Mudisfun

Do your search for the 40 myths... that seems to be the sweet spot for this type of document.

In addition to baseball, I also work Water Polo, mainly HS, but some club as well. Of the 300 or games I have worked in the past 2 years, only 1 was solo, and that is because the assignor forgot to pull the other assigned referee who told him he needed to turn back the game which meant the slot never was backfilled. Basically a complete one off event. We always have 2 officials assigned, unless the game is 10u which is played in a really small pool. Anything higher receives 2 referees, period. So for HS, 2 referees, 70 a game for varsity ($50/game for tournaments, but you get 3-5 games), which lasts 45-60 minutes, requires almost no equipment (white shoes/pants/shirt) other than white clothing, a whistle and a yellow/red card. Club pays anywhere from $35-$45 a game, less time typically per game (35-45 minutes) and always 2 people. Why can water polo always have 2 but baseball thinks it is too much to pay for 2 people for what is typically a 2-2.5 hour commitment?

Well, the opening day schedule for HS baseball here in Orange County is already off to a rocky start! With all the rain we had over the past week, almost all of the games scheduled for this Saturday have been cancelled or postponed. I had 3 varsity games scheduled: 10am and then a 3pm/6pm double header. Going to be an interesting February. Be safe out there.

Had a game a few years back where the coach told the batter to take the pitch... batter failed to listen. He swung and got thrown out at 1st, but R2 did more to 3rd... coach kept the result of the play since he was ticked his batter didn't listed to him. Point is... just enforce and let the coaches tell you what they want. If I pull a run off the board to put the B/R back on, I'll know rather quickly what option the coach wants when he starts sputtering about that run going away. Then I have the conversation and determine what exactly they want.

Plate meeting is where all of this should have been handled... Coaches, are there any local rules for this division of play that I need to be aware of? 5 run rule, ball hits the machine it is dead and BR is awarded 1st? Outfielders cannot make plays, etc... If not disclosed at the meeting, then today we are playing book rules. And really, they should have 1 adult from the HT and 1 from the VT to be the plate/base umpires. No need for an actual 'official' umpire... It's 8U...

Glover field in Anaheim where we lose tons of foul balls to La Palma Ave, which is a major street. Right center is roughly 420 where right field is 320ish. The park next to the field was a homeless encampment for a long time. Watched a guy stab another guy while walking into the stadium for a same 7-8 years ago; totally wild.

I think there are several facets to this conversation, and veracity in several of the arguments, especially when discussing the LL angle. I agree with @JonnyCat that the chances for being sued, or being held liable for officiating a not official, but a scrimmage game, is extremely low. I carry not only sports coverage, but also maintain significant personal liability insurance, so in this highly unlikely event, I'm calling my agent and letting them deal with it. If I am a volunteer umpire assigned to work a LL game and that game is deemed unable to commence, or complete for whatever legal rules reason, typically due to lack of players then I have no problem continuing to umpire a scrimmage or practice game. Assuming the game is not being called for weather, lighting or some other field condition which may actually increase the likelihood of injury to myself or the participants, then my liability has not changed. There should still be insurance coverage from LL based on the verbiage in the rule book which allows umpires for scrimmage games, although I would If you are a PAID umpire working a LL game, then right off the bat you are most likely not covered by any of LL's insurance since you are either an Independent Contractor, or if being paid by the league directly, an employee of the league. In this case, you need to defer to the agreement between yourself and your employing organization, and if that verbiage states that if a scheduled game is cancelled that you shall not work it, then you need to walk away. In this case, there is exposure to yourself as well as your organization as you have a potential breach of contract angle in litigation which could then expose you and your assigning group. The argument of 'to start or continue', at least to me, vastly depends on the venue we are working and the organization which we are representing. Would I go to a sanctioned HS game and then work it if the game could not proceed due to lack of players? No way. The game is over and I am heading to the parking lot. If the game was a scrimmage to start and I was being paid to officiate that and one team fell below the needed number of players and started borrowing from the other team? Of course I am continuing to work that as it is practice and that is what I was engaged to officiate.

