MadMax

@BigBlue4u is on to something valid, albeit his bedside manner is a little cold 🥶. You’re unaware that you’re answering your own question. Look… So, if you simply “square around”… have you bunted yet? Simply intending to bunt does not necessarily mean that a bunt – a legally defined bunt – is going to happen. If you pull the bat back, is this a (legally defined) bunt? That act can’t be both. There’s a comparative question presented regarding a bunt, that is eerily similar to a HBP – “Did the batter meet (or offer at) the pitch, or did the pitch find the bat?”

You were. 😎 Vinyl wrap is the route to go nowadays. In no way does this info detract from your “gussey-up” job on this. Bravo. Special applause 👏🏻 for removing that stoooopid billow pad, and obscuring all that stoopid yellow printing. Hope it sells! … You’re not retiring, are ya? 😲

Not quite correct. F1 can throw direct to an (unoccupied) advance base for the purposes of retiring the Runner attempting to steal. And, the threshold for Pro and NCAA is higher than younger / amateur ball. Provided F1 performs a legal inside move & throw to 2B, then if a Balk was to be called, it would be because it was judged that R1 did not attempt a steal of 2B (in the 2-man system, PU has to provide judgement on this; in 3- or 4- man, this is typically U1 judging this). The balk wouldn’t be called because of the move; it would be called because R1 didn’t commit an adjudged steal attempt. Now, as @noumpere indicates, the move is difficult to perform, especially by amateurs. And, subsequently, over-emphasis on “slowly bringing up the free/non-pivot foot” just makes the actual pitch less effective. But hey, if you’re up against an aggressive team that steals on first movement… and you can perform a legal move… git’ ‘em, kid!

This is Crucial Question A-Number-1: Does your/that state association draw or take registration fees or dues, especially off new registrants? If “Yes”, I don’t care how much or how little (token) it is, your/that association is a part of the problem. How? How can an organization pull $X off a new recruit, provide nominal-to-no training, provide no gear, provide no uniform, provide no structured support… and deny that that constitutes robbery (or extortion)?? “You gotta pay to play (officiate)”? Absurd. The entire system is broken.

Ah! I know where this comes from… Either… He’s done way too much solo work early in his career, or… He’s been instructed* or impressed (by post-game evaluation, or by colleague) incorrectly, with much too much emphasis placed on “getting out from behind the plate… what are ya? Lazy?” * - in this case, likely classroom / zoom meeting session, looking at diagrams or word-salad slides, instead of actually getting out on a field and doing it.

T, I’ve / we’ve got colleagues who point the (dead) ball Live without the pitcher being on the rubber; instead, being visibly off of it. One-time mistake? Sure. Forgivable. Repeated pattern of behavior? And, when pointed out, either express naïvety or ignorance? Yeah, we must correct that.

Until you get that one umpire who is a literalist, and calls an Illegal Pitch. Do the other 49 states (and territories! Don’t forget the territories!) know this? Because I foresee someone taking a video of one of your HS games, putting it in a PowerPoint (ugh. 😩), and showing it at an association meeting of their own, and when polling the room, you hear a cacophony of “Balk!”. I’ve been at those meetings. 🫣 I’m not saying that your state shouldn’t be at latitude to do their own rule modifications. What I am illuminating is the absence of an authoritative, cohesive, comprehensive decree. … and by “comprehensive”, I mean, would it kill ya to make a video tutorial?? Do your job! Why do we have to rely on the state of Georgia to put out a video series on YouTube (have you seen it? It’s pretty well done) to get video examples and analysis of rule citations?

Someone on the RC would have to die first. Surprisingly, their words. 😲

I would have been sooooo tempted to throw my voice. “Word!” 😲😬 All this kerfuffle… on a JV game??! Context has been lost on everyone.

I wasn’t pointing to(wards) a specific rule, and I can’t do so at this time anyway (I’m on the road, and not doing NCAA games at present). This was my point. NFHS could stand to take a page from NCAA’s process model.

