lawump

I know for a fact that we (the NFHS Rules Committee) discussed this very topic. You are to offer the coach the choices. We even discussed the fact that this is not pro ball (nor even NCAA). Now I just have to find where we published it. Might be the Umpire's Manual. I'll see if I can find it.

I brush off the plate on a turf field with the rubber pellets that get all over the plate. (I've never worked on a field with a plate that is "painted on"...only on a field with a "real" plate. I don't do it during the inning (unless there is a slide at the plate that covers the plate in pellets). But, I'm superstitious (big shock...someone in baseball who is superstitious) and I "have" to brush off the plate before each half inning.

None that I am aware of during the last 8 years. (Sorry for the slow reply. Ruptured my appendix while traveling over the holidays. Better it happen then than during baseball season. LOL.)

I put a link to the story in the "professional" section of the boards.

My chief instructor at umpire school and a mentor as an MiLBer. Minnesota native Jeff Nelson retires as MLB umpire with no fanfare (startribune.com)

Can you send me some of the stuff you've been adding to your local water system? I'd like to spread it in our our county water supply so we can get the same result! Congrats!

Seriously, the President of our state's baseball coaches association reached out to us two years ago and asked us if we would object if they petitioned our state league to institute time limits on sub-varsity games. After we finished laughing ("object?????") we told him "hell no"! Apparently, they petitioned too late to get it instituted for 2023, but it should be starting in 2024.

My two cents: I personally feel that a pitch clock/inning clock is completely and utterly unnecessary on the high school level. The games are already two innings shorter, and unlike professional or Power-5 NCAA we're not dealing with any media timeouts. With that said, I do harp on my umpires that you have to continue to work between innings. However, I do NOT tell them to keep a clock. Rather, I tell them to count the five pitches...giving a warning to F1 or F2 after 4 pitches to "throw down"...and then resume the game. And, if a pitcher is slow coming out to warm-up, I tell my umpires to reduce the pitcher's number of warm-ups (unless it's a new pitcher as we don't want an injury due to not being allowed to loosen up) and the pitcher will then learn his lesson and get out quicker the next inning. I mean, 95% of my NFHS games this past year (all of which are varsity) had a game time between 1:45 and 2:15. I had one 1:25 (playoff game between two good teams) and I had a couple of really good games go 2:30 to 2:45 (one was extra innings). Do we really need a clock? I find this to be a solution in need of a problem. (And, as for sub-varsity...which, admittedly, can have some really long games...South Carolina is instituting time limits in 2024 which means pitch clocks, etc., are not needed). Even the games that are traditionally the longest (a really good team against a mediocre team) are significantly shortened in South Carolina (and most states) with the [15-run (after 3 innings) and 10-run (after 5 innings)] mercy rule. Not everything that is good for NCAA is good for NFHS. For me, this is one of those instances. (PS I love the part about being proactive about defensive subs).

The NFHS Executive Committee (which has to approve all rule changes proposed by any sport's rules committee) doesn't really care about umpire mechanics. (I don't mean that as a negative towards them.) They just want them to be professional and universal. As a member of the umpire mechanics sub-committee in 2015 (which was comprised solely of the rules committee members who were also umpires)...the mechanic was changed by umpires for umpires to acknowledge the fact that NFHS is the only rulebook that makes a balk an immediate dead ball. We (the sub-committee) recognized that most umpires work non-NFHS games, and these umpires were not going to change their mechanic to match FED's "unique" balk rule. While we had to go back to the full rules committee and receive its official blessing to our proposed mechanic changes...the non-umpires on the committee were absolutely deferring to us on mechanics. The NFHS Executive Committee has made it very clear (twice, in fact) that they do not want the balk rule to change. [You can go to the NFHS website and look up the Executive Committee and see who comprises that committee should you desire.] At this point, it is so crystal clear that the Executive Committee is not going to allow the balk rule to change that I would place the odds of the NFHS balk rule ever being changed during my umpiring career at close to zero. (And I haven't hit 50-years old, yet. Getting close, though. LOL)

South Carolina: $80 varsity. $125 for a 5-inning DH game (both games). $160 if either (or both) games are 7-innings. We have mileage of $0.55/mile...but an $11 minimum. (I used to live literally behind the right field wall of one school and it used to piss off the AD that he had to pay me a minimum mileage fee.) So, at a minimum one is getting $91 a game (with $11 not considered taxable). If one's round-trip total is at least 37-miles, then one's check is $100 or more. With most schools more than 18.5-miles from my house, the overwhelming majority of varsity games result in a check of more than $100...which is not bad considering the cost of living in SC. Sub-varsity is $65/$110/$130 with the same mileage.

...Not bashing the umpires, LOL. Actually listening/watching game and the announcers are debating whether or not a bunt could be hit high enough to result in an infield fly call. Play-by-play announcer asked the analyst if he had ever seen an umpire call an infield fly on a bunt. Analyst said "no". Play-by-play responded with, "maybe we'll see it here because anything can happen at the Little League World Series!" (or something similar). Good grief!!!

My GOD, this would cause me to have a new ejection mechanic. Instead of saying, "Good-bye!" as I gave the big wind-up toss, I'd have to say "to the convenience store!". Then, I would hold my right-arm out fully extended at shoulder height and pretend I was jiggling keys (like they used to do at the Single-A Frederick Keys games during the 7th inning stretch!) That would be my ejection mechanic in this league. I can further assure you that if they gave me the nickname "Mr. Red Ass" in the minor leagues...I can't wait to see what nickname I'd get in this league after they get a load of what I'd do in this league. LOL. Oh, it would be a good summer.

I will say that my proudest rule was the complete re-write of the verbal warning, written warning, ejection rule. The year they first tried to create this rule (2015 rulebook) it was a complete disaster. The summer of 2015 was my first year on the committee. I told them it was a disaster and some at the NFHS appeared a little insulted that I said that. However, all of the state administrators who were on the committee at that time quickly spoke up and whole-heartedly agreed with me. It was, in my opinion, an example of all the administrators telling the NFHS staff that the rule was not working and was causing them nightmares in their state offices. We literally had some states interpreting the rule as saying a coach could not be ejected unless he had both been verbally warned and restricted. Other states took a different interpretation. It was bad; there was no consistency. I re-wrote the rule (including making sure that it was clear that an umpire can eject without any warnings if the game participant's behavior so warrants.) I know that no constituency today outright loves the rule, and that every constituency (umpires, coaches, administrators) has gripes. However, the fact is that the number of complaints about this rule went from "too many to count" in 2015 to zero in 2016. It was the best case of putting out a fire I have ever done in my life. Now, eight years later, pretty much everyone has bought in to the verbal warning, written warning, ejection process as it exists in the NFHS rulebook and casebook and how it is to be applied. It took a long time to re-write the rule and case plays on that one. And while it may not be universally loved...at this point its been there for eight years and no one is clamoring for it to be changed or modified. (There hasn't been a proposal since I re-wrote the rule to modify, amend, or change it.) So, it has stood the test of time. And, I'm proud of that.

To respond to your signature block: No, you're welcome! (LOL)

I agree whole-heartedly with this.