The Flush

If F4 was able to get the out at first, how was he interfered with?

Thank you Maven. I am glad to know I have learned a little bit in all my lurking here. I don't know that the PU was napping. I just think that he and the BU just disagreed on whether or not it was a swing since after the throw to first he clarified that it was no swing. Maybe this was a time when not appeasing the defensive coaches by asking for help could have avoided this mess as well. It looks like we got a run that we didn't deserve, but that maybe we would have deserved if they had better mechanics. It did not affect the outcome of the game either way. Now I have to go look up 10-2-3l.

FED rules, but would appreciate ruling for all rule sets. 2 Outs. R3. 2 Strikes, less than 3 balls. Bounced pitched with a check swing reaches the backstop. Batter isn't sure if he swung and starts to run and then stops. PU either says nothing or calls ball, I can't remember. R3 advances and touches home. Defense thinks batter swung and eventually throws to first. PU then confirms no swing. Defense asks PU to ask BU in B position for help. BU said he went, therefore batter is out because the defense had thrown to first. The debate was over whether R3 scored or not since he touched home before both the throw to first and the check swing appeal. Umps got together and decided that it did count because the 3rd out was not a force out. While I agree that the 3rd out on the batter was not a force out, he was still out before reaching first and it is my understanding that no runs can score when the 3rd out is a force or on the batter before reaching first base and that this is not a timing play. What is the correct ruling? FYI, if the umps were wrong on scoring the run, it went in our team's favor. I just want to make I understand it correctly since I am the team's Gamechanger scorekeeper and want to make sure that I am getting it right. This was really the only questionable call in the game and I thought it was a pretty decent crew.

The plotted square represents the center of the ball?

This is one reason to chose to be visitors when you win the coin toss at a tournament.

Has there every been a case of an infielder intentionally landing with his spikes or knee on the sliding runner who is attempting to break up the DP? Instead of a retaliatory HBP, the infielder could attempt to extract his own revenge when he feels aggrieved about an illegal or overzealous slide (could be on a different play or even game). It is probably not very practical in the real world and that is why I can't recall seeing it.

Wasn't there a MLB play where the RF kicked the ball back into the infield to make a play? Might have been Paul O'Neill?

Pitchf/x and the like have already made MLB umpires more consistent. I think it should be used for training and evaluation, but don't see much benefit to using it to actually call the games. -Jim, not an umpire.

To prevent the player from sliding over his own hands. I have had a youth player break his own arm this way.

In the Reds/Cubs game last night there was a reviewed HR where the ball hit the top of the wall, although it was complicated by potential fan interference.

I certainly understand that youth baseball is often the training ground for young umpires. The umpires for both of these calls were certainly adults and one was older than I am. I realize that age does not equal experience. I will note that the older umpire is the one that stayed 3BLX and could see timing of the play at 3rd and the touch at home, so maybe he did have more experience.

Thank you for the responses on how to handle this type of situation. It sounds like one of those sucky compromises that must be made. And yes our team has run into too many outs in our 2 tournaments this summer. But we are just a summer only rec league based travel team with a total of only 3 practices together so far that is playing against full time travel teams. We (players and coaches) need to learn that you can't get away with certain things against better competition that you can during rec league play. It is all part of the learning experience that is 11U baseball.

The ball looked like it was hit deeper than it was, or 75 feet takes longer to run than the 70 feet they are used to, or the CF was really good. Mostly a combination of those things.

First I will state that I as a coach and parent and I hate games with only 1 umpire as much as the umpires do. I would gladly pay more to have 2 umps at each game. It is a giant compromise that is sometimes unavoidable. It takes better than average umps to do a good job when there is only 1 ump. Our regular league always has 2 and the first tournament we played had 2. but this weekend's tournament only had 1. It was the first time in over a year we played with only 1 and I forgot about a lot of the compromises made. We had 2 sac fly situations with R2/R3 with 1 out and the 3rd out made on R2 going to 3rd. 2 different umps handled it very differently. On the first one the ump went up 3BL, saw R3 tag up after the CF caught the ball, but kept his back to home plate to watch the close play at third. He could not possibly see the timing of R3 touching home plate and the 3rd out at 3rd base. On the second one the ump stayed 3BLX and was able to see R3 tag up at 3rd after the catch and the timing of R3 touching home and the 3rd out at 3rd, which seems much better than what the first ump did. But it still left him over 80 feet way from the close play at 3rd (unusual 75' base paths). Is there a mechanic in the middle of these 2 where the ump goes up 3BL and faces the mound with his head on a swivel so that he can both see the touch of home and be in better position to see the tag at 3rd? Or is this one of those 1 ump compromises that no one will ever be happy with?

Is this a balk? If so, what is the violation?

Question/comment from a parent/coach. One of the umpires from our 11U tournament this weekend told me and some other parents that he had a bad strike zone during our last game. It was way too tight for the age. He said he knew it was too tight and tried to adjust be he just couldn't do it. He said his partner said something to him after the game about it too, so I think everyone agreed it was too tight. While I appreciate his honesty, is it really wise to make such and admission to a spectator? Overall he and his partner were good umpires.

Volunteer Firefighter Saves Umpire's Life During Game I hope this kids gets the benefit of the doubt on his next close play.

Thank you. I was uncertain and accepted their ruling (as if I had a choice). They were a new crew that we had not seen before and they did a pretty good job all around. I hope we get them some more this season. The umps we get most often I know well enough to ask them about it after game, plus since this was the last game of the night there was no time as we had to close up the fields and the umps were long gone by the time we finished.

12U played under Fed rules. R2 and R3. Wild pitch becomes lodged in or under the backstop fence. Umps award R3 home and R2 to 3B. I thought this was a 2 base award from time of pitch which would award R2 home as well. Ump stated something about 1 from the mound and 2 from the field, but I thought I might have read here that that is incorrect. What are the correct awards in this situation?

Good timing for this question. In a game I was coaching this weekend we had a player caught in a rundown who eventually made it back to 3B safely. After the inning I was chatting with the BU when the grandfather of one of the players on the other team (who also happens to be one of my son's summer ball teammates) very politely asked the BU why the runner was not out for being out of the baseline. BU tried to explain exactly what has been explained here, but the grandfather did not agree. He later told me that he had talked to another ump who said that he thought he should have been out. I told him the ump of our game was right. We agreed that we would debate this during the summer when we are sitting in the stands together. I think I might print out this thread to show him.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v85835883/?affiliateId=clubMEGAMENU Example of letting fall as opposed to intentionally dropping it. Your browser does not support iframes.

As a parent/coach, I have never noticed any pace of play issues that I think the ump could have affected. The most annoying thing I have seen are the micromanaging joystick coaches that feel the need to signal something to their batters and pitchers before every single pitch and it take them 3 times before the kid remembers what the signals mean. How are the kids going to learn the game if they never have to think for themselves? By the way our 12u team played 6 innings in about 1:15 last night due to great pitching and good defense. Those games are fun to be a part of (even though we lost 3-1).

Thank you for the clarification. While the interference call was correct, it looks like we might have been better off if the penalty had been enforced correctly. We were not prepared to ask the umpire about the appropriate penalty and accepted his call as is. Another lesson learned (hopefully).

Our 12u team had a runner attempting to steal 3rd called out for BI recently because the batter stepped out to get out of the way, which actually put him in the catcher's way. The umpire made the correct call to call the runner out. I have used the video being discussed as an example of what our batters should do when our runners attempt to steal 3rd. Getting called out plus this video makes for a good learning experience.