Already seeing teams using the radios for their catchers. Shocking, a HS in Newport Beach (you know, the low rent district of Orange County) already has their team outfitted with them. Shocking, their opponent the other day from elsewhere in OC was not so equipped. I was unaware of the rule change at the time of the game mentioned above, but being winter ball, I really could have cared less that they were using the devices. It did not seem to have any impact in the game as far as flow or speed. The other team was not using a radio and the pace of play seemed about the same regardless of which side was on the bump.

Don't forget Mike Debelak who is also there from Torrance, CA as one of the crew chiefs. There is an awful lot of talent from the West represented at Williamsport this year.

I wear one in summer/off season ball and quite often in regular season youth games. I don't use it during regular season HS ball. The trick? You need to tighten the arm straps so that the protector stays basically in place. In this manner, I can do the GD stance (in the slot) and the friction between the straps and the balloon rubbing against my arms keeps the protector tight up to my chin. When the ball is hit, the protector just stays in place leaving my hands free. The only change really is my strike call has to come out a little farther to get around the raft. Let's face it. We call got into this gig for the umpire groupies, and they absolutely love the retro look of the balloon.

The wording says advances safely (as in, cannot be put out before reaching first,) which RLI prevents. Change the scenario: CI and R2 advancing to 3rd on the hit ball is struck by the batted ball prior to it passing a fielder. You have interference, immediate dead ball, runner is out. BUT you have CI first, and the rule says all must advance at least 1 base safely or you enforce the CI. I'm going with order of operations... CI happened first, R2 is out on interference thus not all runners advanced safely. Kill the play and award based on CI and ignore the interference, unless it is Malicious Contact which supersedes pretty much everything in rule sets which have MC.

Yes, I typoed it... Fixed.

So what is the requirement for CI to be disregarded? In your scenario did all runners, including the BR advance at least 1 base safely? No? Enforce the CI: BR gets first, all other runners advance a base if forced, or if they were stealing on the pitch. If not, runners return to TOP bases.

Welcome! I am just up the road from you in D62 (Huntington Beach area) who also works games in D68 and in D55. You mention being 16, so OCBOA will not be an option for you for a couple of years; you have to be 18 to join. However, if you are already working for Scott at BBUA, your already working with a bunch of us from the unit, so you are being exposed to a ton of really good umpires. We have a bunch of D1/D2/D3 guys in our HS unit who work for BBUA, so keep seeking them out Locally in D68 you have Jeff DuChateau who not only is a great HS umpire, but who also just worked the LL Intermediate Regionals in Nogales, AZ with me. Awesome guy who lives close to you! I'm not sure what training D68 does, but our district puts on some really good mechanics training as we get closer to spring. You are more than welcome to jump in. The cost is zero other than your time and energy. We typically have a couple of 4 hour fast start trainings then we have an 8 hour advanced mechanics training, typically in March. You are more than welcome to jump on our message board where we push out dates, discuss LL rules, etc... free to join of course. https://cad62.groups.io/g/main Feel free to email/message... there are some other assignors I can connect you with to keep you working throughout the winter as well. Kevin cmnllblue@gmail.com

Our school district use to require 40 hours a year from HS students as volunteer time, but they did away with that a while ago. The main issue we have with getting HS players to umpire often is that their schedule and the youth schedules conflict. They either play or practice the same day/time as the LL players.

So pretty much like @Velho describes above... When the game schedules are finally done, I would take all of them and list out every game/date each team plays. I would then assign that team, plate and base to cover another game on a different day. If your team plays on Tuesday, then you may be assigned to cover a Thursday game. If you play at 0900 on Saturday, then your covering the noon or 1500 game, etc... The easy win for everyone was A) the team my kid(s) played on since pretty much that coach got off easy getting his/her assigned games covered, and B) teams assigned to cover Majors since most of those get picked up by our District staff and or 'real' umpires. The people who get screwed are those covering the Minors since other than the Juniors, most district and other 'real umpires' do not want to work Minor divisions when they can avoid it. What you need to make this work: 1) A clear understanding by the BOD of how the program functions and the willingness to help enforce penalties if someone does not hold up their end of the bargain. 2) At the manager selection process, the requirement of supplying officials is went through with each prospect. Those that are unwilling to buy in do not get a team. 3) The managers with a clear understanding of the program are then in a position to 'sell' it to their team members. Since we established the culture, this has been much easier than when we first started the program. 4) Everyone must understand that ALL games must be covered. If each team plays 20-25 games, then they can expect to be assigned 20-25 games to officiate. I never understand leagues which try and sell the 'you only have to cover 2-5 games' mantra. Who is expected to cover the other 15-20? My last year as UIC, for Minor B (8/9 yo) - Majors we had 140 individual umpires work our games. 40 were district staff, 40 juniors and the other 60 were various parents in the league stepping up. They may have only covered 1 game or many, but those numbers there are a success story. Every team on average was 'assigned' 18-20 games to cover and we only had one team fail to show which triggered the 'no assistant coaches today' penalty. I sat at that game the entire time to make sure they took their punishment as assigned, and they did.

