Wesley

For clarity: LL Baseball Regulations 2014: 4.11: The score of a regulation game is the total number of runs scored by each team at the moment the game ends. (d): A called game ends at the moment the umpire terminates play. EXCEPTION: If the game is called during an incomplete inning, the game ends at the end of the last previous completed inning in each of the following situations: (1) The visiting team scores on or more runs to tie the score in the incomplete inning, and the home team does not score in the incomplete inning. (2) The visiting team scores on or more runs to take the lead in the incomplete inning, and the home team does not tie the score or retake the lead in the incomplete inning Thanks for everyone's input. Very helpful.

LL Minors. Local time rule is simple: 1 hour, 45 minutes; drop dead. About 1/3 of us call it by the rule, the others make it up as they go and play on to some extent, usually to finish the inning. The league refuses to put their foot down either way. My question: when the game is called during an incomplete inning and rule 4.11(d)(1) or (2) applies, do I need to stick around after the game try to be the rule cop to decide who won the game, or can I leave the aftermath to the scorekeepers and league officials and leave the field? (The league in no help in clarifying who is responsible). I agree with others that nothing good can come of staying on the field after the game, but I also want to do my job as professionally as possible. Do I stay or do I go?

Chartered, yes. I guess I was shortcutting saying 11U. I know some of the kids playing and they all happen to be 11. Guilty as charged.

(The way I understand it) The RLI rule protects the defense from the BR interfering with a throw from behind him if he is outside of the lane. If the ball hits him in the back while he's legally in the lane, I got nothing - BR safe at first. On the other side of the coin, if F3 gets between BR and the bag without possession of the ball (yet), could there be a potential for type A obstruction? If so, on a play like this with the ball thrown from behind and the runner in the lane, what am I looking for to call OBS on F3?

11U, LL 50-70. No runners. D3K, ball rolls behind LH batters box, B1 takes off. I bust in from A and get a 90 angle, about 12-15 feet fair. F2 picks up the ball, and instead of throwing immediately, he moves back to the foul line and then throws. B1 was not a ball of fire (nor F2), as he was coming up the line I was filing my nails waiting and I noticed that B1 was in the lane at 2/3 up the line (PU call, I know). Here's the point: F3 set up on the middle of the bag to receive the throw. A split second before the ball arrived, B1 must have seen F3's glove come up to catch the ball (or he has eyes in the back of his head), because he just barely ducked, and his last step before the ball arrived just barely slowed down. No collision, but B1 stopped after F3 caught the ball (hard to say if it was due to lack of motivation or to avoid a near miss). B1 was about 6 feet short of the bag when F3 received the ball. Out by a mile; I rung him up. (This was a mentoring game for me under UIC PU). After the inning was over at our training meeting there was no comment on the play. OT HC approached PU and asked about possible OBS. PU "No OBS, there must be contact". (?) Maybe I've read too much Papa C, "If he's gonna be out, he's gonna be out" and "Don't make an unusual call on a routine play", etc., but I want to own the call and get it right. Did I kick the OBS call? (I've learned a lot from this site, thanks) Flame on

Thanks for the video gents... I'm on devil's island and blessed to get UE. You tube and MLB.com only get me "denied: digital sports, media"

Currently calling LL. Like to move up to FED. Appreciate the input!

So trying to learn here, is the over-ruling call on a catch/no catch a pre-game discussion? Or was it a spontaneous accident? What are the calls that can be immediately over-ruled that are discussed in pregame? Off the top of my head: HBP Foul off the batter D3K Others? As an amateur, low level, not-on-TV umpire, I'm thinking even with a pre-game, unless I am 100% sure of what I saw, I'm going to let the original call stand.

SWMBO just called me and said Gerry Davis and his U1 had a double call on a line drive to F1 at Colorado. Mattingly EJ. Anyone see it? What happened?

"Pet peeve of mine too. I put it in play even in closed bases (9/10U) rec ball out of habit, but not verbally (I point it in at the pitcher after any dead ball situation). Whenever I say "play" with the little kids the batter always turns around and looks at me." I have a victory to report on this one. I ALWAYS put the ball back in play, verbal and point, even with closed bases. The volume of the verbal will go with the situation, i.e. beginning of inning, runners on base, or relatively quiet if only B1. I call LL Minors and some of the kids have had me call their games from the earliest level and are used to it. We just finished the Minors season last night, and the entire season I think I had maybe two kids turn and look. I heard from another umpire that he had F1 standing on the pitcher's plate with the ball waiting, wouldn't pitch, and finally asked, "The ball live, Blue?"

I played ball for years and I have to say after umpiring for a while I have a new appreciation for the job and the men who do it. In my own experience it is truly a thankless, “no win†situation. Dam*ed if you do and dam*ed if you don’t. The reason I do it is because I feel I have an obligation to my son and our community. I've found that if I don't do it, few others are going to, either. And I’ve found that for some strange reason, regardless of the abuse (in all it's forms), or maybe because of them, I enjoy umpiring a baseball game.

carolinablue, I agree. This is probably the last season I'll call his games. At the 7/8U level, our league is so short of umpires that we end up with daddy coaches or guys out of the stands that end up with some AWFUL calls. Ball bounces on the plate: called strike. Pitch hits the batter: no base award. Batted ball settles in the far rear of the batters box: fair ball, play on. Two out force: score the run. Crazy stuff. I'm a newbie but at least I work hard on trying to be professional, try to get the calls right, and respect the game. And in the end it's a matter of looking after my own interest: it's the only way I know my kid will have some level of officiating, even if that means it's only better than "bad". I try to keep a low profile that my kid is playing in the game. So far I haven't heard a word about it, but I agree, it's definitely not a practice to continue. Hey, I thought this thread was supposed to be funny!

