Mudisfun

For pretty much any baseball, once you establish what rule set you are playing under, ask them at all levels if they have any local rules in effect. Typically for Little League minor divisions they will have a 5 run per inning max, an open inning for the 6th, batting CBO with either 5 runs, 3 outs or once through the lineup and then they switch. Some will have D3K or IFF, or one or none at the minors level. They will also typically have a no new inning time limit as well. Majors the only real modifications they can make would be: no new inning time if there are multiple games scheduled that day, letting you know if they are batting 9 or CBO (batting 9 is rare in Majors), have they adopted the 15 after 3, 10 after 4 or 8 after 5 mercy rules; if not then the 15 after 3 and 10 after 4 rules are in effect unless they have a no mercy rule signed off by the DA. has the league elected to allow for a CR for the pitcher or catcher or both with 2 outs, and if they get to only 8 players if there is an out or not. If I ask at the plate meeting and they do not articulate the local rules, then we play Blue Book. If they try and throw something in which is in conflict with the rule book, ask to see the waiver from the DA, if not, it does not exist. One year a league tried to enforce that a replacement pitcher had to come from the field and could not be a bench player. Partner and I laughed that one out of being at the plate meeting. The rest regarding poor adult behavior has been well addressed by @maven

No kidding, right? I want to not only try and explain it to a coach, but I want them to try and make the ruling work in Game Changer!

The disappearing runner rule only applies to a clean hit to the infield. Think a bunt where all runners advance and no error is made. In that case, the runner is not out, but the run does not score either; thus the 'poof' play. The OP's scenario is not the same, especially since R2 was thrown out at home.

So in LL when you have a runner leaving early scenario, you only will advance the batter what the umpire judges to be the true value of the hit. What should be a single and which turns into a triple because of the zoo plays which happen after are negated. Any outs recorded stand and all runners will be moved as far back as possible, including removing the run scored and putting that runner back on the track. In your scenario, the out at home stands, and since there is now a vacant base and the true value of the hit is a single, the scored runner is returned to 3rd, R1 moved to 2nd and the B/R to 1st.

I would say this statement is in no way restricted to LL... Youth sports in general have become very acidic and are a great place to showcase bad adult behavior. My son and his partner ejected a coach from a 12U water polo game a few weeks ago who was a complete asshat. Bad behavior in no way is limited to LL or to baseball; it is prevalent everywhere.

The established process in the Western Region for Little League is that all bats, helmets and catchers helmets are inspected by the umpires prior to every game. Does every league do this? I highly doubt it, however in our district it is the standard operating procedure. Any league in our district that I umpire in, when I ask the coaches to have all the bats, hats and catchers masks out, either they already are lined up or they run and grab them. Never do we get that deer in the headlight look as I have received in out of district games when it is obvious that no one is checking regularly. Is it a PITA to do this every game? Yep... but the number of travel ball bats I have pulled out of the dugout prior to these games just reinforces that checking now saves a ton of problems then... Will the manager at the plate meeting tell me yes when I ask him if all players are legally and properly equipped and all equipment is legal? 99% chance he will... do I really think a volunteer manager is going to actually know that one of his players brought his TB bat to the game? Doubtful... should they, yes, but will they?

Blue! They faked a swing! They cannot fake a swing! ...coaches most likely

I actually had the hidden ball trick successfully executed earlier this season... ball hit over F8. B/R gets to 2nd and F4 fakes the throw, but really, the B/R (now R2) was not paying attention. Steps off, tagged out. F1 no where near the mound. If you are a player reading these threads... take a clue. When the field umpire is literally facing the outfield and the play is over, there is a clue there for you. Stay on the base.

