BillKen

Best Wishes Dave...prayers sent from Texas.

I do. I bought...I got bruised in the pectoral muscle through the heart of the Kevlar...I complained...They responded and asked me a bunch of questions...I sent them pics of the bruise...I sold mine the next week...and 8 months later they come out with a hard plastic insert. I gotta give it to their customer service...but there are a bunch of ppl calling advanced baseball with a JV protector in the v.1. They should offer a DEEP discount or trade in program to the V.1 beta testers who have inferior equipment.

HexPads are minimally effective. Also...I have to have full length tights, so they add another layer. I've about quit wearing mine...I got bruises and it hurt with or without them.

Welpe's Pen

A 2 game suspension is a slap on the wrist and it won't send a message. A 12 month suspension would send a message.

Thanks!

Yes...one that shows exactly what happened.

The call on the field is the current status when it goes to NY. That is the decision of the first judge. To overturn that judge, the evidence must support something different. Since we don't get a ground level view from RF zoomed in on 1B in HD Slow-Mo...there isn't sufficient evidence to overturn the call. Call Stands. Plus...everyone knows a tie goes to the umpire!

WTB a WV Platinum XL...going to do another TW retro. My budget is about $100 and it needs to have very little wear on the straps and no snags on the plastic. Thanks!

I just shake my head at this. Pitcher pitches before the batter is ready...ump calls time...nothing happens...Phillies get pissed (because nothing happened and the umpire handled it perfectly)...umpire keeps Francour in the game despite him being stupid...Bowa explodes. It makes my head hurt!

The one thing that could fix this kind of stuff is the MLBUA union. They just signed a 5-yr deal, but in 5 years, Byrnes' robo-ump will be a lot more advanced and thought out. I'm not for completely changing the game only at the level where money drives the ship. Baseball should be very similar from LL to MLB.

From a safety standpoint...cleats and concrete don't mix. I would not think that a MLB owner would want a $10M player going up on that wall for the sake of one out. His broken leg would make that out very expensive. Speaking of expensive, tarps are expensive...and cleats and tarps don't mix. And that is why most HS coaches put "no feet on the tarp" in their ground rules. A tarp with holes is a bad deal. At the MLB level, a new tarp is an inconvenience.

Tuesday Aug 11th Zone. Another solid performance! Struggled on a couple of pitches with the lefty in the box, but his low zone is spot on...those are the toughest ones and the ones that they argue the most.

What does the rulebook say about defensive abandonment?

I think I meant that we work amateur ball...not that we are lessor umpires. There are days where I know I'm good enough to work on any field...and days when LL is good enough!

Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Watching these videos, I started pondering all the times that I've walked a ball to the pitcher over the years to have a little verbal judo with him. I can't ever think of a time where I felt that we didn't walk away better. It gives us both time to reflect and respect what the other one is doing. Some other random thoughts: 1. Pro umpires complain about getting 6-figure salaries when the players have 8-figure salaries (and egos)...this is why. They are treated as a sub class of citizens. Rob went out there to see if he and CC could reach an agreement. The only one looking for a fight was CC. 2. Announcers (even the ones who played the game) are really clueless about everything umps do...mechanics, philosophies, attitudes, game/situation management, etc. They need to put more retired umps in the booth. 3. If Drake doesn't manage CC there, the potential for a bench clearing situation increases 10-fold...especially with Mr. Ejection himself in the game. This is Yankees-Red Sox...Not Milwaukee-Padres. Amateur umpires: Don't be afraid to talk to players...they are human and they need to see that you are human too. Have fun with them...we are playing a game. It isn't combat even though Daddy-Coach might say it is. There are a lot of ways to deal with situations that boil up...Rob could have called a ball for delay, he could have just gone straight for the ejection...but instead he thought he'd go try to calm him down and develop the relationship/trust factor. CC is having a tough year and I guess he don't want to talk. But don't let that discourage us as amateur umps. This is good umpiring.

Its 2-2.

I tell the catcher that he will hear me say "No Catch" on uncaught 3rd strike. If that freaks the runner out, so be it...we are one out closer to home. And he needs a better coach!

You should be coaching kids to swing at hittable pitches...not just the ones that are in the zone. If you coach them to foul off the ones that they might get punched out on, they will eventually get a fat one to drive.

The one they really holler about is the 12-6 curve that drops into the high part of the zone. Personally, I think the strike zone should be a Hexagon. :-) Most amatuer umpires realistically have that type of zone.

Again...a player will play his whole career with a human umpire...then get to the bigs and be playing a different game! That makes it stupid. The MLB umps are by and large excellent at their jobs. They just don't miss many pitches and I believe they aren't biased. I've seen studies that show a slight bias towards home teams, but each team plays 81 at home and 81 on the road. In a league that plays 162 games in a season...I don't believe that umpires have a very significant impact at all as it relates to who makes the playoffs. This whole Robo-Ump is just what narcissistic jocks dream of when they refuse to take responsibility for only hitting .258 in their career. I call a 23 inch plate in college with no complaints.

I talked to Marvin last month and he told me that he submitted this picture to MLB and they told him that he couldn't do that...too flashy.

The next MLB hire could very well be Adam Hamari. I'm starting this thread to link to his plate performances throughout the season starting with tonight which is almost 100%! If you want to emulate an umpire...this guy would be a great place to start. I've got an #umpcrush ! http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/zoneTrack.php?month=8&day=06&year=2015&game=gid_2015_08_06_sdnmlb_milmlb_1/&prevDate=0806

Me too Rich...I'd pay money to get my zone charted by the computer so I could see my evaluation. First off, I think mine would be pretty good. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I do have confidence in my zone. I think that my work would be pretty comparable to a MLB umpire...especially considering the pitchers and catchers I work with compared to the ones they work with. I've been fortunate enough to meet several MLB guys and they all say that the only difference in us and them is that their calls are on ESPN. We all have whackers that we get right, and we all have high tags and butchered pitches that we miss. It is OK to say that a big leaguer kicked one every now and then, but you can't question their integrity or book of work. Just as it exists in all professions, there are some who excel in different aspects of the job, but they wouldn't be there if they sucked!

My honigs shirt is significantly smaller in 2X than a Smitty 2X.