Johnny, I’m not addressing you, specifically; however, what you said (above 👆🏼) illuminates the overarching problem… “I feel like it makes more sense to allow it” – But, who are you??? Are you a NFHS Rules Interpreter for the National board? Are you a/the RI for your state? Your state association? Are you (a rep for) one of the 120+ associations in the state of Illinois (alone)? The problem isn’t the rule, per se… the problem is there’s no cohesive, comprehensive, centralized directive or edict issued from a representative of the NFHS RC or from the RC as a determining body. Say what you will about the NCAA, but when implementing a new rule, or an updated interpretation of a rule, they speak from one source, and there are a trove of demonstrations and videos to illustrate or accompany that rule (interpretation). Show, don’t tell. Demonstrate, don’t (just) draw a diagram.

What’s this “24 hours later” stuff? How ‘bout within 24 hours… ? Oo! How ‘bout within 12 to 14 hours?? I’ve worked 3 different rule sets & corresponding skill levels… in the same 14 hour period! And I’m not alone in this… several of us do this… work a 10:00am MiLB ST game, then a 3:00pm NJCAA / NAIA game, then a 7:00pm NFHS game. Or, I’ve done a 11:00am NJCAA/NAIA game, a 4:00pm HS game, then a 7:00pm MSBL/NABA (Adult Men’s) game to finish the day. The change in speeds and skill doesn’t really affect me (us); it’s the distances, especially pitch distance, and then the footwork-distance that is compressed and truncated when working < 12-year old baseball. I don’t know how my colleagues who do softball 🥎 and baseball ⚾️ concurrently manage it. 🫣

No, not necessarily. They’re all different flavors of TPU-EVA foam, and for “our” purposes, the differences are going to be measured by guys in lab coats and using computer simulations, with no bearing on us. I’m impressed and encouraged that D3O is now offering their trademark foam “loose”. Since its inception, D3O would partner and supply their foam to other product manufacturers. Team Wendy acts much the same way with their Zorbium, and WindPact with their CrashCloud air bladders. It would come down to cost. One big benefit with both D3O and ShockTec, being TPU-EVA foams, is they are hydrophobic – they shed water instantly. Shot with those holes – or pre-cut slots, ahem @Cavalier1948 – there’s a dramatic increase in surface area to wick and evaporate moisture, there’s a weight reduction, and there’s no loss or compromise in energy absorption. Eat that Wilson and your bed mattress memory foam!!!

