bluejerred

Fellow Umpires, I recently came across an app called RefMasters. It's an app for officials of all sports, but the baseball section has MLB umpires starting conversations and quizzing the group. I've had some nice back and forth with Brennan Miller. Definitely worthy of your consideration!

I recently put a post up about having 10 ejections this year. Had good feedback on it from the group. I used to be afraid of issuing an ejection - I was already worried about what a coach, player, fan, partner, or assigner would do. This caused me to lack confidence in myself and spilled over into other parts of my game. I also used to let the "grow thick skin" comment bother me - as to imply that if I eject someone, I can't mentally handle the pressure. I grew to believe the opposite is true - letting people get away with whatever they want and allowing yourself to be miserable is not having "thick skin". Handling business is having "thick skin". Remember that you are the impartial party at a game - if you are miserable, there is a high chance you aren't the only one and they might be relying on you to make things better for everyone else.

I like to think I give enough rope under the right circumstances (heat-of-the-moment, honest mistakes, tight contest). We all talk about the 3 P's (Personal, Profane, Prolonged); however, I think domineering/overbearing and passive-aggressive behavior should be dealt with the same way - with no mercy and decisive action. If for no other reason, it takes the enjoyment out of the day when people behave like this and I'm not about to let them ruin my day.

I have attempted to use these before. They suck - the bristles aren't hard enough to move dirt efficiently. I went right back to my standard brush after one game using those.

I talk with my mentor about my ejections fairly soon after they happen (he is also my UIC). He is a straight-forward guy, so if I made a mistake, he will let me know - and I am open to the criticism. He will tell me if he would have done something different, but he hasn't told me that any of my ejections were bad. Some of them didn't surprise him at all - either they were straight-forward (coaches escalating amongst themselves) or he knew who it was and chuckled. I'm pretty lucky to have him. He helped get me back into it and I've learned a lot from him. It's awesome when we are on the field together - we have a good time. To @SeeingEyeDog's point, I am curious on how you guys approach it based on your association/region/demographic.

First incident: Described in a past post in this thread (3 coaches ejected, 10u travel ball) Second set of ejections: Semi-final in a regional tournament 13U. I'm PU. Two teams with some prior beef (Team A beat Team B pretty bad and let them know it). Team B was keeping it close and then took the lead in the 5th. Things were getting intense between both teams. Batter from team B was up to bat and pitcher from team A was pitching inside. Tempers were getting hot and the batter got walked. Coach from Team B changed pitchers. Pitcher comes in and gets third out and then gives a rather large and demonstrative Trevor Bauer strikeout celebration while looking down the batter and the place blows up. I eject the pitcher. Team B coach comes out and asks why, I explain, and then he starts making irrelevant statements to the ejection (They are 13!, they have been chirping at us!, etc.). I let him have his say and then he starts in with "you are screwing up this game for us, you are costing us a chance to win this game". I eject him and he immediately leaves. We use a BR rule to place a used substitute in the lineup to prevent a forfeit. Another team B coach tells me what he thinks of my abilities while we were trying to find a way to prevent them from a forfeit. My CC and the UIC of the tournament get on him before I eject him. After everything, everyone was very well behaved and there were no more shenanigans. Team B ended up winning a close game at the end and going to the finals. Third set of ejections: Two travel ball teams (10u) and fall ball. Team A has a lineup with subs (as I'm told later), team B is batting through their lineup. Team A makes an unannounced substitution that causes a batting out of order situation. Team B appeals. Being fall ball, I wasn't given lineups so we go to the books. Arguments with the parents ensues, then coaches start yelling at each other across the field, then parents yell at coaches, then coaches yell at parents. My attempts to slow everything down fail and I eject the head coaches for both teams and I look around at everyone else waiting to pull the trigger again. Team B coach understands the ejection and apologizes. Team A coach walks away and decides to take some parting shots at me. What was worse was that I was on a field away from help and I was solo, so quite the mess there. Fourth incident: 10u rec ball. I'm BU and I'm mentoring a youth PU (HS Freshman). Team B makes a live ball appeal that a runner from Team A didn't touch home plate. HC from team A is already starting to come down the 3B line to give his opinion. I talk the PU through the appeal, ask him what he say (he said the runner did not touch the plate and was sure of it), so then I tell him that is an out. This was the third out. HC for team A protests and "demonstrates" how his player touched the plate. PU held his ground and told him what he had. HC tried to continue but I step in and break up the conversation. HC starts to yell "he has to pay attention" over and over. I try to talk him down and speak sense, but he isn't having it. He then lets out a hearty "JESUS CHRIST". I eject him at this point and then he asks me why I ejected him. I tell him this is a 10u rec ball game with a youth umpire and that what he was doing wasn't acceptable for this setting. He takes some parting shots at me. After the game, my youth partner and I are leaving the field and the ejected HC seeks us out while we are on the field and lays into me about a play that was controversial. (Pitch was in flight and partner said "hold on" before the batter hit it to center field. Ball was caught and everyone played it. Parents started to pipe up and I pointed at my partner and the pitcher and said "Play!" in an authoritative tone to squash it.) I keep walking with my partner and tell him that he shouldn't be seeking us out on the field after the game. He takes some more parting shots and I head back to the umpire's room.