Last night I called my son's 7/8U LL Minors game. I got to do my least favorite thing of calling him out on strikes (swinging). Let me mention that for an 8U, he's a good reader and has actually read some of the LL rulebook. Also plays F1 & F2, so he has a good idea of the strike zone. We're walking through the parking lot and without me asking, he says, "You called a good game Dad, except you missed a couple." So first I remind him not to ever say that to an umpire on the field, but I can't resist so I ask him what he thinks I missed. We both remembered a called second strike on the outside. I told him all the umpires in his league call a wide zone (chalk-to-chalk, per the league, word-of-mouth) and remind him that the coach tells the team to swing at those. After a very long pause, he says, "You guys gotta call it by the book!" We ended up talking baseball rules on the ride home and maybe he could umpire someday, which was pretty cool, and I thought that was the end of it. Fast forward to the end of the night: I get him in bed, and after pleasantries, I turn off the light, and the very last thing he says is "you guys gotta call it by the book." So what do you when your 8U jams you for not calling the rule book? Maybe he should run for the Board!

When I was a teenager playing PONY, the opposing pitcher was so bad, and I was so desperate to hit the ball, that I stepped on the plate to rip one to RF. PU, who was I girl I might add, immediately called me out. Our manager came out mad as heck, yelling and looking to argue. I had to physically restrain him before he got to the girl umpire and tell him "Yeah coach, I stepped on the plate!" He backed down real quick...

Papa C and others on UE say don't use the stop sign to prevent pitchers from delivering the ball. Do those of you calling 7-10U have any suggestions for getting the pitcher to wait to deliver the ball until B1, F2, and UIC are ready?

Foul tip, not caught (kind of choke on describing it like that). Big: I've been to a number of Junior College games and I always sit as close to PU as possible. I've only seen this situation a few times. 2 strikes, batter swings. Ball ends up on the ground. Umpire comes up immediately like a strike, but no signal, and no verbal that I can hear from the stands. There's no D3K action so I assume it's foul. One time with a runner on base, after a delay I saw a small one handed foul sign (at least that's how I perceived it). I'm good with doing little or nothing if that's the professional way to call. Just don't want to be a bigger idiot that I am already! I agree, watch a lot of high level games, but I'm calling again tomorrow (if it doesn't rain) and I would love to get an improvement in. Thanks.

What have you got with no runners, two strikes, on foul sharp and direct: On the ground near the plate or by F2 to the backstop? I assume with runners loud enough for them to hear? Louder if they're moving? Depending on D3K situation? ( meaning 1B open with less than 2 outs) I want to get this right; thanks for the input!

Appreciate the input. I tend to overthink things. I gotta work on that along with the laundry-list of other crud I do wrong! Thanks gents.

Against my better judgment, I'm gonna ask another question: Is there a resource for verbal calls that has a guideline for when to give a verbal call or not (i.e. no contest Safe, obvious foul ball, etc.), and with what intensity to give a verbal in various situations? (I have JEA Maximizing Two Umpire System, but it's not exhaustive on verbal calls). The clinics I’ve been to have us YELLING all the calls, which is understandable since young umpires and new umpires generally have a problem being heard. But I’m an old guy pushing a crew in the oil patch and I can YELL. So when I started umpiring LL and didn’t know any better, I’m YELLING every call. After watching some local HS & college ball and lurking around UE, I now realize I’m goofing up and need to recalibrate the voice. Any suggestions?

Right on. Thanks. Learn something new everyday!

(Not disagreeing because I’m the new guy as I mentioned). I have a question to understand the thinking: At what point do we echo a foul call so other base runners and fielders can gear down? In the OP there obviously weren’t any base runners, but in the case of other base runners, such as R2 headed to 3B, does the BU at some point echo a foul call to shut him down? Or just specifically PU w/BU in A, no mimic? And a second part: I assume the do not mimic fair/foul is a universal mechanic that I have missed so far in my training and reading. I’m interested in understanding the downside of mimicking? If a ball is called foul, it stands right or wrong. In the OP I gave no signal, passing on the call to BU. Once he makes a call either way, we’re going to live with it. As far as selling the fair call to the world, it seems to me that since everyone see both umpires are (effectively) on the line, once he gives his signal and I mimic it, probably most people watching (except other umpires) will perceive us making the call simultaneously and think “wow, those guys are right on top of it, it MUST be fair!†But I want to be professional like the big dogs. Flame on if that’s what I need (but explanation would be helpful). Thanks.

Sorry, got my jargon wrong, the corner of the bag closest to home plate, on the foul line.

LL, 60’, 9/10U, I’m 2nd year man working PU, with a very experienced trainer/evaluator working BU in A. B1 hits a ground shot down 1B line. I clear F2 to the left and get set astride the line just in time to see the ball hop over the front inside corner of 1B. No fair ball could be tighter. Book and pre-game has ownership of fair/foul over the bag and down the RF line belonging to BU in A. I withhold a signal, waiting on BU. After what I thought was a somewhat long pause (but who cares what I think cause I’m the new guy) and brief eye contact, BU signals fair and I mimic. DT is of course on 1B side and coaches and fans are screaming murder for a foul ball. BR pulls up at 2B. Between innings my partner comes in and I ask him if I got it right on the ownership of fair/foul. In his answer he quietly takes ownership of the call, but said PU “had the angle.†I get that a delay in the call may be to see what the new guy was going to do, but how do I interpret “had the angle†in the future? Thoughts? (I should have asked him post-game, but he was on his horse to get out of Dodge, and after an exceptional 10U complete game, we were getting hung up on the way out by spectators commenting to us on the game and I forgot about the fair/foul.)

OBR reference for pregame, players in the dugout? I can't find it explicitly in LL.

Yeah, I missed that.