StrikeDavis

http://citizensvoice.com/sports/wvc-baseball-benches-clear-in-pittston-area-valley-west-game-1.2191896 Thoughts on this situation?

This situation took place in a varsity high school game last week. Runners on first and second, nobody out, ball 4 thrown to the batter. The defensive coach yells to the plate umpire, "Time when he gets there." The runners on first and second reach second and third, respectively. Meanwhile, the batter stops about half way to first to take his elbow guard, ankle guard and batting gloves off and tosses them towards the dugout. The runners assume the batter had reached first and time was called, jog over to have a meeting with the third base coach. The pitcher realizes that time had not been called and throws the ball to the third baseman who tags both runners standing in the third base coaches box. The base umpire calls both runners out. This play was brought up at a meeting. Discussion was mostly centered around the following: Are you calling the runners out? What are you doing to prevent this situation from happening?

I don't want to speak for everyone in my local PIAA chapter, but the consensus I have gathered from the conversations with several members (including union workers) has been pretty negative. Our chapter functions as a union without calling ourselves a union. Our assignor, chapter president and / or rules interpreter handles any issues whether they are major or minor. Our pay is fair. We serve several schools that require putting some miles on your car and these schools are required to pitch in gas money as part of the game fee. The fear in our area is that we will have to pay more in dues and will not benefit from it. Right now our chapter dues are $20 and it goes towards an all you can eat / drink banquet at the end of the regular season. Whatever is left after the banquet fees is given to a local charity. Donations are typically made in the honor of a recently deceased chapter member. The fear of the individuals I spoke with is that we will see an increase in dues and no benefit to the local chapter.

Pennsylvania has districts and states. District assignments are decided by the district chairman (or whatever the official title is) with input from coaches, athletic directors, assignors and politics. This past year politics seemed to have more input than previous years. I am not entirely sure how state playoff assignments are handed out. I know you have to attend the summer conference in Harrisburg at least once every five years. There are some outstanding umpires in my area that will never work a state playoff game because they either can't go to the Harrisburg conference or choose not to go because it will cost you more to attend in lodging and gas than you will ever get back from state playoff assignments. Maybe someone else from PA can chime in on how the state playoff assignments are handed out.

Bochy pulled this same thing earlier this year in Philadelphia when the Phillies brought a reliever in from the pen. The Phillies trainer went to the mound and chopped off the long laces. I'm pretty sure the Giants would have hit him around the park no matter how long the laces were.

This happened the morning of Mattingly's ejection. Skip to the 9 minute mark

American Legion Baseball, between the top and bottom of the 5th, HT down 5-2. VT has a player come off the bench and walk out to the mound. From what I was told after the game, he was told he was going in to pitch the 6th inning earlier in the game by his coach but got the inning wrong (despite a functioning and accurate scoreboard in direct sight of the VT dugout) and headed out to the mound in the 5th. He picked the ball up and stood on the back downslope of the mound while he waited for the catcher. I asked the coach if it was a straight change. He looks confused, so I pointed to the mound where his relief pitcher is waiting for the catcher. He asks me if his relief pitcher standing on the mound constituted a substitution. I told him that it did not, but if he threw a warmup pitch than it would have. VT coach sends the starting pitcher back out to the mound and the relief pitcher goes back to the bench without throwing a pitch. While I was conversing with the VT coach, The 1B coach for the HT asked the BU if the player going to the mound like that was a substitution. BU gave him the same answer I gave the VT coach. VT coaches are satisfied with the explanation and we move on without further incident. HT ends up winning the game 6-5 after the relief pitcher that doesn't know what inning it is spent the 6th inning hanging curves and giving up 4 runs. Speaking with some other umpires, I got some feedback that we should have considered it a substitution since the player came off the bench to the mound. So would this scenario have constituted a substitution or not?

I believe a crew chief challenge can only be initiated on homerun calls prior to the 7th inning. This play occurred in the 4th. This same situation happened in Boston to Vanover a week or so ago.

@Mudisfun I bought this CP last year and went through the same process you are now. The first game or two I had it too tight and it was getting up into my throat. A slight strap adjustment solved this problem. I absolutely love this CP. A few other guys in my association ended up purchasing this CP after they saw me wearing it during the high school season.

In real time I did not see enough to keep him in the box. The slow motion replays make it seem like he dove into the pitch. Brandon McCarthy's take. Watch the video in this link. Bob Davidson may not agree with McCarthy

I give what I got. From C I usually have what the PU has unless it is obvious.

Is there a legitimate reason for FED to have this rule in place?

Lets try this again. Wilson Silver Dyna-Lite Aluminum with Team Wendy pads and a 6" throat guard.

Wilson Silver Dyna-Lite Aluminum with Team Wendy pads and a 6" throat guard. Just got this in yesterday and I have games this weekend to try it out. Figured I would post this since I haven't seen too many pictures of this mask floating around.

​In my neck of the woods they scrapped 3-man entirely from the playoffs. Mixing umpires from different chapters and little practice led to some interesting rotations and near disasters.

