Mudisfun

Had this in a game recently. R1/R3. Game is not real close, pitching on par with the score. Pitcher steps to 1st, all good... proceeds to spike the ball (not so good) but the ball does make it all the way to F3. Coach in the 3rd base box wants a balk. Our answer was F3 moved to the ball which was closer to the base, so no balk in our opinion. I my head I was wondering why R3 was still standing on 3rd while the ball was rolling to 1st, but that is a mystery for another day.

Enjoy! Bundle up!

Even though he is 15, he is still a youth and can be influenced by adult coaches. I recommend, and do this when working with Junior's... At plate meeting make sure the coaches know that when they want to talk to him/her about a call, they are 100% allowed. however all 3 of us will get together. Coach and umpire to discuss, me to make sure that the conversation is cordial and on point. We do not allow the coach to try and influence by just being older and more aggressive. Have never had an issue using this method and it keeps everyone on an even keel. My last game, partner made a 100% correct call (13 y/o umpire) but the coach wanted him to get help. He knew what to say, "my call, good position etc" but under pressure (coach was 100% perfect gentleman actually) my partner did not know what to do. I sent the coach back to his dugout, asked partner what he saw etc and then asked him if he had what he needed to make his call. We discussed what to say and he did, no issue and we moved on. The point is, just because they interface well with you due to familiarity, they may break down a little when pressure is applied. Be ready to support them and step in when this happens. I have a blast working games with my son, when he has time between his game/practice schedule. Enjoy it!

Tonight, Wednesday, March 21st, 7pm, at the Old World Village main hall in Huntington Beach, Gerry Davis will be the guest speaker for our local LL District Umpire meeting. Any and all are invited to attend, so if you happen to live in the area and want the opportunity to meet a World Series umpire, come on down! Beach Blvd and the 405 fwy, behind Bella Terra. For those of you out of the area... sorry :-(

Other than Adidas...

Shockingly we have actually had water falling from the sky here in So. Cal. lately. This has caused many games to be rescheduled or out right cancelled, depending on the league, level of play and field location. My son, 13, plays in a Pony league, and depending on where they play, will determine if they can play on a damp field, or if the city will shut it down entirely. Last week, with the threat of rain coming my sons team and the team he should have played on Thursday decided to play their scheduled game on Wednesday since they knew the following day the city would close the fields. Knowing I umpire, my son's coach called me asking if I was available... Even though I had a HS game scheduled which would preclude me from saying yes, the answer was NO for any reason... nothing good comes from calling your own kids game I believe. Bottom line... the league made a last minute call to an assignor for an umpire who "thankfully" was available with about 60 minutes to game time. Here is where it gets interesting... I get to the game just before it starts. Most of the families on the team I have known for years, so although I don't make it known I umpire, they all know... I am the UIC for many of their younger kids who are in our LL. Bottom line, like many of you I am sure, when someone has no clue, they ask you, right? Umpire working this game: * SUPER silent strike 3 call. Like so quite, the batter has no idea he just struck out on a called strike. * Putting the ball in play, especially with runners on... Why would you need to do this? Oh, that's right, F1 just threw over for an out! (I honestly have NO idea if he ever put the ball in play and WE recorded the out, so not, not a complaint from an angry parent) * Potential play coming into 3rd with runners on and scoring... never looked at the plate to see the 2 proceeding touches. * Super lazy foul/fair mechanic on close calls. My intent is not to complain about the official... As someone who calls a few game here or there, I saw several opportunities for improvement, and hey, with 60 minutes to find someone, I was happy they had an umpire who was not me. The point here... when your working a game, give it your A game. The players and the fans deserve it. Some of us actually pay attention and want to know and understand what and why you are ruling something. Just a request to those working games to know that some of us sort of umpires are in the stands, and we are watching... and wondering what the heck that call was! Kevin

"I know your tired. I know your hurting, and I wish I could say something that is classy and inspirational, but that just wouldn't be our style. Pain heals, chicks dig scars. Glory, lasts forever. " Umpire groupies... for sure!

To your point, we supply shirts, hats and equipment. Pants, shoes and cup is all on you :-)