HS varsity game, 3 man mechanics. R1/R2, less than 2 outs. F6 walks the ball back to F1 who is a couple feet from the mound/circle. Watching, I notice that when F6 hands F1 the ball, there is no ball in his hand. I also notice that his mitt is swollen like it may be cradling something... 🤯 Trying not to to tip anyone off, instead of turning chest to ball and staring at the fielder, I just opened up and watched... quick head turn to the right I notice F1/F2 a few feet from the mound talking (so no balk potential there). I look back and F6 is chatting with R2 (who happens to be one his BFF's I later learn) when R2 decides that stepping off the base is a good thing. 6 inches from the bag F6 applies the tag which I immediately call as an out. 1/2 the stands are cheering, the other 1/2 is stunned. VTHC asks for time, granted and comes running out to me. No way, no way! Time was out! OK... if time was out, why did you ask for time to come out here? Coach, I didn't call time, BUT since I was watching what I should have ben watching, maybe one of my partners called time and I missed it. If that's the case, no harm. Go back to the dugout and we are going to chat. U1, did you call time? Nope... I know I didn't call time since I recognized what play was on... PU guy? Umm... well F2 and the batter asked me before the tag play happened if we had time and I said yes, I think we have time. Ok... so you told both the offense and defensive player(s) you had time, so here's the deal: You get to go tell the HTHC, who is about to lose his mind why we're taking the out away. U1, you are going to be ready to play rodeo clown if this gets out of hand. I am going to signal the runner safe. Couple of minutes of fun, no ejections and my PU let the coach have his say since he recognized he spoke out of turn. Got the game moving again and finally ended in a walk off in the 7th. Moral of the story? A) always know the location and status of the ball. B) If you are going to call time, make sure you at least do the mechanic so people can see what you are doing. Makes selling that you called time a lot easier than double secret probation, err, secret timeouts. C) don't call time unless there is a reason to actually call time. Anyhow, my little slice of odd stuff from the ballfield.

Friday night at my daughters game, playing PONY 13/14U. Bats can either be USA Baseball or BBCOR, but no BPF1.15 bats... Team from Newport Beach is hitting well; too well. We are watching them hand the bat from batter to batter, which is never a good sign. Our coach heads to the umpire and complains that they are using an illegal bat. Umpire checks, and darn tooting, the bat is illegal. Last batter is out, 3rd out. Takes 2 runs off the board and oh, in this league? Player is ejected, manager is ejected. We still lost, but at least the bat was not the reason for that.

Assuming there is no other runners on base, you calling time is not killing anything. The batter is not eligible to become a runner with a now 3-2 count, so in effect you are enforcing the rules by putting him back in the box. Also, unless you were solo, your partner who I expect was in A position should be able to also kill this chicanery when the batter (notice not batter/runner) gets near 1st base. Each area is different, so when in Rome you do what your assigner wants, but where I officiate, there would be zero issues with getting this shut down or impacting future assignments by our assigner. If he even ever heard of this, I would be immensely surprised... Now runners on base? Let it ride... the defense is just as responsible to know the situation as the offense and often, this running to 1st on ball 3 is a planned play to catch the defense napping. Not my place there to get in the middle... let it play out.

I have found 1 illegal bat in HS... kid is squared up in the box and as I was stepping in, noticed the HUGE graphic, white on orange... UAAASA BPF1.15 staring me in the face. I was not looking for this, it was just one of those things I caught subconsciously and then my brain kicked in and said, Hey! Wait a sec... Time. Let me see your bat. Opps. Your out. Coach you are restricted to the dugout for the remainder of the game, of course after explaining the issue. (4-1-3b) Damn travel ball bat got pulled out by mistake by the kid.

Made me chuckle... my buddies business is named 'the Left Coast Company'...

I will bet an ice cream that there is at least 1, if not 75 cell phones attached to the back stop live streaming the game on Game Changer! 😵

I guess a lot of this issue depends on the league in which you are pulling your players from. When my now 19 year old son played, our league was 230-250 kids with anywhere from 1-3 Majors teams. So when it came to Allstar time, right off the bat we would lose kids who would not be available throughout the time period prescribed by the tournament. This meant often, to fill the team we would be pulling up 11YO's and even a couple time 10YO's. Guess what? If we drew another of the weaker leagues, we might get to play 3 games versus if we were scheduled with the bigger leagues and then it was 2 and done. Fast forward to my daughter who just aged out last year. The two leagues in Costa Mesa merged over the Covid year, creating a new league that is roughly 550-600 kids. Suddenly we have 6-8 Majors team and our 12U Allstar roster kicks a$$. In this scenario, having a 13 kid roster is an advantage as we have 13 kids who can run, hit, throw and pitch. The point of this diatribe is that there are plusses and minuses in both ways of running the tournament; neither inherently more insidious than the other. As for the 12 YO's need to play majors, I have zero issue with that. Yes, they may be overmatched, but the program is a Youth Development program that teaches kids through baseball. It is not a baseball program at the basic level. If the rules are not to your liking, then there are other programs available which may fit the mindset you are looking for. This is not an invite to an argument, just a point. Locally one of our leagues folded and resurrected itself as a PONY program due to some of the LL rules they did not like and did not want to follow. When push came to shove, they chose to align with a program which met what in their eyes was what the participants in their league wanted. The parents who wanted their kids in a LL program found the local league they now aligned with and the others stayed with PONY.

