StrikeDavis

I wear my combo pants on the bases. They don't look baggy on me and I like having a pair that I can wear behind the dish in a pinch. My shin guards do get snagged in them occasionally. Some guys I work with only have combo pants. If your shin guards are low profile and don't get caught, then you may be able to get away with just combo pants. For me, this doesn't work that well since the combo pants snag my shin guards occasionally. I have 2 pairs of plate pants and 2 pairs of combos. My one pair of combos is heather grey in case I have to work with a penny pincher who refused to buy the charcoal. I would get at least 1 pair of plate pants and either a pair of combos or base pants. Some guys like combos, some guys don't.

Our PIAA HS chapter is supposed to go to charcoal only for the 2015 season. This was stated last year but I have a feeling some members will complain next year and we will be given the option between heather or charcoal again. This is one of my pet peeves as well. Last year I think I worked with one guy who had legit heather grey pants. Everyone else who claimed to only own heather grey was actually wearing greyish-purple pants originally purchased in 1985. The charcoal will last longer and I think it looks better. You should be able to find a decent deal on charcoal grey later in the summer as some suppliers may be looking to dump their baseball inventory for the season.

Every assignment we get specifies plate or bases. I did hear a funny story from a guy (John) who ended up working a game with a notorious plate dodger. John had surgery on his shoulder and per doctors orders could only work the bases for about a month. John shows up for a game where his partner claims arbiter had him down for the bases (it didn't). He says he came directly from work (he did, wearing a suit with no tie) and forgot his plate gear at his house. John says he can't work plate due to the surgery but he still has his plate gear in his car and offers to let the guy borrow it for the game, "except the cup, that will be yours if you wear it". The plate dodger goes back to his car and says "hey look, I guess I didn't forget my gear". John goes back over to the guys car after and the guy had to move his briefcase and tie off his chest protector to get it out of the car trunk.

@maven: I told him I would have nothing. According to the coach, the plate umpire called interference on the batter-runner and called the runner out. The rational for that ruling was since the ball was clearly going to be foul he had no business being where he was. He said the base umpire was talking to his F4 a few innings later during a pitching change and said he did not think there should be interference called on the play. @noumpere: The umpires in that game were not college certified. I am not either. The league is mainly D3 kids with a few JUCO and D2 kids mixed in. The league does not require it since there are not enough college certified guys willing to umpire in the summer around here. They should still get that ruling correct.

@maineump: The money can be very good and if you can work several games a day you can bring in a pretty large sum by the end of the weekend. For example, there was an 18U tournament in my area that paid $75 per game. Games were 2 hours or 7 innings. They assigned the games in sets of 2 or 4. Not all TDs just want the money and expect the umps to do whatever they say. Some do, and I avoid those tournaments.

I had a situation presented to me by a coach between games of a college summer league DH. This happened to his team in their previous game. R1 nobody out. Runner stealing on the pitch which gets popped up about 5-10 feet short of first base and about 10-15 feet into foul territory. The popup is caught by F3 who attempts to retire a now retreating R1 by throwing to the pitcher covering 1B. The throw by F3 from foul territory hits the batter-runner (who ran the ball out) about 2 steps before 1B. If the throw was completed R1 would have been out by a few feet. What do you have?

For American Legion (in our area at least) the plate umpire recites the code and the players repeat the recited lines. The umpires stand about half way between the mound and home plate (facing home plate) with the teams lined up on their respective foul lines (facing the umpires). The umpires and teams remove their hats during the code. Most of the umpires start with something like "Gentlemen, hats off and repeat after me the code of sportsmanship". I worked a tournament where an announcer read the american legion code and as umpires we stood at home plate facing the field with our hats off. The only line we repeated was the first line of "I will keep the rules". I am not familiar with the Babe Ruth code.

I think it was more the angle of the impact to the rear axle and what it did to the frame. None of us saw how fast the car was traveling and the grade isn't that steep at all just kinda long. If it was a real rig like one of the Schramm air rotary, I think the rig would have a paint scratch. And since you used to work for a drilling company, ill let you know this occurred on a Friday at 2pm as we were setting the final well. The drilling company was 2.5 hours from their shop. They were just a little bit ticked off.

