Mudisfun

As long as a portion of the foot is in front of the plate, its all good. If the whole foot is outside the bounds of the plate, then they are illegal.

We can't see it in this video, but one thing I have noticed when working 4 man on a 60' is that often U2 is starting WAY too far outside. With no one on base, U2 can be fairly deep; I actually like that and enjoy working the outside of the base depending on where the throw is coming from. But once there are runners on and U2 is 'inside' (although they are still outside), I find too many are way too deep to effectively get in quickly. I try and start as shallow as I can so that I am cheating those extra few steps. I have responsibility for leaving early, so as long as I have that and potential INT or OBS, when the ball is play, I'll take the extra distance being shallow offers. With this play developing so quickly, I'm not sure now much extra starting shallow could get, but R2 had the time to get 60'... U2 starting shallow maybe had time to cover 20-25 feet and gain an angle.

I don't recall LL having a slide rule, other than slide or avoid. 7.08 - Any runner is out when: (a)(3) the runner ford not slide or attempt to get around a fielder who has the ball and is waiting to make the tag, or (4) LL Majors and below, only, the runner slides head first while advancing - (approved ruling: there is no 'must slide rule'). I cannot locate anything in the book which defines what is a slide, a legal or illegal slide. There is nothing in rule 2.

What she doesn't know cannot hurt her, right?

LET THE FESTIVAL OF BUYING AND SELLING COMMENCE!

Drove out from Orange County yesterday to work a So Cal State Juniors game in Moreno Valley with my buddy who is heading to Bend for the Juniors Regional. The tournament will end today, Friday with the 12u teams also completing their state tournament this weekend. So, just like that... the 2024 Little League season for 95% of the umpires is over, unless you are one of the chosen heading on to regionals or WS assignments. Seems like it was only 2 weeks ago that the season started. Time does fly... If you are heading to a regional, best of luck and enjoy the time!

Fixed it for you. Love how the partner umpire just took a huge hand full of 'nope, I'm not getting in the middle of this!', and honestly, once the mask started swinging, I'm most likely doing the same thing. Once they all went to the ground, then I'm pulling coaches off my partner, but not when he is swinging to take heads off.

https://www.wral.com/story/fight-between-coach-umpire-ruins-little-league-game-in-wilson/21527488/

Wasn't me, but point taken.

One of the nicest and unassuming guys out on the field. I think this was his first in 10 years? He is in no way a hard ass and even last night was still in-awe that the coach decided to comply. And no, not Anthony, although I wouldn't put it past him! Someone else mentioned that maybe the coaches did not know the schedule, or whatever. This is the sectionals which means they have gone through the same exact process through the district tournaments, and into sectionals. All of the managers have the site/tournament rules and are reminded of the pre-game schedule every game by the TD at the coin flip for home/away as each side only gets X minutes for their in-field, etc...

LL sectionals. I wasn't there, was just sharing the EJ story from the games we are hosting. Not all of the crews are ours, we have other Districts also within the section covering games. But as others mentioned, the tournament has strict warm up rules per side pre-game. @grayhawk your thought may be right, but lets say he protested... and the TD overturned it. Then the other team is going to protest, which then gets a call to WR... then if they do not like the answer, it goes to Williamsport. By the time all this is done, not only will their pitcher be warmed up, it will almost be his bed time!

Crew is starting the plate meeting when they notice the HT F1, F2 and a coach still warming up. One of the crew heads over and tells the coach that they all need to be in the dugout as the plate meeting is happening and the game primaries are about to get started (intro of the kids, etc). Coach tells U1 that he needs to get his 9yo pitcher warmed up, and then tells the kid to keep throwing. U1 tells the coach, again, no. You all need to be in the dugout, now. Again... no, my kid needs to throw. U1 give the coach the options: stop now, go into the dugout and be here for the game, or take the other door and get dumped. Coach chose door number 2... U1 dumps the coach during the plate meeting. Of course he then heads down the line... nope that does not work. Coach then goes to CF... nope. TD finally has to go out to the guy and get him to leave the field area. He heads out to the parking lot behind the field and sets up on his tail gate, which for the crew was far enough as they were done dealing with this clown. How dumb do you have to be to get dumped pre-game after being quite literally given 3 opportunities to stay in the game?

This can also be a league specific local rule. In the league I was affiliated with, for our Minor B teams (8-9s) we locked 3rd base so that the runner could only score on a ball put into play by the batter, being forced on a walk or HBP, a play being made on another runner (stealing 2nd for instance), or an attempt to put R3 out at third by the defense (pass ball/overthrow to 3rd). In our rules, this scenario would not have allowed R3 to score because it did not meet the criteria as the B/R was not an actual runner AND there is no D3K in our Minor B level. We implemented this local rule as this allowed teams to put everyone in at pitcher/catcher without worrying about 5 runs being scored on 5 pass balls. They get a chance to try new kids, the kids all get to play all positions and they get some experience. We encouraged ALL teams to run and score on the passed ball, or steal home due to defensive indifference, because come the end of the season at playoffs, the rule went away. Teams just knew in advance that if they scored on the passed ball, they would go back to 3rd but they still played as if it were live and mattered. It worked for us, so that is all that mattered.

