Kevin_K

I prefer purple. I have never seen a lineup card filled out in purple.

@Richvee may be longing for spring already!

Explain how it isn't an answer. OP has one out. R3 scores - "the runner from third walks to home plate and touches it". Even if BR is out for abandonment, R3's run scores. That makes it 11-1. Game over.

Game over. Go home. It's a kid's baseball game. When one looks for trouble they find it. And besides, there's only one out and R3 touched home plate thereby making the lead 10 runs. NOthing else matters.

Maybe the adults in the room need to be reminded of this. They probably are the same kind of people who have cutthroat games of Candyland.

That's four steps too many. As @BigUmpire professed many years ago, shoot one monkey and the others tend to settle down. Why would you permit these nitwits to start sniping at a plate meeting without setting the tone immediately that their behavior is unacceptable and will make their evening shorter that they anticipated? If they keep being idiots, keep punching their tickets early and often. It gets easier with every ejection. I have never regretted an ejection. They make my games quieter and more enjoyable

I hate the cue card and I hate even more that I work with imbeciles who can't read. On the rare occasion I have the bases or I am R2 in volleyball, I cringe at the mispronunciations (ethnicity is usually pronounce ethnic-ticity), mumbling, and stumbling that allegedly literate people offer up as their version of the official NJSIAA sportsmanship statement. Because it's a routine part of my plate meetings and pre-match conferences in volleyball I decided that it should be committed to memory. Makes things much more seamless. I can't believe how many of my partners are genuinely stunned that I could actually memorize a three sentence passage that I say about 100 times a year.

NJ is $90 for varsity with no mileage. I've heard it will be $105 in 2024 mostly because of a serious lack of umpires staying in baseball. A large percent have migrated to softball only because of many factors including time and age.

Schools, however, have broader powers regarding speech and other constitutionally protected privileges (they really aren't rights because the government can and has rescinded all rights when it sees fit). Cases like New Jersey v TLO (1985) , Tinker v Des Moines (1969), and Morse v Frederick (2007) have helped define a different set of parameters for activities on school grounds where the rights of the individual are often relegated to second place because of the need to provide secure and stable environments for learning and for the well being of children. The in loco parentis doctrine provides for greater latitude in schools and for school administrators, so this parent may find themselves on the short end of a long line of decisions that limit what most people perceive to be their rights.

I'd be willing to bet it has something to do with the disclaimer that all broadcasts offer that their "telecast is copyrighted and any rebroadcast, retransmissions, pictures, descriptions, or accounts of this game without the express written permission of Major League Baseball are prohibited."

@TPBD Blue.... it seems as though you are getting hit frequently. Are you setting up in the slot? It's a very different mechanic from that used 20+ years ago. Or are you just a ball magnet? Just curious

Holy Sh*t is right. That should tell every umpire that works for them that they are more concerned with their profit than paying the umpires what they earn. In NJ we have a group that operates under the name USABL. They are shylocks who underpay umpires and then send out blasts crowing about Elmer P Suggins who worked 18 games in three days at the My Parents Check Cleared Elite Baseball Tournament. They add that he will get a paltry bonus of about $2.50 per game for 30+ hours of baseball umpiring. Like most things in life, if you want to know the real truth, follow the money. I will not work rather than work for them. Their concern is churning games and boosting profits.

Dad?

If experience tells us that a whacker is coming, it would seem that experience would also at least suggest that being too close to a play can have it blow up on you. As @JonnyCat offered, distance provides a greater field of vision allowing for more details to be observed. Most of us work 2 man crews which means that most of our force plays will be at 1B. When taking a routine play that's going to be a whacker, getting closer would mean that we will probably abandon our normal mechanics of creating an angle to see the play at the bag. How much does changing the mechanic benefit our ability to properly judge the play, including the proper use of eyes to make sure the ball has been secured? If selling the call is a concern because distance may seem a problem, I have used the make the call and close the gap mechanic after my call has been made so that it appears I was closer to the play than I actually was. Good mechanics, good judgment, good communication, and game management are the critical components of being a good umpire. How much might anyone of us benefit by abandoning one of those and significantly impairing another because the play will be closer than normal?

Worst game of my umpiring career was with a knuckleballer. I have no idea what happened, but to say I was bad would be an insult to bad umpires. I tried everything I knew to reset, refocus, and refine what I was doing and the end result would have probably been better if I had flipped a coin on every pitch. If there had been an excavator on site I would have dug a hole, climbed in, and asked someone to cover me. @Richvee was witness to it, yet he still is willing to work games with me and occasionally share a beverage or two. I haven't had that problem since, but its lasting memory makes me a more humble umpire.