I don't personally use that brand of CP, but I worked with a guy that did. The first time I worked with him he raved about how much he liked it. 2 weeks later I was working with him again and he showed me a nice baseball size black and blue mark in his right shoulder area. Then he showed me his brand new WV Gold.

@MadMax #2 on your list is something we have finally gotten rid of at the local high school level by never granting time to toss the ball from second to the mound. I still see kids request time in travel ball for this purpose, so I guess it is still done in places. I was working a 16U travel tournament where it came back to bite a team. Bottom of the first nobody on nobody out. HT player hits a double off the wall and misses first base. VT F3 is trying to get F4 to throw the ball to him for the appeal. F4 is trying to call time so he can walk the ball back to the mound but the BU refused to grant it. VT HC is annoyed time is not being granted and calls time (reluctantly granted by me) himself to come out and ask me as PU why time was not granted when F4 requested it. He rambles on a bit about why he teaches the kids to call time in that situation and then says he wants to appeal the touch at first. The pitcher (lefty) gets on the rubber, I put the ball in play,and the pitcher throws to first without disengaging the rubber. We balk it. Should have listened to your F3. Instead of nobody on and 1 out, there is a runner on third with nobody out all because you just had to call time. That run ended up scoring on a sacrifice fly.

​I didn't get the vibe from the conversation I had with the very experienced umpire that he was trying to get the BU to throw himself under the bus. After re-reading my post, I totally get how it comes across this way. I played on the same college summer league team with both the coaches involved in this game. We all know each other really well. I believe that is why the very experienced umpire told me to handle it the way he did. Maybe I should have included that in the post. If I had gone out there and the BU said he had nothing and was sure of it then I was going with his call. We have been taught to use the "that's nothing" mechanic. One thing the BU told me when we met between innings was "maybe I should have given a that's nothing". If he gave me a "that's nothing" then we simply move on with the game. I would have felt more confident with his call. I wish more people would use that mechanic. Doing nothing gives an impression that you aren't quite sure as to what just happened. Saying "that's nothing" with a safe signal lets everyone know you had nothing.

I ran this scenario past a very experienced umpire in our association. His thoughts were basically the same as woodie's. He said call time, go out and meet with BU. Tell him what you have and why you have it. If he agrees, tell him to make the call and award third base to the runner. Tell him that if the defensive team coach comes out for an explanation the BU should explain the call. Don't leave the BU by himself, but let him handle the coach. Only step in if absolutely necessary. This is a JV game. Use it as a teaching moment. The BU is going to have to learn how to handle situations more difficult than this as he moves up.

How many "things that are wrong / done incorrectly" can we spot in this video? The New York accents don't count

It is a rule in Pennsylvania high school baseball and softball. I can't speak for ASA and NSA, but that type of rule does exist.

From the Rays SB Nation Site The link has a bit more of the story and a video where Quintero starts a bench clearing incident.

In our area the coach behavior has gotten better across all sports. High school athletic directors and administrators do not like it when the main event at a baseball or basketball game becomes a coach acting like a moron. A couple years ago a high school baseball coach did not have his contract renewed after his team went to the district finals. This was his school's first trip to a district final since the 1980s. The program improved during the 2 years he was there, but during the course of the season he had gotten himself ejected during a pre-game meeting, gotten himself ejected arguing a batter interference call and acted like a moron when he wasn't serving his suspension time for being ejected.

JV game, 2-man FED. Runner on first, 1 out, top of the second. I have the plate. BU in B. BU is a newer umpire in his second year with our association. Runner on first steals on the pitch. Foul tip is caught by the catcher who tries to retire the runner stealing. The throw is low and the F4 can't field it so it rolls into CF. The runner never slowed down, touches second and had a significant collision (both the runner and SS end up on the ground) with the SS who was standing (for some unknown reason) maybe 5 feet to the left of second. The runner crawls back to second as the CF tosses the ball back to the infield. After the ball got back to F4, I yelled time with every intention of calling obstruction and sending the runner to third. However, as I yell time, I realize the BU did absolutely nothing. He had no reaction to the play aside from watching it. I ended up not calling obstruction and we kept the runner at second. Between innings the BU tells me he just thought the play was a train wreck. Now I am 100 percent certain I have obstruction. I was 100 percent when it happened, 100 percent when we met between innings and 100 percent as I replayed this in my head during my drive home. I didn't call it since I was at home plate and the BU was 10 feet away from the play. Do you have obstruction on this play? I know it may be a HTBT play. If you have obstruction in this case, do you call it as PU? Is there anything I could have done differently in this situation?

​If your head height is the same height for every pitch then your head in relation to the strike zone is different for every batter (unless every batter is 6'2"). The last plate game I had the first hitter of the game was the 6'4" CF followed by the 5'5" C. I moved my head to be at the top of the zone for each hitter like Mr. Ump. If you can call a consistent zone the whole game by keeping your head at the same height no matter what, have at it. It's just not the way I was taught.