👆🏼 that is laminate foam. I’d argue, the best laminate foam on the CP market. The topside is the body-contact side, the bottom is the outer side, which adheres (terribly, granted) via adhesive Velcro to the inside of the carapace plates. The innermost material is a lattice mesh, then a MTS (moisture transport system / surface) membrane, then the “magic” D3O, last an outer double-skin of lattice mesh. This laminate foam is what makes the “original” Schutt XV the best functioning CP on the market, IMExO. Here’s what they used in the AiR Flex I & II, the XV’s predecessors: On the left is the sizing foam (grey) laminated to a very thin sheet of PVC, and encased in CoolMax MTS fabric. Good attempt, but not quite a performance system. Schutt really struck gold (ha!) with D3O. D3O is a semi-viscous, mesothermic (more like, mutathermic) foam, meaning that when energy – ie. abrupt, acute heat – is applied to it, its molecular structure changes, or mutates, and it arrests that energy, retards it, and then recovers its shape in a (relatively) gradual fashion. Schutt brokered a partnership with D3O to trial it in their football helmets; they were only able to employ it in the first two-to-three batches of Schutt XV baseball CPs. And, as soon as Schutt passed the XV to their subsidiary, Adams, they lost the ability (license and permission) to use D3O. As such, they used a “generic” TPU-EVA foam from then on. Several companies have picked up on this, and are using TPU-EVA foams as the primary matrix in a foam laminate (of course, Douglas and Wilson are not). Force3 went down an entirely different rabbit hole. Instead of using a TPU-EVA foam, JK was sold on UnEqual Technologies’ use of Kevlar. Kevlar is a fabric, not a foam, but it has better tensile strength than steel, ounce for ounce. As such, it has incredible energy absorption properties, but zero volume. There needs to be some volume present so as to hold a shape and to lessen (or prevent) the carapace plate from slapping upon the body. So this is what Force3 does: Now, that photo is their mask pads, but it’s the same principle. On the CP, instead of the outer closed-cell bumper, they use a sheet of HDPE as a “blast plate”, and encase it all in a lycra-neoprene skin (neoprene is non-UV permeable; UV destroys Kevlar). Ideally, nothing is riveted to the carapace plates. The rivets, if used at all, join the carapace plates together, using splines of elastic, nylon, and vinyl, like ligaments & tendons. I (and others, like @wolfe_man and @The Short Umpire) favor Chicago screws because you can reposition the plates and splines to achieve a much better fit per wearer. Enough of the differently sized units (Wilson! Champion!), or the One Size Fits Most (All-Star, Schutt). Are you familiar with Force3 Ultimate shin guards? That’s a near-ideal construction. The Kevlar is jacketed in vinyl, and it is riveted to the carapace plates. Then, a pillow/cushion of squishy, breathable sizing foam is Velcro-secured inside that, and conforms to your actual shin and knee. What would make this perfect? Glad you asked! … If the shin plate was divided into overlapping sections, able to extend or contract to exact size needed, and then secured with Chicago screws. Upper (knee) padding completely separate from lower (ankle) padding. A company would never have to produce 2-4 different sizes of shinguards again. Ain’t world-changing. EDIT: I forgot! Yes, you should not rivet the pad vest to the plates. So how to do it? Wilson uses (and patented!) Velcro tabs. Because they patented them (at the time, since expired), it knocked Riddell and All-American out of the market. Douglas had to stick (ha!) to Velcro facing. Schutt used Velcro facing (terribly). There are several solutions you could look at… I’ve been advising guys to do velcro loops thru slots. Roughly similar to velcro tabs without permanently mapping and stitching Velcro tabs to the pad vest, which increases cost and complexity, and defeats resizing.

Thank you. I/we needed to hear another competent umpire say that, too. Why? Because you’ll have some other umpire claim that because the dead ball appeal was allowed – say, by a partner he’s at operational odds with – and a coach “calls the crew to the carpet on it”, will further exacerbate the situation by prohibiting the Live ball appeal, to “make it official”. Think my imagination is far-fetched? … Remember the six-page argument we hosted here on U-E regarding how you can’t have a HBT from a dead ball (you can’t)?

Even though the PU might have broke “procedural protocol” and allowed a dead ball appeal, does that invalidate a Live ball appeal? I’m not condoning it if he did, nor am I campaigning for NCAA (and OBR, by extension) to do dead ball appeals. … although… 🤔 … isn’t video replay review a form of dead ball appeal?

What you’re/we’re missing is an (exaggerated) open-cell, lattice, or sizing foam. See that “egg-carton”, finger-foam on the Cobalt’s pad pods? That’s the material needed. Any closed cell or gel foam does the job of energy absorption. However, what creates the “comfort” factor is the body contact between the CP and the wearer’s body. Crude upholstery foam – what Wilson and Douglas use – satisfies the three basic requirements of a CP’s foam. While it satisfies them, there are no additional benefits. None. Nothing but detriments, ie. “hot”, “heavy”, “bulky”, “doesn’t breathe”, etc. Now, on the System7 (AKA CPU4000), All-Star itself cheated (a little bit). They used a TPU-EVA foam (similar or simpler than D3O… it’s that perforated / holed material) as the main jacket, and then Velcro’d on those pad pods. The pad pods are built around that closed cell foam you revealed, and then they lapped that technical mesh fabric to act as sizing foam. Good intention, slip-shod execution. To the System7’s credit, it has the best, most comprehensive plastic (ABS) carapace shell in the business. The thing is the rhinoceros beetle of CPs. Those carapace plates are the first layer of absorption, and work with that TPU-EVA foam jacket. Aside from replacing the corroded rivets, you really don’t need to replace any of the plates or foam jacket. There might be too much “sizing foam” on the underside of the shoulder pauldrons, and you did point out that that the ailettes (gap protectors) protrude “up” too much… those can certainly be swapped out for flatter ones (think: Schutt-Adams, or Douglas), but outright removal will, I think, lessen the CPs protectiveness. You already resolved one of its nuisance flaws with your outrigger straps. While the gel is going to give the best energy absorption for the least amount of volume, the detriment of that gel is ventilation / breathability. As in, none. So that forces you to do a segmented / pods approach. For that, you don’t need both the gel and the air2gel… you just need one, laminated to a lattice sizing foam, and encased in a technical mesh fabric.