I was our UIC for 10 years. Requirement #1 was that the position was a voting member of our Executive Board, if not, then no thanks. I know of too many leagues where the UIC is a general board position which places them in a spot where they have little to no say on how the league is ran. When the BOD tries to implement changes which are not in alignment with the rules, or which is negative to umpires, there needs to be a voice. I ran my position more as an administrator. Our district as a whole handles most umpire training, so I worked to get as many volunteers there as we could, especially since I am one of the instructors. I set the game/umpire schedules and from there maintained communications letting the parties know when district or other umpires picked up a game and the local volunteers were off the hook, unless they wanted to work the game. I never saw my job as the 'no one showed up so I have to drop everything to umpire some random game'. If that happened? Deal with it... oh, and the team that failed to officiate lost their coaches the next game. Amazing how fast that fixes the problem. The 2 coaches are now sitting on the bench with the parent who no showed while the manager is restricted to the dugout for the entire game since you have to have an adult there all game. The kids loved it however, as they got to be base coaches all game.

Hello, 911? Yes, I am a sports official at XYZ park and there is a woman, 5'4, 260 (guessing?) LBS, yes... yes, looks like Large Marge from Pee Wee making terrorist threats to me. She stated "kill me in my sleep" several times. Yes, I am scared for my life. Yes I would love to press charges. Yes, she is still here. F this woman. Call the cops and screw the TD who allows this BS.

A bunch of my peers are wearing these more and more. They speak highly of the comfort and they look fine, so why not? Heck, 1/2 the time I am wearing Nike Monarchs (old man shoes) just because they have a comfortable memory foam insole and they are leather so they wipe clean easily. Nothing better for those games where your standing in C most the day because one team cannot pitch or field and the other team is already going station to station in the bottom of the 1st inning. I seriously crack up when partners are more worried about matching their shoes (you have white, I have to go white also!) then actually pre-gaming and making sure we are working off the same page mechanics wise.

Nope... not even the Ocho!

Hiked both Vernal and Nevada falls in Yosemite in addition to spending a week camping on Bass Lake. Great trips, no one got hurt and none of the cars broke down on the way there!

Came into Nogales last night after a 550 mile drive and am jazzed that the Western Regional Intermediate Regionals are about to start. Myself and 7 other umpires will be working the tournament through July 28th... If you happen to be in the Nogales AZ area (because we all know it is centrally located for everyone) stop by and say hello!

OBR is less restrictive in that they use the bonified slide rule versus HS which uses the FPSR. The FPSR is a safety rule, so you are correct, you do not have to slide, but you also cannot interfere. If you chose to slide, it must be done legally (see definition of a slide), direct to the bag, etc, etc... In this play, R1 ran straight into the base. He did not slide, he did not deviate and he forced the fielder to throw around him. He was in the vicinity of 2nd, so not one of those plays where the runner is only 1/2 way down the track. In our area, this is a classic FPS violation at the HS level and one we grab in our unit. Sorry for the long delay in getting back to you... was on vacation.

Coach suggested it, and I said come on by, we have it printed out and you can have a copy. I honestly can care less if they agree or not. If he really thinks I am wrong, pony up the $100/$150 and protest. If not? we move on.

Was working a tournament which was using OBR but with the HS FPS rule... I called it at 2nd as the PU on the clean up. Coach is pissed of course because we are playing 'pro rules!'... for a JV level team I might add. Calmly explain to him that the game is being played with a FPS, as discussed at the plate meeting. Apparently they had forgotten that conversation already. Of course, thats not in the tournament rules... which of course it is. Gave him the opportunity to come to the car after the game to see the rules which were sent to all the coaches and umpires. Amazing he never showed. And I 100% agree we have to grab this EVERY time.