strike3scott

I wish I had some words of wisdom for you but Brian and Thunderheads nailed it. Great advice guys. One thing though - be prepared to have the on deck batter in your way at some point. Had one moving into my way to tell a runner to slide......slight push and I made my point.... this is my territory.

I found this post on "Plate Position" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Post Of The Month June, 2010"

Read the new one about INTERFERENCE. Runner on third - pop fly to 3B and runner interferes. The runner is out but if the catch is made it is wiped off and the batter comes back to bat! Tell me that one won't cause problems - especially when coaches have their best hitter up and he pops one up.......have your runner interfere and the hitter gets a do over.

Last year I was working a VBB contest with a very good - hard throwing pitcher. Three pitches into the at bat and a foul off my mask knocked me down. I'm 6'3 270+ and pretty strong. Anyway, I ended up in the hospital ER with a concussion and a bad headache for several days. I am on blood thinner mediaction and I was sent in for precautionary measures. Bent my Gerry Davis mask in but did not completely break.

I have worn the Pro 9 (K1 knock off) for some time. I call an almost all Varsity schedule and have had no impacts that caused injury or a bruise. I did, however, take a fastball off the forehead portion of my mask and get a real nice concussion from it. As for my Pro9/K1 - I love it.

Stan Check pluspos.com - it is back up and there might be some bags on there.

I went to Hit Run Score.com or something like that. I bought a chrome molly Wilson for 64.99. That is substantially cheaper than anybody else has them. And it comes with the black leather wrap around pads - same as the higher priced companies.

Next week I finish out my Volleyball season. It has been a great time and I highly recommend it. Worked quite a few Varsity matches and loved every minute of it. Next up - Basketball! I am now a 4 sport ref/ump.

Brian - yes I got that message because I was signed in for my Volleyball test. They said that we couldn't finish the test until the update was done.

Stan - I am brand new to Volleyball and love it. I'm learning alot and getting better already - LOL. Don't get me wrong - it is not a cake walk but what a great sport once you get down the technical side. You'll love it.

I am a HS umpire/referee from VA. I live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley with my wife of 16 years, 14 yr old daughter who knows everything and the 2 best stepchildren a man could ask for. Recently my stepdaughter made me a grandfather. I have called LL in the past but only HS now. I work Baseball, Softball, Basketball and have now taken on Volleyball. A glutton for punishment I guess. I have been in law enforcement for 16+ years - so when I'm not calling, I'm still dealing with irate people. Anyway, I love this site and appreciate all the hard work that goes into it.

Tonight I had my very first Volleyball scrimmage. Certainly alot more than what I expected! I also work a heckuva lot of basketball besides (obviously) baseball and softball. My wife says one more sport and she's out of here. How much does it cost to get into football? LOL

Your stance looks very good and head height looks fine. To answer a question you asked some time ago - in the scissors, I have my hands on my knees. The hands behind the back thing is bush. I lock in on my knees and my head height has very little variation (all have some no matter what they say) but the main thing is getting locked in whether hands on knees or other mechanism. While we are talking about stances, I have used, and still use at times, the knee. I find I can see short kids' zones better some times - I'm 6'3.

I agree with UIC. The HS Casebook is an invaluable tool. Fed has now produced 2 new rules companion books. The first is the Illustrated book and the other is the Rules by Topic. We have a new guy in our Association that ordered these and it helped him alot.

Welcome. Hope you have as good a time as I have had here.

Welcome blue32...hope your experience here is as good as mine has been.

I have worn +POS and Gerry Davis which are similar in construction. I wear the GD patent now and love them. They look sharp and are easy to take care of. I will say this though...I have a friend who wears the 450s and won't shut up about them! LOL

Thanks...I've learned alot here..so just my chance to give back.

I think you handled it correctly. Gracious and polite. I do not put alot of stock in winner compliments even though it's nice to get. I once got to my car after a team that should have and was supposed to win - didn't. The coach came to me....I'm fully expecting some crap at this point....he started with how consistent and great the zone was...blahblah. At the plate, I consider it to be the best compliment to be called "consistent" but with a hittable zone. But I will say, LMSANS, the warm fuzzies are nice to get!

I finally found it....it is called the official's game keeper. Website is officialsgamekeeper.com.

Sorry took so long to get back on here but I just saw this post tonight and looked up what you are asking. The Umpire manual for Fed on Pg 67 says U3 Position D has both feet in FAIR territory with wording highlighted in their book for runner on third. I was wrong on the straddling but it is also not foul territory either.

I'm going to be the odd man out here on this one. I have always used the scissors and as long as my knees and back are good I will continue to use it. I have always felt comfortable in this stance. I thought the same thing about the scissors as Ump in Chief does...people are not using it as much anymore..until I watched the College World Series. The majority of the games I was able to see had a PU using the scissors. I have tried other stances but always seem to gravitate back to what I was taught 20 years ago. It is easier to get into bad habits with the scissors and I must admit the Gerry Davis stance is very comfortable. However, I still go back to my "old school" ways.

I have never called fan interference but I have called interference on bench personnel.

Straddling the line is in the FED umpire manual for placement of U3 also.

I febreze the hell out of it, after a game when I have another that day. Other than that I hand wash with Gain to get rid of smell. It works well in small amounts. I am curious though, what type of CP goes in the dishwasher well? I wear the Pro9. As far as shoes, I use Kiwi High Gloss at the beginning of the season and Armor All before/after each game. Every 2 weeks or so (depending on usage) kiwi again.