Yeah, stop falcon around. What’s the gull of this forum? 🪶

… However… We would be doing all of baseball a disservice – and Lee McPhail the dishonor – if we did not discuss the “spirit of the rule”, the origin of and reason for it. The reason for the rule was to preserve the few baseballs that a game had, back in the day. What few (think: less than a dozen, tops) a game did have would be frequently reused, and by the end of the game, would be nigh unusable (further). As such, pine tar on the barrel was prohibited. The myth that pine tar on the barrel improves hitting results is just that, an abject fallacy. Aside from the pun, why is he “stuck” on this rule?

… 🤔 … Wouldn’t that make you… … a BirdDog?

Slight correction. The umpire didn’t “kill play”, the ball being mis-fielded and going Out of Play (into DBT) is what killed play. This very slight technicality factors into how you (as umpire) will explain why you’re adjudicating the way in which you’re about to… So, let’s ask a question… without the ball in their possession, could the defense make an immediate appeal upon a Runner in or during Live ball play? 🤔 No. So if their actions caused the ball to become Dead, why would they get that benefit of an immediate appeal with the ball now being Dead? Huh! Exactly. So, the offense (Runner) has the latitude to correct his base running “error”. Granted, there are prohibitions and limits in the rules that invalidate attempts at corrections (eg. when a following Runner touches the plate, and you, as a preceding Runner missed it; you can go ahead an touch it all you want, the umpire is not to consider it a valid, or legal, re-touch). As a procedural protocol, we are to make awards & placements first, then entertain appeals. If during the award, the Runner doesn’t correct a mis-touch / error, or commits a (further) miss, we are not to remind or rectify them. Once completed with the/all award(s), then entertain any/all appeals. Yes, there is Rules / Manual support for this particular procedure.

Does calling a Balk, for this… … really matter? At… let’s see if I can emphasize this a bit… ah… here… … 10U??!! There are several methods to adjudicate an amateur baseball game, and Context is a significant component of this. These kids are developing, and will be developing for several more years. The umpire in your game utilized the Correction-by-(Contextual)-Guidance method. The method you were suggesting – the Correction-by-Punitive-Measures (AKA Correction-by-Unyielding-Enforcement, AKA Correction-by-Repetitive-Penalty) method – would have done little more than frustrate and made the gameplay nearly unbearable. It wasn’t like the kid was picking guys off repeatedly, or this was some kind of District / Region / State championship. 10U. I’d be happy that all the kids had fun, learned something, and made it to the burger joint / ice cream stand before it closed. 🍦

He’s retiring again?? … No black… what. a. shame. But hey! There’s plenty of navy and red ones*! All you NFHS and American Legion apologists** should stock up! * - silver-on-grey is a pretty dapper look, IMNSHO. ** - NFHS - “If it’s in the (Fed) Rulebook, it must be used!” “Navy’s all we need!” American Legion – “‘Tis sacrilege to wear anything besides the patriotic red, white & blue. Did you not know, sonny, that this shirt was designed during the Vietnam War?”

That would take some cluck to have that happen. 🐓