Umpire in Chief

Sorry I've missed this post until now, but I think it is important that I chime in... Moderation is the darn if you do darn if you don't type situation. When you get into the realm of needing to moderate or delete a post someone is not going to be happy and often times it is subjective. For better or worse earlier on I did not have great success in asking people to moderate their own posts and I just frankly stopped asking people "Hey _____ would you mind rewording your post about______" While JohnnyG shut down the referenced post (which even in hindsight I support) I personally would be probably quicker to shut down anything getting political (either way) than other "objectionable content." My thought is everybody has their own political opinions and are firmly set in their ways and nothing said here that is remotely going to change that and only lead to further political commentary. If someone is being overly harsh about someone still wearing heather gray pants that will probably slide much longer. I think writing Thanks Joe or Thanks Donkeys (even if it were the opposite way around politically), while "mild" just doesn't belong here. SO good job @Thunderheads & @johnnyg08 My only conceivable permission in going political would be a discussion on a new law protecting officials where people say (insert politician's name here) is awesome/ridiculous for supporting/opposing this bill. Of all the reports i can run out of the system It doesn't appear I can run one on locked threads. But I will dig into it some more. But if you see a post that needs attention either to be shut down or one that was shut down and you want to know why, just ask me.

I have a little inside sports info on this. Yes Coach Godwin was upset about the fair foul situation. But I was told when he really got upset is when he asked if he would go for help on the call and was refused and apparently got tossed without even saying any "magic words."

HS & Below - We'd have to communicate 2 days in advance with our partner to get coordinated. Who is doing what, where to meet anything else important. College - I think it was 3 days in advance. with the partner. Then who ever was listed as the plate communicated with the home coach the day of and the assigner the day of.

I'm doing something I haven't done in a long time and I'm looking for your input. I am looking for 2 things: News articles within the last year about officials being assaulted in any sport. Your ideas as officials as to what we can do about it. I have the frame work of the article with some of the most recent events, but want some history to show just how frequently it occurs. Also if you have ever been assaulted in the course of your work as an official PM me if you'd like to talk about it. Thanks!

If you're going to blow up and act like a fool on that pitch you have no business playing.

Apparently this "kid" has been suspended and the police are investigating the incident.

Thoughts?

Other than the flaming bat I also notices there are just so many people on the field (non- players). But the stands are packed. I think the minor leagues of drawing people in with all sorts of different promotions.

Nothing in the rules says you can't use a flaming bat...

For the entire Ask the Umpire section I highly encourage readers to upvote the answer they find the best. There are 2 related reasons. And another I just thought of... The default sort is by "upvotes" so the best answers will be right under the question. Which by default means that what our members selected as the best answer will be right up top. Readers who have similar questions will see what was said before quickly. Moderators do have the ability to go in and mark a question "solved" but I believe this still allows comments but it won't change that the anser chosed as solving the question will remain up top. So please use the up voting feature.

I wish I could tell what the batter was saying when he stepped out.

These jewelry rules can be grabbing the dirty end of the stick. Even before I left umpiring I was seeing an uptick in the bling.

Watching the ECU v Duke game. Catchers are now allowed to wear earpieces? Interesting. I have no opposition and thing it could help speed up the game. But what are the restrictions?

Okay I'm late to the show on this thread but it caught my attention... Now I'm not a whisky/ bourbon snob I know what I like, but don't have enough experience and knowledge to tell high brow stuff from swill. Last year a friend turned me on to Buffalo Trace, and I really enjoy it.

@dumbdumb It reminds me of an assigner I once had if you made a report to him of a coach saying something like "You'll never work here again!" You were pretty much guaranteed to be there again very soon and very often. I even had my schedule changed to go back to a site where I was told that. LOL

I've seen the video of coach Godwin claiming the umpire couldn't see. I won't post what's posted there but here are some pretty interesting arguments. I took the screenshots from the video because theirs had some not so nice comments written on them. On a positive note as a fan-boy. ECU looked really good against a strong Campbell team Tuesday and now we have our roaming series against UNC this weekend (Friday at UNC, Saturday at a neutral site, Sunday In G-Ville). Weather permitting I'll be there Sunday. U1 (who called time) is wearing sunglasses The sun wasn't an issue because it was coming from left field and he wasn't looking into it either way looking at the shadows.

Obviously as an ECU fan-boy I am experiencing this both ways as a fan and former umpire. And as an aside ECU deserved to be swept by Butler. We were outplayed on O, D & Coaching (which I don't say easily) I don't even recall the last time we were swept in a series. We were fortunate to only drop to #25 in the country. I personally don't know how 0-3 keeps you anywhere near that mark. I made a very unpopular post on a ECU Baseball group essentially saying any umpire can call time (there were comments as to if he could) and this was just very unfortunate timing. I had no doubt he did call time because of F3s reaction. IAM NOT PUTTING THE UMPIRE DOWN HERE: BUT... I do question his judgement in calling time at that moment. It appears the pitch had begun. IMO, unless there is an immanent safety issue let that play proceed. As for not being able to see. We've all been there it sucks, but we play on.

I'll make no comments and just leave the video...

IMO he did blow it by failing to consider that the protection could extend past 3rd. IF he said he got me on the OBS but judged it not a factor. I probably would have just agreed to disagree with him. As for the coach I didn't throw him under the bus, I just told him the runner was guaranteed 3rd and anything beyond that was up to the calling umpire.

A little opposite to my last post. When I was coming up the ranks I had a guy I really looked up to I was PU he was BU. We had an OBS he called an pointed the hell out of it, but never called time in accordance with the DDB. In the post game he called it preventive umpiring. He just always called it loud and forcefully enough that the players would assume it was a dead ball and things would sort themself out much easier from there.

Once upon a time I was the BU and had a very similar. I called OBS pointed it and then there was a banger at the plate. My partner (more senior than me) called him out. I called time and spoke to my partner thinking he didn't see my OBS call. I 'tell him the runner was obstructed by F6 and he should be awarded the run. He got on his high horse and stated that the runner would only be awarded 3rd. He also reminded me he'd been doing this for much longer than I had. I let him know the rule was a minimum of the base he was advancing to and umpire digression beyond that. Because it was a banger IMO we should award the run. He was adamant and was not going to change his mind. I also think the length of time we spent discussing it wasn't good optics in the situation either. The offensive coach had an even longer discussion with me because he saw me point and call it. Even after the game I pulled out the rule book and read the rule to him he couldn't admit he'd blown it and still denied.

Congratz!

I like when people are nervous/anxious about working a game. It tells me it's important to them. The next step is to overcome that nervousness and anxiousness. Personal story: I got my first regional HS assignment while I was the least experienced person on that crew the CC gave me the plate and I was anxious partially because of the level of the game and partially because I wanted to impress the others on my crew. About 2 innings in the CC comes in and tells me Hey you're doing a great job but you look like an F'ing robot back there loosen up and call YOUR game like you always do. He punched my CP and I didn't talk to him the rest of the game. Our post-game eval. The other 2 members of our crew both said I really settled in after the 2nd inning, not knowing what the CC had said to me. And I felt the difference too. So my point is also be a good partner when you have a partner who is showing their nerves and help loosen them up.

SOrry for the delay, There have been a number of updates and upgrades to the software let me look into that. I had it set earlier that if someone had X number of posts they could do that.

Sorry @HokieUmp There's no such thing as Down East North Carolina... It's all East Carolina Back to topic Umpire uniforms ... No thank you on that color. Dodger Unis Meh...