JSam21

I know you are saying you don't want your money caught up more as a convenience factor than anything else... but we can look at it this way. It could be a gamble, and if you aren't willing to lose that amount of money, then don't gamble.

The seller barshtur_0 seems to only have 16 transactions, one of them with negative feedback. All of the other items that they are selling seem to be housewares or pet accessories. It seems like it would be shipping from the states, so it might be a little easier to fight if something went sideways with the deal. I would research the other sellers on there.

Fed rules only require one foot be in fair territory. Touching the line is in fair territory. In Fed, both feet must be completely in foul territory at the time of pitch... it is an illegal pitch... with runners on it would be a balk... I'm not looking at the defender's feet at first base at time of pitch... especially as the PU.

Meh... they had to make some money somehow

Now this is just the opinion of just some guy who is a never was nobody, me.... but as umpires, shouldn't the bolded be our only concern?

What is the rule set?

The flexibility is key. I've only been working college baseball for 3 years and can't tell you how many times a Friday-Sunday set as turned into a Saturday-Monday or even a Sunday-Tuesday.

I don't need to work games. I want to work games. If I feel that the changes to mechanics or protocol are threatening the integrity of the game... I'm not going to work those games. We, as umpires and officials, need to realize that we are independent contractors. If we don't want to work, we don't have to work games under those conditions.

I will second @grayhawk's comment. You need to go to a camp that has college coordinators in attendance. I would stay within or close to your region when you are starting out. The umpire net gets smaller and smaller the higher up the ladder that you go, so someone knows someone no matter where you go. I would suggest going to a two umpire camp to begin with as that is what you would be working at most college levels up to D2. Get your foot in the door, be in shape/get in better shape, work hard and show improvement and if you can work, you can advance.

I would go with OBR. But I would push the question to get an answer from those in charge. "Standard" isn't an acceptable answer when there are 3 major rule sets.

It popped up on my Facebook memories that day. Mostly due to the fact that I was dating a girl from that area at that time and had the same thoughts about it then. It sucks for the pitcher, but in the grand scheme of things they won a game in June and that is really all that matters.

No, what I'm saying is that is probably why this thread didn't get much traction. Because many of us don't see it as that big of a deal.

A guy missed a call in a game in the middle of June. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t really that big of a deal.

Everyone involved with this tournament was tested on June 1st when they arrived and they can only be at the park or hotel... that is according to the tournament organizers

I could be wrong but it looked like a local association logo on their hats. Besides being on TV, I’m not sure how sweet it would be to only be allowed to be at the hotel or ballpark for an entire week.