I've had 10 ejections this year (9 coaches, 1 player). It seems like a lot, but at the same time I don't look back and think that they were unwarranted. I've been following the IAWE protocol of Ignore, Acknowledge, Warn, Eject; however, it seems like coaches are burning through it a lot faster than usual. Anyone else dealing with this sort of thing? I thought maybe I was ejecting too many people too fast, but I'm tired of dealing with poor behavior. Enough is enough - I figure it's better for everyone to know that I'm willing to pull the trigger than try and be a therapist. What say you?

Did this coach/team have build a poor reputation in the tournament before this game?

This is where you will see AC's or HC's asking you "don't I/they get a warning first?" once you dump an AC. Other than that, read "Verbal Judo" - gives you a lot of tools and confidence to deal with high-stress conversations.

Any private games or "friendlies" I do go through my assignor/mentor for CR/BRL. You don't want to pay - fine, I don't need the money. That being said, I will send word back to my assignor and your reputation will spread like wildfire. Umpires talk, and it's only a matter of time before we see you again in a game that counts.

I found this site that had some crazy cheap prices for umpire gear. Made me think it may be a scam. Have any of you used this site? https://www.stripespluss.com/

Gents, In my journey to find the end of the internet, I found a YouTube channel for a baseball team called the Covington Lumberjacks. They record their games and the camera angles they use allow for a great view of all 3 umpires as they go through their mechanics throughout the play. Thought I would share for anyone who is interested.

Babe Ruth League

Wreck ball. 13 year old players (BRL Prep). Pitcher has athletic skill but no discipline or mental toughness. Same goes for the catcher. In the 2nd and has been a crybaby since the beginning. Pitcher fires a very hard fastball that his catcher totally missed. Nails me right in the forearm. It hurt and I take a few to recover. No apologies from pitcher or catcher. I tell the catcher that if he can't catch it, don't call for it. Next batter, pitch close but outside the zone, I call ball. Pitcher steps forward and throws his hand up in disgust. At this time, I chew some major ass. I tell the pitcher, while giving a quality knife hand, "DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN. YOU HIT ME WITH A FASTBALL AND THEN YOU THROW YOUR HANDS UP LIKE THAT THE NEXT BATTER? THAT'S WHAT YOU DON'T DO!" Inning finishes, their head coach comes to me and says, "I know you got hit, but you can't tell at him like that." I told her "I can either chew him out or throw him out. Nobody on your side did anything to correct him so now it falls on me. He's not a victim, he's still in the game, and it's done unless you're telling me it isn't." No problems the rest of the game, everything went good, still called a fair game (including for the kid in question when he came to bat). Their coaches didn't talk to me the rest of the game, which is fine by me. Now you guys can chew my ass on my approach. Ready, set, go!

Situation: BRL. R1, 1 out. Pitcher is in stretch. R1 steals while pitcher is set and reaches second prior to the pitcher starting his pitching motion. Batter swings and fouls off pitch. I looked up the definition of "pitch" in the BRL rulebook and it simply states that a pitch is a ball delivered to the batter. My question to the group is when does "time of pitch" start? Is it when the pitching motion starts, when the ball is released, or when the pitch is completed? Thank you! At the time this happened, we sent the runner back, which now feels like an error on our part.

This fits them exactly. Honestly, I couldn't have described it better. Update: Apparently last weekend, the coaches in question were well behaved. So at least I can say I didn't pass my problem to another umpire. I'm assuming the confrontational attitude described above is an attempt to take control of the game and sway close calls to go their way? My coach in question was as described above, but he wasn't stupid. I got the impression he knew exactly what he was doing.