I still occasionally park my stick tacoma the same way if I am in a hurry or have a brain fart. Coast into the parking spot in neutral, throw on the parking brake, kill the engine. I started to put the car in first or reverse (depending on grade) after a runaway civic almost got me in a parking lot. Part of my real job involves oversight of groundwater monitoring well installation. The drilling company we used for this particular job had a small "beetle" drill rig that they towed with a Ford F350. We were installing a well in this lot when a civic parked at the car wash across the plaza got loose and rolled into the rear axle of the F350. The 3 of us on the job site never saw it coming since our backs were to it. The truck prevented either death or serious injury. The truck ended up being totaled. At that time I believe the truck was about a month old. One of the cops said the driver (17 year old high school student) parked his car in neutral by the vacuums and went to the change machine. The parking brake slipped and he didn't realize what happened until he heard the crunch of the collision. Consider yourself lucky you and / or your insurance aren't on the hook for any kind of damages and the vehicle is fine. I bet you won't park your car in neutral for quite some time.

@ Jimurray Apparently I cannot read. It would not matter.

OBR or FED rules?

I had a similar thought process in a Jr. Legion game that got out of hand earlier this year. I tried the scissors instead of HOK and never really felt comfortable in where to place my hands or how to step into position so I scrapped it and went back to HOK. My vision of the strike zone seemed fine although the pitching was hideous and the kids hitting were hacking at pretty much anything remotely close to a strike. I had a Jr. Legion playoff game earlier this week and the plate umpire was working the scissors. He took a foul tip straight to the mask where his head snapped back pretty violently. His silver mask had a green streak across it from where the legion logo on the ball contacted the mask. The catcher went out to the mound to give him a minute and he seemed fine the rest of the game. The umpire seemed to set his head up directly over his shoulders leaving him vulnerable where any contact with his head would result in snapping the head back. Seeing this has left me with no desire to every try the scissors again.

@grayhawk They were suggesting I tell him we are going with his call since he is in A he has to eat the call. The reasoning these umpires gave was that you are only opening a can of worms later in the game where the team that felt they got shafted on any type of call is going to be looking for the other umpire to change. I feel I can manage the game where that will not be an issue. I also really dislike the idea of getting together only to stick with an incorrect call that can be fixed. Now both of us look incompetent. @MPLSMatt The VT Manager came out to talk to me after we called the runner out. The first words out of his mouth were "How can you see that play better from 60 feet away than he can from 6?" His parting words were "I hope you get half his game fee since you're making his calls for him." After the game the BU told me he saw F1 stutter step but never clip the base. Based on spectator reaction and the coaches reaction he wanted to seek a second opinion. Unfortunately he did not give me a portion of his game fee.

Legion game, top 8, HT up 4-2. Im PU, nobody on nobody out. BU in A. VT batter hits a groundball in the hole between F3 and F4. F3 makes a diving stop and from his knees throws the ball to F1 covering first base. F1 catches the throw then stutter steps and drags his foot to clip the front edge of first base one step before the batter touches first base. BU calls the runner safe. HT manager goes out to BU to question the call. BU calls me over in front of the mound, chases the HT manager away and asks me what I have. I responded by asking him if he had F1 missing first base. He says he has F1 missing first base. I said I am 100% sure F1 got the base. He says ok, takes a few steps back, points to the runner and hammers him out. I posed this scenario to several members of our association. The majority of fellow umpires in our association basically told me to fish in my own pond and not his. This is BU's call since he is in A and you may find yourself heading down a slippery slope for the rest of the game. A small minority of umpires agreed with how we got together and handled the situation. How would you handle this scenario as PU and BU (aside from not kicking the call in the first place)?

Been lurking on this site for a few weeks and decided to join up. I have been umpiring high school, legion and travel ball in eastern PA for about seven years now. I'm not sure how much I will be posting, but I will be reading every day.