You missed the quotes in the scream part... Scream as in pointing fair and pumping the arm. Nothing vocalized...

No, I have no idea where the OP's issue occurred. I was pointing out that in a playoff game, we have a mechanism for the aggrieved team to protest.

In prior years, if a team did not have X players at the site (I think 13?) the team lost the availability of a coach for that game. And we all know that the coaches are the reason the team wins or loses; the players are just an after thought. Moving to the CBO format removed the coaching/number of players issue from what I understand, so the concern is that unscrupulous adults will try and game the system to their advantage. Jackie Robinson West ring any bells?

WTF. Seriously... WTF. https://www.yahoo.com/news/dad-punches-knocks-umpire-during-162609332.html

First, and you already realized the issue, get the parents out of the field of play. However, in your situation, I would kill the ball and award 2 bases, treating it as a ground rule double.

Umpire, go to the inside point of plate and "SCREAM" fair ball by repeatedly and aggressively pointing into fair territory. Since you are standing in front of the plate, at some point hopefully one of these 12U players, coaches, or maybe an umpire in the stands will vocalize 'run Johnny, run!". Nothing else you can really do... at some point someone may notice the 6' tall dude dressed in black pointing fair and not letting the pitcher pitch...

For CIF playoffs, the umpires are the protest committee. We work 3 man until late in the tournament, so the procedure is for 1 umpire to remain on the field, (to be a target I expect), and for the other 2 to run to the locker room (read parking lot/car), review the rule and casebook plays and then to come back to the field, hope their partner has not been mugged and make their ruling on the protest. The funny part in this story is that no one is jumping on the fact that the Assistance Coach is the one screaming... Shut him up.

100% this. Besides having the extra set of eyes and all of the other benefits, working solo exacerbates bad mechanics. If you start doing something out of tiredness or whatever and that works its way into muscle memory, there is no one there to help get you hack on track. Plus, you do not get to the game thinking about the couple things you want to work on in this game since your attention is everywhere. Sadly, the number of people quitting grossly exceeds the number of people getting into the system. Love it or hate it (there seems to be arguments on this site for both sides of the fence) but the best recruiting platform that I know of, at least locally, is Little League. Asking parents to go through training and be volunteer umpires working in their league seems to be the avenue that gets people into the craft. Let's face it. Most people do not wake up one bright day and think to themselves: "self, you know what is missing in my life? Someone throwing baseballs at me." Being asked to cover games so that the leagues can function is where most people I know got into officiating. In my HS unit, at least 65-70% of the staff started as LL umpires originally. It is true that of the total number of 'volunteers', 90+% of these people do the minimum and when their obligations are over, they never officiate again, but that X% (like me and many of my umpire friends) find that they enjoy the craft and decide to start working other organizations, attending advanced training, signing up to umpire HS, etc... This is where I think in the recruiting aspect for new umpires we are failing. Leagues seem to want to move to a strictly paid umpire format, which immediately leads to a lowering of new blood coming into the system. If we do not get people to even try the craft at what should be an inviting level, then they never even have the opportunity for the coaches, players and fans to berate them to the point that they decide to quit.

Only time I am going to be calling the game from the mound is if the umpire no showed and we drove to the game in the wife's car and my gear is at home... Sadly, one aspect of working baseball in Orange County is we have way more games than we do umpires and sadly, the reality is that often you will be solo. When you start working HS ball here, 95% of sub-varsity will be solo, with the exception of some private schools which pay for 2 at the JV level. Does it suck? Yep...

With WC and 1st round set to start tomorrow, I would love to see both school, if they even qualified, be removed from contention. These 2 schools are in the area next to me, and on occasion they play in OC for tournaments. The decorum from the LA County area is lacking, to say the least.