StrikeToWin

Had a play this weekend in a 13U tourney game. Situation, R1, R2 with 1 out. Batter hits a hard line drive directly at F5 that he barely gets his glove up and it hits the top of his glove and the ball goes directly to his forehead, and then straight up in the air. F6 catches the ball and then throws to F4 to double up R2. While the play was going on, I hear parents yelling to call "Time". I think I was right to let the play continue but there is that lingering doubt in my mind that I should've killed it right then and there, as soon as he went down but if I had killed it, what would have been my justification and also where would I have put everyone, batter out on the catch, put runners back to TOP bases, award BR 1B and advance the 2 runners, put the batter back in the box and replay the pitch? What would you do?

I actually had a fan open the gate next to the dugout to yell at me and I addressed him very quickly and then told the head coach to get his fans under control. The head coach then yelled at me "Why should I? You made a terrible call. They all saw it and are letting you know about it and now so am I." I then dumped him and told him to take the fan with him to the parking lot. Fan and coach then went to the parking lot and the game progressed with no further problems. Maybe a quick uncalled for EJ, but it had the desired effect.

R2,R1 2 out count is 3-2 on the batter, runners go on the pitch, I ball it for ball 4, F2 jumps up and fires to 3B who applies the tag to R2 who had slowed up when he realized I'd called ball 4 and saw the BR heading to 1B. No call from BU and defensive team is heading off the field R2 comes in to score and BR and R1 are now at 2nd and 3rd respectively. DHC actually says "Why didn't you call the out at 3B?" "It was ball 4 coach" "Does that run score?" "Of course it does coach" "But we tagged him" "It was ball 4 coach" "What difference does that make?" Oy Vey! By the way, this was HS rec league.

I don't wear a cup on the bases. I've actually worked with guys that don't wear them behind the plate. That's just crazy.

In our league and tournaments, umpires can recommend to the board or TD a suspension depending on the severity of the situation, abuse dished out by the offending coach or player or threats made. Most of the time, they are ejected for that game and can come back for the next.

Had a VERY low level game the other night. HT F1 only pitched from the wind-up and walked a batter with no outs. Pitcher then engages the pitchers plate and immediately R1 takes off for second, as he is rounding 2B and on his way to 3rd, the pitcher pitches the ball and the batter fouls the pitch off. 3B coach questioned me putting his runner back at 1B. Did I get this right or totally blow the call? R1 was definitely around 2nd before he began his wind-up but he was still at 1B (he stopped there to take off batting gloves and hand to 1B coach) when the pitcher engaged the rubber. This is OBR.

Never thought of it that way @noumpere In all seriousness, I didn't perceive this as threatening, nor did I handle it correctly as others have pointed out (I am only in my 3rd season of umpiring and still learning) but it's just some of the things coaches say when they are unhappy with no longer being involved in the game. This was an AC and the head coach and the team's parents all apologized to me after the incident for his behavior. They weren't very happy with him because he said it loud enough for the kids to hear.

I agree with this but when BR's seek out an F3 that is not in the base path just to gain contact is bush league and when coaches tell them to do this, that is bush league.

I've seen 2 this year. What I'm noticing more and more is runners trying to make contact with F3 as they are going to first. Had it happen the other night and a kid lost his balance and fell as he was rounding first because F3 had all of a sudden moved up into the grass while BR was trying to lean into him and make contact. Poor kid got tagged out while he was laying in the dirt. One of the strangest things I have ever seen. I have had coaches tell me that they coach their runners to try and make contact with F3 so they can get the OBS call and 2B. Bush league at its finest.

@maven I agree, he was just taking his sweet time to leave the field. Not that I'm mad about it, I just thought it was funny. Told my wife about it later and she actually asked me if he was cute.....

I actually didn't get threatened by the coach, but just after I tossed him and he was gathering his stuff from the dugout and still chirping at me, I told him to hurry up and get going, as he was leaving he looked out at me and said "What's your address and I'll go take care of your old lady while I'm gone." I carry my cellphone in my back pocket primarily to keep time on since most of the games I do have time limits, I don't use it and I only have it out long enough to check time, but we do have some umpires in our league that text or check scores or even get on twitter between innings. Maybe I should get on UE and live post about my games....

Had a similar situation last night in rec ball 13U. Low level ball but I was PU and the BU between innings swore up and down that there had to be contact for there to be interference. F4 clearly stood up on the ball because the runner was running at him (F4 was much smaller than R1) and the ball wound up in short RF. No interference was called and I asked him about it between innings while we were hydrating. He bet me a game fee that there had to be contact to make that call. Told me that he coaches his kids (he has a 12U travel team that he coaches) to try and block a fielders vision of the ball while running the bases if they have an opportunity to do so. I just shook my head at him.

They were down the middle (at least from the TV angle) but they looked low (again, from the TV angle). Jenks whines about a lot. It is an upper-class area suburb of Tulsa that thinks if they don't win, it can't be their fault. Daddy-ball all the way around even at the high school level.

I watched the game and the final walk-off walk on TV looked justified. Jenks is an uppity school that thinks they don't ever deserve to lose in any sport. They don't even act like they are in Oklahoma by saying they are from Jenks, America instead of Jenks, OK. I don't know who the HP umpire was but I didn't find that the pitches were really called that bad. They were borderline low and the umpire had called a great game to that point. But lack of class after the game because they couldn't take care of things on the field is what the true story should be about. On TV, they did not show the results but I saw the pitcher head straight for the HP umpire yelling at him. It was not a good sight. Oklahoma has some very good umpires in the OSSAA (I am just in my first year of officiating high school ball for OSSAA) and I don't think this article is a good representation of the officiating in the state. Just my .02.

