HuskerUmp22

Awesome!

Looking forward to seeing if it does come on! Good luck!

I watched it live. It was the right call. If a fielder reaches to tag the runner and misses I'm calling the runner out.

Thanks for all the information guys. Very helpful. This type of game, though not fun, will help me in the long run.

What did your partner say about the pitch? Perfect example of how ridiculous people are. Spitting at your shoe? That is messed up. Can you talk to someone in your association to see if this type of behavior can be punished? That kind of behavior, the way you described, should not be tolerated from anyone, especially students.

I PM you

You are correct that the count should have been 0-0. I think I get confused with the "delayed dead" with OBR that I let it play out. 4) I meant to say C, my brain must not have been working yesterday. Lol. Of course ... Thanks for the PBUC interpretation. I was wrong that you wait to kill it after the overthrow.

Thank you. I have not done a 10u game in probably 3 years but I do remember... I have 12u this weekend and I may find similar.

Good points. 1) The rule set is OBR. I knew it was delayed dead so that's why I didn't kill the play right away. 3) The contact was not malicious and that is what I should have told the coach. 5) The batter was looking for a walk I thought. My partner did not think it hit him. I will definitely not quit but I was frustrated.

Well it was a brutal night on the diamond for me. Here we have a break in the HS season so I decide to sign up for a 14 usssa regular season game. I'm kind of venting but I would also like some of you to comment on how I can do better. 1. Plate Meeting Pregame: I go over normal stuff and then I noticed before the plate meeting all the players for the visiting team are outside the dugout swinging their bats. I tell the coaches that please only two swingers in between innings. VTHC asks me why? I reply for safety reasons. He comments, "I don't understand, no other umpire as told us this, it seems to be helping us with our hitting..." I say well that's the way we are doing it tonight. HTHC says "Ok." THE VTHC is not satisfied but I move on. Definitely not a good way to start even before the game starts. Anything here? Should I have not even mentioned this in the plate meeting? 2. Bottom of 1st. R1. Pitcher completely rolls through his set position. I raise my hands and call a balk. My partner doesn't call it. We have R1 stealing and then an overthrow leading R1 to 3rd base. I run out and say, "Time. I have a balk." And I put the runner back at second. I hear some groaning from the batting team (HT) but they don't say much. After the inning my partner comes to me and tells me I didn't handle that right. So we talk it over... I am kind of annoyed that my partner isn't backing me at all but I should have called balk (not raising my arms or saying "balk" quietly so no one heard) and then once we had the overthrow completely killed the play. To make this situation worse after this I look down at my clicker and see 1-1 but the batter tells me there's only been one pitch. Now I don't know if it's a ball or strike. I ask my partner. He doesn't know. Now I say 1 ball and we play on. Ugggh. This is in the 1st inning and I'm thinking what a nightmare start. 3. 4th inning and 1 out R2. Batter hits a single, I have a play at the plate. Now R2 is clearly out but F2 tags him hard on the helmet. HTHC comes out complaining that his player got hit hard in the helmet and should not have been called out. 1B coach also is arguing and I tell him he is not the HC to go back to his place. He did apologize to me after the inning was over. But the HC keeps wining I tell him to stop. Fan is complaining about the play. I ignore him. We move on. 4. R2 1out. Steal play and my partner is in the A position. I completely forgot about what is going on and just assumed he would know to be in the C. We have a steal and thankfully the play was not close. My partner was humiliated but I could not believe I didn't notice and call time to bring him over. Ugggh. Obviously coaches notice things like these that only hurts you as umpires. 5.. Bottom of 6th inning HT down 7-0. Bases loaded 1 out. Boarderline pitch that almost hits the batter. I did not think it hit him but the batter thought he got hit. I say no stay in the box. He ends up striking out. Btw I called strike 3 on probably 7 kids on their team. They were not aggressive. Next batter in same inning 3-1 pitch I call a lower strike that my partner said after the game he thought it was down. What I saw was a pitch that was just below the knee and the catcher's glove did not move down: Strike! The kid strikes out swinging to end the game. Now we have to exit. My partner decides to exit the HT side but I was thinking we should not. So we exit that way and of course the coach makes a couple comments and then as we walk out says: "That was horrible. You should be ashamed of yourselves." I say nothing and leave. I'm feeling very frustrated right now and honestly these are nights where you just want to throw your gear out and quit. But I just have to learn and move past it. These games happen and I'm glad it wasn't a High School game or something.

I think you handled it awesome, Fleas. I'm wondering if your partner should have given the HC a verbal warning (after he gave the stop sign) by writing it down on his lineup card. Something like, "VT HC ball/strike warning" this is your warning" say that real casually so the coach knows he's been warned and write it down in the lineup card. I was told by one of my assigners to do that real casually to try to stay calm and keep the coach calm to know he's been warned. I could be wrong on this, but in Federation aren't we encouraged to give a verbal warning before restricting to the dugout? I guess when your partner said, "Coach, we're not going to have any more talk about the strike zone. It stops right now." that could be treated as a warning, Did the coach know he was being warned?

I laughed really hard!

I started when I was 16. I remember being very intimidated by most coaches haha. But I think I would tell them that you shouldn't try to make up for a call if you make a mistake. These kids are learning and will make mistakes but if they can learn to be confident and stick with their calls that would be huge. I struggled with that when I was around that age. I agree with what was said above about good timing and seeing the play happen before you make the call. Huge. Also I will say be careful with giving them too many games to work. (may be unpopular) but it's easy to get burned out and the biggest thing is we want these kids to continue umpiring and like it. If we give them too many games to work, they may get burned out. I did way too many games when I was younger, and yes I am still umpiring and still love it, but I could have easily gave it up.

Now I know what you meant when you said you were out for two weeks! Sucks and hope you feel better. At least you won't forget your shoes next time. As far as the coach, I'd be tempted to eject him but that would probably be the wrong move.

Were you doing a game in Millard? I had some bad experiences there when I was really young, so I decided a long time ago I would never do a game there. There are some clowns there (if that's where you were). Great job on the EJ.

Some of these others have said, but after a little thought here are some of my general goals. 1) Improve in my understanding of the rules. 2) Improve my out and safe signals verbally and my mechanics. 3) I would like to improve in my confidence in general but especially when interacting with coaches. 4) Taking my mask off from the front instead of the back. I was quickly told to work on this at the intro to 3 man K.C. clinic! 5) More hustle. 6) I want to improve in my understanding of the 3 man system, but not sure what that will look like since there is not much 3 man to work at my level currently.

Exactly. Which is why I recently decided I won't work for this one individual who does this.

Hi all. I'm looking for an online officiating community similar to this one except for the other sports (basketball and football). Anybody that works basketball and football found any good websites like this one to ask questions on rules/equipment, clinics, etc? Thanks.

I was at the 3 & 2 complex Sunday field #1. I was exhausted also and then did more base work after my game. We had 4 games with 4 umpires Sunday. I worked with some great umpires though so they made it easy on me.

I think the two man one in Springfield would be the better choice for you. This one is great, but more for people wanting to get into college and learn the three man system.

I was also at the clinic. I worked a 9 innning Juco showcase game behind the plate on Sunday. It was really fun with great instruction. I learned a lot about the three man system. My field was actually short on umpires the second day so got lots of reps in.

Correa, the Astros SS, is a stud player.

I am going to the 3 man clinic in K.C. this weekend! I just worked a college fall ball scrimmage this afternoon and my partner is also going. He said there are a few open spots and talked me into going. Looking forward to meeting Dave, Steven, and Jason for sure! Anybody else going?

Wow! Boom! Thanks, Maven.

Wow! Big improvement.