Since pretty much only the 12u teams are on ESPN, I wish they would have left the Intermediate and above alone. Heck, my regional in Nogales barely had Game Changer due to lack of internet access at the facility. Only group now that bats 9 is Seniors... Takes all the strategy of the coaches actually having to find time to play their kids out of the mix.

U3 last night for an 8-9 LL Superstar game. R1/R2 and I am in D (Its a LL mechanic for 3 man, 60' bases in the West.) Ball is hit to the outfield and as R1 rounds 2nd he hesitates. Base coach (manager) screams at the runner "run, f'ing RUN!'. Play ends, I call time and quietly show him the door. Can't be f-bombing 8/9 year old kids. No issues, coach left and we resumed with no further problems. EJ coaches team won 13-3.

First, unless that game is the 1st rodeo for these travel ball parents, they are A) use to seeing cash trade hands at the plate meeting and even more likely, B) are not even 1/2 paying attention, chatting, playing candy crush or refilling their red solo cup and just trying to get through this so they can drive 2 hours home. Often in the cash games I work, 1/2 the fee comes from both teams, so either they both pony up 1 full fee for a DH, or they split per game. Get paid, get paid now. In this day and age, I have more coaches asking of I take Venmo... I printed out the QR code for my account on a business card size card and have them pay me right there at the plate. They show me the confirmation screen and we are all good to go. Now I don't even have to wait for the wife to take it from my wallet, she can just spend direct from the app! 🤣

Was this a day or night game? Even or odd date? You know he got the call incorrect. When I was a UIC and an inexperienced umpire would make a call like this, I would typically get an email from the coach with a brief description of the event. The expectation was to use the play as a learning tool, since if this umpire is making this type of call, others may be as well. We would use these examples as learning tools to make everyone better. Assuming this is an organized league, chat with your UIC, not to call out the umpire and embarrass them, but to help make all of the officials and managers better.

One part of the conversation no one is mentioning as well is the assigning fees. Seems every time a game fee is increased, so does the assigning fee's. I have no issue with the assignor getting paid, but for HS games, in my mind, the assignor(s) are really working for the schools and not the umpires. The schools are the ones with the demand and as such, should be the ones paying the assignor for the work he or she is performing for them in assigning games. Put that fee really where it belongs, on the athletics departments and let our game fees be what they actually are, not game fee minus.

Can't image what assignor(s) in the OC area you are referring to that schedules games with only 1 guy... At lease we have several other assignors who are scheduling the tournaments, 2 man @ $80+ per guy, per game, depending on the weekend. Heck, I worked a double header showcase a few weeks back: 2 man. 10 inning, but 5 batters/3 outs and flip it (games lasted around 2:15-2:30). Pay rate? $150 per guy, per game! That was a complete shock.

I bet they included the math to keep schools from trying to slip in the 'you are already here, so your 2nd game fee is less' line. Keeps everyone on the same page... the page that you are seriously underpaid. For H2O Polo here in So Cal, we get hammered that way... $70 for a varsity game and $60 for a subvarsity game... but if we have a V and JV game scheduled, we only get $105, not the $130 you would expect... if we get scheduled a V/JV/FS then it is $140, not the $190 the math says we should be receiving. Baseball, game fees are per game, regardless if you work a DH or not.

The defense running off the field and the lack of protest from the offense Jedi mind-tricked the officials into believing they missed and out. This is one of those situations when the offensive coach needs to go to the officials and walk through the outs to get it right. If they do not reset, file a protest for a misapplication of the rules, since by rule each 1/2 inning consists of 3 outs which in your case did not occur. Also, batting out of order... once the next batter came up and took a pitch, that would have legalized that 2nd at bat, so there is nothing there. Crew used that new rule book we all love to hate: The Making Sh!t Up book.

If this situation happens to me, I will 100% take the protest from the coach, put it in the book and then let the game play on. At the conclusion, assuming the offended team wins and pulls the P, I would tell the coach he still needs to follow up with his BOD to address this. I know from my time as a board member, and as UIC, member of the ejection committee, I would be pressing for a multiple game suspension, or depending on prior acts, possible removal as coach or manager. Tournament? I'm going to the TD and letting them sort it all out, however, the same reply to the offended manager for them to report the behavior to the BOD of the responsible league. Little League has rules that they need to follow... I know our DA would come down HARD on a manager who did this and flouted the rule regarding being ejected.

When I went to the LL Western Region week long, during one of the night exercises, Doug Perret (RIP) would start barking at the umpire, and depending on the response, or lack of response from the umpire, he would escalate until FINALLY someone would pull the trigger... After the initial EJ, then people would start to stop the madness, but it opened the eyes of many umpires that they were waiting way too long to address the behavior. When the umpire addressed it early, Doug would either say ok, good job, or he would continue on, but this was one of the only times I have been to a clinic which addressed this aspect of the game for officials. I recall watching a training video, I think it may have been Perfect Game Umpire training where they also had one of the instructors barking at the students in the role of a coach. Again, most the people took the abuse versus addressing it until it became so over the top they had to do something about it.

Have to work the crowd and keep them in suspense!