to not enter live ball territory while playing action is going on. He wants to argue that he always does this as he is just picking up the bat (in reality he wants to come up behind home so he can give directions to the runner regarding sliding or not). I quickly put an end to the conversation and the game continues. In between innings I hear the bench coach talking to the manager about how crazy it is that I am making him stay in the dugout.

Well I thought that it was not permissible, but by the time his first at bat would have occurred the score was 18-0 in the 3rd inning. I figured why not just take the out since the coach was giving it to us.

Team A is a new program and has yet to play a game past 5 innings while Team B may have a shot at winning a state title this year (only reason they were playing each other is that the schools are located about 5 miles apart in the same town). Team B is batting straight 9. After the first inning score is 11-0 Team B. After 2 15-0 Team B. At this point coach clears the bench and inserts a fresh 9. Upon reporting one of the subs, he notes that this particular player can only play the field and is not allowed to bat per the doctor's orders and that he will just take the out when it gets to his time at bat. Is this permissible or should we have made him stand in the box with the bat on his shoulder (probably a good thing we didn't as the way the game was going he probably would have been walked on 4 pitches). Thanks

So this year I bought both a base and plate set of the Reebok Zig Zags. Had two games this evening with rain and both my base and field shoes are covered in mud. I have cleaned them nicely, but cannot get into the small hole openings of the shoe. What do you all use to get into these small openings? Any suggestions are appreciated. Link to pic of shoe: http://www.ump-attire.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/J91741-z.jpg

To clarify, I did not call time until the coach was standing beside me at home. By this time the runner had reached 3rd. In my judgement, the coach running down the line casued F1 to pay attention to him and not make a play on the advancing runner.

High school varsity R2 and batter hits ball to right center field. There is a throw to home to get R2 and F1 gets caught in the middle on his way to back up home and ends up catching the ball about 10 feet from home. F1 runs towards R2 who is attempting to score and dives and tags him on the hip. I signal the out and I immediately hear screams from the 3rd base coach. I still have my eyes on F1 who is at home and he has just stopped and is looking down at third. When I turn in this direction I see the 3rd base coach charging (yes it was a full sprint) towards home as he is yelling "time, time, no way etc etc" (yes he was ejected obviously). BR is between 2nd and 3rd when all of this is happening. So my question. Is the advancing BR ruled out due to coaches interference for running down the line yelling like an idiot. or Is the advancing BR returned to 2nd, or is the advancing BR allowed to stay at third? Thanks.

The problem is there are multiple umpire associations within the area. Team A might use group A for all their home games but then have Group B during one away game and then Group C for another then Group D etc. A certain member of Group B (who is not in my association) claims that he went to a clinic and that it was instructed at said clinic that both feet had to be parallel on the pitching plate at a 90 degree angle to the pitching plate. He has been instructing teams, coaches, players, and other umpires this. Group C could really care less and their motto is "Just play baseball." My group (which all are in agreeance with what has been posted regarding said stance) has done a pretty good job of explaining it to our members and teams. On top of all this, there is a large number of kids who receive private pitching lessons and play travel ball where the Hybrid is encouraged and ignored by many. As you can tell, it is going to be a fun start to the season

There is some confusion over what is considered legal and what is considered illegal. I have attached a picture (I am not an artist so it looks like crap haha) of one of the examples that has caused some debate in our area. Basically, the pitcher has both heels on the rubber, however he is standing at an angle (body is facing towards 3rd base dugout). What is the proper ruling, and does anyone know of any good resources that go in depth regarding legal vs. illegal?