I thought it would not be a time play but partner did not, so I'm glad we didn't have to make the call. The BR was realllllllly slow. There is a lot of foul territory behind HP.

This is great, I wish coaches were required to read this in our association.

Interesting thing happened the other night in league play and I'm still not sure of the answer. Age doesn't matter OBR rule set. 2 outs, R3 and D3K that gets to the backstop. Batter is a bigger kid and pretty slow. F2 gets the ball and makes a throw to F3 that pulled F3 off the bag so it really didn't matter that R3 scored on the play. My question is, since R3 crossed the plate before F2 made the throw to try and retire BR, would this be a timing play if the out was recorded or would first throw on a play be in effect. I know this is hypothetical, but I'm just curious how, had it happened, we should have ruled on it. I say it is not a timing play but partner thought that it would've been. What say you?

When we have a fan that has become belligerent in our area, we first warn the coach to get his fans under control and let him know that if we have to toss a fan, then the head coach goes with them. Parents and fans are the coach's responsibility and foul language and abusive language to umpires, other parents, coaches or players is not tolerated.

We are not into summer ball yet. We still have a couple of weeks left on league and then a few more tournaments before summer league starts. This isn't high school or school ball, it's rec league with travel ball. I get the sarcasm, just clarifying what we are playing.

The bad thing is, he is not one of the regulars at our park. I think he was just there to help out the UIC and make a little extra cash since the college season is over in our area. The one head coach (who happens to also be a board member) came to me out at the car (not confrontational towards me at all) and said that he would be talking to the UIC and understood that I couldn't change calls whether I agreed with them or not. He never got out of hand on the field, he just took the lumps and went on. As to my partner being a big shot, not at our park. I will definitely let the UIC know what happened and request not to call anymore games with him if he continues to work out there. Our UIC is really pretty good and does do a lot of training both on the field and in a classroom.

I sell parts for heavy equipment like bulldozers, excavators, pavers, wheel loaders etc.

Run does not count. Not totally sure if this is a timing play or not since it wasn't a force but if the third out was recorded on the appeal of 2nd base before the runner crossed the plate it wouldn't matter. No run scores.

I had a new to me partner last night for 2 games. First game I was PU for 13/14 rec league. I am by no means an experienced umpire but the guy I was working with was supposedly a low collegiate level umpire. In our local league we have an 1:45 time limit on league games no new inning with less than 5 minutes to play. Since we both come straight from work, we didn't have a lot of time to pregame and it went something like this: Me: I will cover 3rd on a 1st to 3rd situation. Partner: No, I will take all the calls on the bases cause I hate rotating when I'm in the gear so I don't expect my partner to rotate. (HUH?) Me: Ok???? Partner: Just keep me informed on the count and outs and I'll be good. That was the start. He knew what he was doing position wise but made a couple of questionable calls, one at 3rd and a really bad one at 2nd. The one at 3rd was bang/bang and could've gone either way. Situation on the one at 2nd though was a bit different. Tie ballgame after the bottom of 5 with 8 minutes left on the clock so we have to play another inning. Visiting team B1 strikes out, B2 is a big slow guy and HTHC decides to intentionally walk him to slow up runners on the bases. Catcher attempts a back pick at 1st with the slow guy and puts it into RF. Slow guy winds up at 2nd. Next pitch passed ball and slow guy is now at 3rd. B3 draws a walk. We now have runners at 1st and 3rd with one out and time has expired. R1 takes off for second about the same time F1 turns to pickoff. F3 then throws to F6 for the tag but the throw is high and wide and batter slides into the bag well before the tag comes down but as soon as the tag is applied, my partner inexplicably calls the runner out (runner is literally sitting on the base). This was a play that was not even close in anyone's eyes. Opposing coach is actually staring at my partner shaking his head. VT coaches are complaining loudly and 3B coach has called time and is walking toward my partner who immediately holds his hand up and says "We have nothing to discuss coach, get back to your box". All the coaches are looking to me and asking if they can appeal and I just look at them and shake my head no without saying anything. This is the first time I have ever wanted to overturn a partner's call but I didn't. We finish the game with no more runs scoring and ends in a tie. Game 2 visiting team is playing a double header so they are still there and are now the home team. Top of first goes smoothly. We get to the bottom of the first and the new VTHC does not care for the strike zone and is commenting to his catcher to move over the middle, stick the pitch, frame it better so he gets a better look etc. By this time I am in C with R1 and R2. Count on the batter is 1-2 when the pitcher drops a beautiful curve that drops from the belt to the top of the knee right over the heart of the plate. Partner balls it and kid eventually hits into an inning ending ground out. As I walk over to get a drink of water, my partner comes up to me and says "See what I did there? He was complaining about my strike zone and I balled a pitch right down the middle. Maybe now he will be quiet and get the hint to leave me alone. Then he will get the good zone back." I didn't know what to say. After our second game he asked me if I liked how he got us out of our first game. I just walked away. I know I probably should have handled the post game differently, but his wife and daughter were at the game and walking out with him so I just left it alone. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle something like this in the future?

At least I learned from my mistake. That's something.

I like that idea. Did much better last night.