If the winning team was the home team, I'd understand getting the runs to get the run-rule. They were the visiting team and what they were doing was extending the game. We were at the no new inning time limit anyways.

Blowout game, 10u travel. Top of first, winning team already up by 5. Pitching coach requests time after a walk. 1st base coach (AC) starts yelling about how time can't be called until his runner reaches first in the direction of the DC. They start to jaw back and forth, I come up first base line to get between them and shut it down. Next inning, runner coming home while winning team on defense (up by 10 at this point). DC asks loudly during the play if there was batter interference since the batter moved out of the box while ball is live. I give a safe signal and say "no interference" loudly since it was loud. After play stops, he tells me that he's just trying to ask a question and I shouldn't be yelling at him. I tell him that he asked during a play and I'm trying to keep everyone informed while people are yelling. He thinks I'm talking down to him and asks to be spoken to as an adult, which I then just look at him with confusion and walk away. Last inning, the winning team is up 16-1 and is breaking every baseball etiquette rule there is. Stealing, trying to run up the score, etc. This is causing friction between the coaches and they start chirping at each other again. AC at 1st base is yelling over at the HC's on the 3rd base side, things are escalating, I hear the winning team's HC getting loud. I call time and toss the winning team's HC and AC forcefully (very loud "You, you're done" - I saw them as the agitators mainly because they were chirping loudly throughout the game and I heard them escalating. They protest, AC tells me I've had a SH*# game all night. HC calls me a racist as he was leaving. Winning team AC took over as HC and informed me that the coach on the losing team was calling them bush league (I did hear that said). I went over to investigate, told them I heard bush league, and the HC admitted to saying it. I calmly ejected him as well. Game finished up nice and quiet. Even the parents were telling me good job because they were tired of hearing it from both sides. Surprisingly, the ejected HC for the defeated team called the board VP and told him that we did a great job and that he was just concerned for his kids and parents. I was disappointed that coaches from the winning team were engaging at all. Things were escalating and I felt that elections were the only way to get control of the behavior on the field. These are the first ejections I've had in a baseball game. Feel free to critique and ask questions as necessary. Thank you!

I'm reading Doug Harvey's biography, "They called me God". In his book, he gives advice on where to position yourself when working the plate. Here is an excerpt from his book: I’ve backed umpires up as many as fifteen feet back and to the left or right to get them to see that what I’m saying is true. Usually I asked them to step three steps back and three steps to the right for a righty batter and three steps to the left for a lefty batter. The young umpires think I’m crazy, but after the first pitch they’re aware they can see the entire strike zone perfectly. I also tell my students to stand with the right leg behind the left. That way, if the ball hits you in the mask, it knocks you back and the back leg softens the blow. I have recommended this ever since I saw Eric Gregg, who weighed more than three hundred pounds, take a foul ball on his chin. His feet were side by side, and when the ball hit him, he toppled over on his back like a big oak tree. I wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone. Was wondering what you all thought. Many thanks!

IAWE. Ignore, Acknowledge, Warn, Eject. Sometimes it's warn, then eject. Sometimes it's just eject. Depends on the situation and the 3P criteria. If you can explain to your superiors that you took the necessary steps, you shouldn't have any issues. In this case, if the bench jockeying was prolonged, give them the stop sign. If they blow through it, that's on them. Letting it go on for a prolonged amount of time can cause you to lose control of the game. Not to mention, you army the only one who doesn't want to hear it. While it's not a rule, I've read here and have had it confirmed by others, that the Spanish custom is: if the mask comes off, somebody is going. Other than that, read "Verbal Judo" to teach you how to have conversations in high-stress situations. It will change your life.

How do you like the Cobalt?

Had a game today where I took a pitch right in the chest and another one off the shoulder. Sun was in catcher's eyes and he couldn't track the pitch. I felt both pitches pretty good and needed a minute to walk it off. Is the V3 better or is there a different CP any of you would suggest? Many thanks!

Had a game today where I took a pitch right in the chest and another one off the shoulder. Sun was in catcher's eyes and he couldn't track the pitch. I felt both pitches pretty good and needed a minute to walk it off. Is the V3 better or is there a different CP any of you would suggest? Many thanks!

Hello Everyone, Just reintroducing myself. Took about 5 years off from umpiring to go back to school. Finally got behind the plate for my first time since my break last Sunday. Feels good to be back in the saddle!

Good "Verbal Judo" to try and diffuse the situation. Guy didn't want to see the forest through the trees and was going to incite others with his actions. Did what you had to do to control the situation.