kylehutson

Our guidance from the state is to start the 1 minute timer from the time the last fielder crosses the line.

Those two don't sound like they go together.

I do this, too. R1 (in volleyball, that's "Referee 1" - the "up" ref) usually says to do it that way. My rule-of-thumb is about 3 feet inside/outside the lines.

If you're in the rural western third of the state, you probably had games cancelled today because of the foot of snow.

And a darn good one, too.

Welcome! Where in Kansas?

Doing a lot of FED games this spring, and I've caught several players wearing jewelry (in all but one case, metal necklaces). Those were easy (take it off, team warning). What I didn't know about was the rubber bracelets. One batter came up wearing two of them. I didn't say anything, not knowing if those were considered "jewelry" or not (and I figure if I'm going to err on one side or the other, I'll err on the side of "not jewelry", since it didn't seem to be posing any safety hazard I could see - but then again I've seen many many USSSA youth games where they're wearing necklaces, and I've never seen it cause a problem there). Any guidance here?

I'm patting myself on the back. I caught that in real-time.

It wasn't the correct call, as you describe it. However, once it's declared by the umpire to be foul (correct or not), that call can't be corrected, and it's a foul, even if the umpire realizes he was wrong after the fact.

I'm pretty sure I saw a stop.

Great transaction with @rjdakin. He shipped the same day I paid. Item exactly as described.

Welcome aboard!

All the schools I work for have a check before you take the field. Rumor is that many many moons ago (probably before I ever started school as a student), some school(s) decided not to pay their officials because they didn't like the calls they got. The officials boycotted until schools began paying up front.

Personally, I would have just said "Coach, let's get a pitcher and catcher going", rather than imply all players had to be there. I wouldn't have threatened a defensive conference, but would have said (upon further questioning, as you got), that the clock's running and you're wasting time for warm-up pitches.

Welcome! I really think having coached my sons' teams has made me a better umpire - I know the things that always drove me nuts when I was coaching. Have fun!

I hadn't thought about that - that's a good idea. Thanks!

Not debating the ruling, just the scoring as the OP asked... This is all we need to know, along with knowing that the BR didn't reach first safely on the play (he was called out on R1's interference). In that case, no runs can score.

Welcome to my game last night. Inning 6, and the coach calls on the catcher to start pitching. Oh, and all defensive changes, so somebody (F7 maybe?) has to run in to the dugout and put on the one set of catcher's gear that's being shed by the newly-designated pitcher. I shouldn't complain, though, because the old catcher/new pitcher, left me with a huge goose-egg on my forearm when he completely whiffed an inside pitch. It's still painful to open and close my left hand today. I kept 'em moving between innings, but that pales in comparison of the 7(maybe?) runs walked in.

New mandate from the state of Kansas this year, and all the coaches were told about it. BU *shall* have a stopwatch. When all the fielders have left the field, BU is in short RF and starts the stopwatch. 40 seconds later he is to run to A. That's a signal to PU that there's 20 seconds left, and he should tell the catcher he's only got a couple more. Has it worked? Mostly so far (I've only had 2 nights/4 games that weren't rainouts). Biggest issue are when catchers aren't ready (on base during the last out) and when new pitchers come in - their one minute is timed from first pitch, rather than players leaving the field.

Oh, I caught the reference. If you'd have said it to me in person, I would have followed-up my comment with a fully belted-out rendition of the song. My 21-year-old son will answer this way when I tell him something innocuous, like "have a good day" or "drive safe", and I think it's hilarious. Just thought I'd share.

You're not my mom. You're not the boss of me.

I say this, knowing that I'll probably screw it up in my next game, but here's what I do. On the top of my lineup cards, I make 3 notes: DC CR-C CR-P DC is "defensive conferences" and I'll write down the inning numbers when those take place, (e.g., 3,4,6) CR-C and CR-P are courtesy runners for catcher and pitcher, respectively. Here, I only write down the numbers of the courtesy runners. Normally when a coach calls for a courtesy runner, he'll say "for my pitcher" or "for my catcher" (and, in fact, if the VTHC would have said that, it probably would have eliminated the problem in your scenario). If they don't, I make sure to clarify - "Is that for your pitcher?" if that number has been in for the pitcher, likewise for catcher. At that point, you've given him the time to realize his mistake. If he confirms, I write the CR's number down (if it wasn't before), or put my lineup cards back (if it was), and announce to the other team. The way I see it, at that point he has to have lied to me if it's wrong (e.g., I asked "is that for your pitcher?", and he confirmed, even though it was the catcher on first), and I have no problem penalizing the illegal sub.

I use it. It doesn't replace the full functionality of the website, but it does make a few things much easier, and worth the money for me. Our state high school activities association uses Arbiter for all games, so there's no opting out of that part. 1) Accept/Decline is two clicks (one to select the game and another to either accept or decline), unlike the website, where it's a game of hide-and-seek. 2) Each game's info (partner, assigner, and site contact) is easily viewable and clickable. We are supposed to email each site contact a few days ahead of each assignment to verify details (arrival time, field location, etc.), and I do that by just clicking the names from the mobile app.

I thought it had the odor of DNS. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. As an IT professional, I've done much worse. Multiple times. FYI - still hasn't propagated to my office. Works from home, but not from the office.

Hey @Umpire in Chief Several times in the last 24 hours, the site hasn't loaded for me ("connection reset"). I see that forum activity has been unusually slow, leading me to believe it's not just me. It worked for me for awhile last night, and then was back offline after that.