TheRockawayKid

Yes, I have done a game here. And there are some interesting things to note. - Yes, it's very possible for foul balls to sail down and hit a car entering or exiting the Lincoln Tunnel to Manhattan. - To leave the field you have to walk up a steep flight of stairs to get to the street behind the 3B side. It's maybe 40 feet high. And then you have to keep walking uphill to get to the police department. Maybe 6 stories uphill to the parking lot that's beyond left field.

I don't know if it's really necessary. On lower levels, you have one umpire who will basically use one shirt all day. Higher-level umpires? Well, we now start to need that pocket. MLB level has them all using their lineup cards to back each other up, and in college, one umpire is responsible for shadowing mound visits, etc. So the days of "base umpire doesn't have to do much" are pretty much over.

The thought of these guys bringing a couple of cases of beer to the field before Game 2 scares me so much.

As an aside, it's really interesting that NCAA gave some crews different styles than some others for pullovers. Some had the gray panels, some had the white stripes.

Oh yeah! Driving on the highway, not hitting any speed bumps, and all of a sudden they just fall!

Oh god yes! I can get them dry cleaned and pressed, have them on a hanger, but if I look at them wrong, it appears as if I just pulled them from the bottom of my equipment bag. Also, it is impossible to get dirt off them with a spray bottle.

Oh, no, I didn't think you were being unkind. It just so happened you were making a joke about something that often happens with these timers -- maybe not realizing how frequent the problem can be! An "oh, too true!" moment.

You laugh, but it does happen with these boxes. Sometimes it won't go (if you flip it too frequently, for example) so a quick off-on fixes things. The key is to do it quietly so no one realizes it.

Don't rest on your laurels, keep going!

However 8-4-1-f says: "as a runner or retired runner, fails to execute a legal slide, or does not attempt to avoid the fielder or the play on a force play at any base" That, to me, says it's more along lines of "slide or avoid" meaning, if you don't slide, you'd better avoid. I'll ask @lawump who I know is one of the people who wrote the book on this, and ask directly if FPSR is intended in NFHS rulebook.

I don't mean to make a grand point here, but I just want to point out one thing: A few years ago, there's a regional (or maybe even CWS? I don't remember exactly) and one hitter from a big-name team (once again, can't tell you which team) hits a huge home run. An absolute moon shot. He comes back into the dugout, and the cameras are on him as he takes his tin from his bag and starts to pack a chew. Now, I'm not expecting anyone to be looking in the dugout here, but I was always confused as to why he didn't serve a suspension after the game. Did the NCAA officials watching miss it, or were they looking the other way? I don't know, honestly. Once again, no larger point here.

I think the lesson is to trust our brothers -- especially working this level -- over out-of-context clips from people who don't know baseball rules and seem to all have a vendetta against umpires on social media. Will mistakes be made? Sure. But these days, it's literally true: A lie (video) can travel the world before the truth (the ejection report) can catch its breath.

Does anyone think it's terrible to get together after the play and talk about it then? Would it be terrible to just converse, and have BU say something like "yeah, I had it off his foot." I imagine that it wouldn't be a huge deal if it was a quick conversation.

The only time I have had it happen to me is on a drag bunt/running bunt, where the batter is really moving out of the box.

Hah! There are so many permutations as to when to give the count, that I've found it's easier to just give the count after every pitch (except for the first). If you're going off "decision pitches," the only time you don't have a decision pitch after the second pitch is a 2-1 count. At that point, may as well just say it. Besides, no matter how many times you give the count, you know the third base coach is going to ask the count anyway. And as for assignors -- one assignor said he didn't care if I gave the count every pitch -- better too often than too little.