blue23ll

I don't know about everyone else, but if I tell you "that's enough", you had better stop jabbering at me. There will be no restriction just a quick exit.

We don't eject, they eject themselves. Let's not make it so difficult to accommodate them! I don't get the bucket thing. We certainly don't see it at the HS level here.

Who's Jim Murray?

As BU, if I SEE a pitch hit a batter, I'm going to kill the play. If I SEE a ball batted off the batters foot, I'm going to kill it. The key is to SEE it. @jaxrolo, so if you don't see the ball hit a batter, you are still going to let him trot to first because he thought it did?

@24sdad, if you work deep enough in the working area and you have opened your field of view, it could be possible to see the tag/touch. If this isn't possible, then you have to stay with the catch/no catch. @thunderheads, it might be that you have two sets of eyes viewing the same catch. You have only one person who is responsible for making the catch/no catch call,, though. Again, as in U2 opening their field of view by working deeper in the working area, the PU must work to align F7 with R3 tagging, in order to see the touch/tag play at 3rd. There have been times when I had to go as deep as the backstop fence to get as much angle as possible to view the tag up.

In FED the balk automatically makes it a dead ball. Your sequence of calling the balk doesn't. I call "that's a balk", "TIME"...then move the runners. The call of time is a mere formality in FED. Runners can be running and the batter can hit a home run, all for naught.

You can always take a quick glance at R1 after the initial touch of the ball, and not make a catch/no catch call until possession is secure. Try to line up deep enough in the working area so that you can make that glance without moving your head, I know that might not be possible, but it's worth a try.

DumDum, how are multi-lingual players taking advantage of you by speaking in a language you don't understand. In the area I used to umpire there was a school for the deaf, should we make them all talk? I really don't care how many ways they can curse me in sign language. As far as what players can get away with, if they aren't speaking directly to me, who cares. You don't think English speaking players are whispering on the bench about how bad we are?

I have had games with ex major league player's before and most times they are excellent coaches and role models for their players. One exception was an ex S.F. Giant outfielder (who shall remain nameless), who came absolutely unglued at a malicious contact call at the plate. He ranted and raved, pulled his team off the field, so I ejected him. He asked me about 20 times, "Don't you know who I am?", and I said " yes,(insert first name), you are the guy who is going to be warming up the bus".

I will tell you this, I have been doing this for almost 15 years now, and I still get butterflies before a game. I feel that keeps me wanting to get better every game, and I suspect when I stop getting excited to be out there, I will quit.

i think as you gain experience, making tough calls in tough situations just become reflexive. You see it and you call it, without running the 'what if's' through your head. The key is making the correct call in the correct situation. You will probably get heat for it, but in the long run, you will gain the respect of everyone involved.

I didn't read that he actually dumped the coach during the game. In my opinion, he should have been after arguing the SECOND close call. For most after game altercations, I just walk away and don't converse. The exception would be something physical, luckily that hasn't happened to me yet.