Our District has a great training program which includes 3 or 4 mechanics clinics (4 hour fast start we call them), an 8hr mechanics certification day, an 1.5 hour 'advanced' clinic where we work 3 man rotations and the like as well as a complete rules program which includes five 2 hr. classes on Wednesday nights to completely cover all the bases... All of this, and I was having issues recruiting locally. Those of you who have been in LL for a while can attest that what I described here is RARE and almost no one does the number of clinics and outreach that comes from CA D62. When I reached out to the 'body politic' of our league, and which in reality IS the league, the responses I received as to why we were having issues recruiting new people was scattered, but there were some re-occurring themes: * Too much training... the parents felt that all of the above, mechanics and rules was overwhelming, especially for those parents whose kids are just starting out in the lower divisons, * Too hard to get to the rules meetings at 7pm on a Wednesday night in traffic (5-12 miles for most people, but hey LA traffic is a bitch), * We should just pay umpires, because, you know someone else can do all the work... I mean, we all just fall off trees, right? To combat some of these our BOD heavily hit on the fact that we have to have officials, that LL does not really like the paying umpires route, that paying does not get you 'better' umpires, it just gets you a body in many cases and that the majority of the 'assassins' are already working College and HS ball at the same time which means few available folks for LL to pay. So I put together (and I will share it if you would like to look it over) a very basic intro to umpiring which we rolled out as a league. We did a 3 hr rules/mechanics intro on a Saturday morning where myself and a couple other District Staff umpires went through the basics of the rules and on field mechanics; hopefully we provided these people with enough information to be dangerous to themselves and others. I was able to attract, out of a 230 kid LL program roughly 25 first time attendees, many of them Junior umpires ranging in age from 11-16. Our league does provide some compensation to the juniors when they work games. Our thought is to try and get new to the league parents involved earlier in their kids LL career by giving them a soft shoe intro to running games. I would not want one of these people to jump on a Majors game, however for Minor C (kid pitch/coach pitch hybrid) or even Minor B, I would be fine with them... hopefully a few will want to keep improving and decide to take advantage of our spectacular district training, but in the interim I did get new people to jump in. You have to start somewhere, and as mentioned in a prior post, you need retention, but if the program is new, or rebuilding, you have to start at the attracting people stage.

I immediately got out Mr. Sharpie and put my kids name and my phone number on her new bat. If that is 'altering' the bat then hitting a baseball which leaves a scuff or chips some paint is also altering the bat. Putting your kid or leagues name is not improving any performance of the bat, which is what the altering rules are meant to address. Some people just try to find problems.

That... and dodging out of the way of an in-rushing F6.

Ouch... inside mechanics on a 60' field... not fun.

I am extremely lucky in that our LL District (Calif. 62) has a pretty large contingent of serious umpires. Many of us do LL, HS and off season together so it is rare when one of us has to jump into the situation as in the OP. As my kids UIC, rarely does it happen where I am 'forced' to work with someone who has zero interest in being there. I just schedule them on another field and will work my game solo if needed. Now, if that person wants to learn and try? Heck ya! Jump in.

What size field mechanics are you learning? On 60' PU has all fly balls to the outfield... 90... different story.

Only a little?

My HS association held 3 mechanics sessions this off season: 3 man, 2 man and one man clinics. We are extremely fortunate that many of the HS programs in the area actually want the umpires to train and improve, so they actively assist in our training programs. For our 3 man clinic, they scheduled a scrimmage game after the morning mechanics session so that we could have guys cycle in and out of the game where they receive immediate feedback from the staff. For the 2 man clinic, we had players on the field actually playing so that our guys could have a much more 'live game feel' to the training. As @maven stated earlier, setting up these clinics is time consuming and not easy. You have to get the fields, get the permits, coordinate with your instructional staff, get your ratings staff available and then get all participants ready to go. Oh, and all of this? On your time, for free, most likely. Also consider that for most of us, HS baseball lasts 10-12 weeks and then, as an association, we are finished until next year. Yes, the BOD meets and plans, but as a rank and file umpire, our association basically ceases to exist until the next season. One of the big things out IC mentions, time and again... what are you doing, on your time to get better? Are you working games outside of HS? Are you attending other clinics? Reading, asking questions? All of these things, such as being on this web site will help make you a better umpire. No matter how well you are trained, how well read... nothing is going to substitute for actual in game experience.

As an umpire, I have ZERO interest in which helmet/mask combination works best for a catcher... for me, yes :-) I look to the rule book and or governing bodies to supply the guidance and from there I will enforce it. I do not have the time, interest or education in concussive force distribution and or sports equipment testing to be competent to provide any opinion on what participants should or should not wear.

Why is it that not everyone in our lives shares our 'unique' passion for umpiring? What is wrong with those people! Ohh - Congrats!

Be careful with di-hydrogen monoxide. I hear it is a major component in acid rain, can scald you severely in its' gaseous form and if inhaled can drown you.

In California this would be true as well... personal property, anywhere in the world is normally covered... and most homeowners/renters repay at replacement cost versus depreciated value... Depending on your deductible, this may well be worth a call. Go price out everything you lost, new, today and see if it would be worth a call.

If this info was in the OP, then I would 100% agree with you. We have witnessed F3's tagging the BR multiple times for missing the base and then telling the BU he missed for the appeal out... But in the OP this data is not there, so although something that could occur, this, without additional information was not in the cards.

Considering Granderson couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat this post season... I was surprised they even gave him the time of day to listen to his pleas...

You are correct, but in real time the call on the field was out. That movement just before receiving the throw was not caught by an MLB umpire... I doubt I am good enough to catch it either...

Would this change in a FED ruling where the OBS requires a one base minimum award to nullify the act of OBS? Or would you use the same yard stick and determine the OBS runner could not advance due to R3's camping on 3rd?