Mister B

The leading runner wanting a review is pretty funny. But why would you turn your back to the field when working solo? I may step out on to the apron on a ball hit to the outfield, but I start moving back to the wedge as that first runner is scoring. As an aside, has sliding gotten really bad in the last year or 2? I see so many incoming HS players and even JV who don't know how to slide. They come in on a hip, usually the right hip, and have both legs bent at the knees. Can't tell you the number of times I've wanted to tell a coach, "He would have been safe, if you taught him how to slide properly." When my son was playing, I loved watching him pop up after a feet first slide and be ready to take the next base on a miscue. Another lost art.

Remind yourself that Angel Hernandez is making a couple grand per game.

Remember that summer is a crap shoot for some tournaments. I saw 2 this summer that got cancelled due to lack of participating teams. Kids go on vacation, and this summer, we've seen a very high number of kids choose to play travel ball vs. local ball (even at the HS level) a bunch of kids are trying to play both. The director in 1 of the tournaments told me that he only had 8 teams sign up and then 5 of them called to say they wouldn't have enough players to field a team.

Ditto, we also have to fill out a EJ report that goes to the state board. They determine if the EJ is justified, and what the penalty should be. Early in the summer, I had a kid truck the catcher. He was beat by the ball, by about 3 steps, just lowered the shoulder and kept going. I know the kid, he's a good kid, but I also know that he's be working out in the AM for football and playing baseball later in the day. I did add that to my report, I didn't think it was intentional, but he just got caught up in the moment. I didn't get a complaint from the coach or the fans. He spends all morning being taught to hit people, then is told he can't later in the day. There could be a little confusion. The state upheld the EJ, but it worked out fine, he missed the next 2 games due to conflicts with football.

I've seen it happen from both the set and windup. @ErichKeanedescribed it well. And yes, it looks wrong, but I figured I'd ask before making the call. I believe that if the pitcher is set and breaks his hands, he can't put them back together, is that correct? As for it being a bad habit, it appears to make the delivery take a fraction of a second longer, which will make stealing a little bit easier. As for helping, I was getting ready to expand the zone to include the dirt circle, so I don't think it helped. It seemed like every fourth pitch was 6 feet over my head.

So, Summer ball has started here and I've seen a team that has a couple pitchers that separate their hands when starting their delivery, then bring them back together during the delivery before releasing the pitch. Is that anything, or just a really bad habit? Thanks.

make sure you are taking some days off. There are days when I feel bad that there aren't enough officials to cover all games, but I need to keep my sanity. Don't be afraid to say "no".

I had a game where the runner was tagged with an empty glove. Nobody seemed to notice, and I didn't say anything. When the runner went into the dugout, I called him out. One of the players said, "A little late on that, aren't you?" I just smile said, "nope" and walked away.

I'll grant time to the batter if the pitcher is trying to ice him. Hell, I usually need to blink my eyes. At the same time, I require the batter to keep one foot in the box and to be ready. I hate the play wrist bands, how may plays could they possibly need? One player told me they had 30 different combinations for bunt. WTF?

I remember hearing that from my LL days, but couldn't find anything in writing to support it. Fortunately, the PU is one of my instructors and just wrote to me, to tell me he was incorrect in his call. My struggle here is, was it a cognitive intent? Does that matter? I would almost guess that the runner turned and had no idea of where first base was, so he ran at F3, guessing that he was near the base. The team was not very good. I called 3 "no stop" balks and probably let 50 go, because I didn't want to delay the game. (Although, rethinking it, we may have gotten out of there earlier with a mercy win.) They had another pitcher that had nice stuff, but he quick pitched damn near every time. My partner warned him 3 times, and then gave up. This kid was trained, he tried a very slow front leg lift(straight up) and a very quick turn to 2B. While he had a very slight pause before the turn, he didn't seem to realize that, when you try to go straight up and are leaning, your foot moves toward the plate. He tried to argue that it wasn't a balk.

R1 and R3, pitcher on the mound starts his delivery and it appears that the ball slips out of his hand hits the turf then bounces and rolls toward the 1B line, but does not cross the line. The pitcher walks over to the ball and picks it up. (I was a spectator at my son's game) The PU ruled that the pitcher completed his pitch and that the ball wasn't dropped. A ball was awarded. I asked another brother today before our game and he claims that he would have ruled it a no-pitch and do-over. I did email the PU and he said that a pitch and dropped ball are mutually exclusive. And that the pitcher had completed his pitch and therefore could not have dropped it. I can't find anything regarding the definition of a pitch. Legal or illegal. The rules appear to back me up, except for the dropped during delivery part, as the PU claims it was not dropped. I'm very confused. Bonus WTF moment. Today I was on the bases in a lower level varsity game. R1 takes off on a pick-off and when he turns around to go back to first, he runs directly at F3, who is trying to get around the runner and is a good 10 feet off of the base path. R1 braces for impact and runs into F3. I immediately call time and call interference as it appeared to me that R1 intentionally ran into F3. Instead of ruling, I immediately go to my partner and explain the dilemma, by rule this is obstruction as F3 didn't have the ball and the runner defines his own base line, but the runner ran directly at F3 who was trying to get out of the way. I also realize that even though this is a varsity match, these are not the best coached/playing teams. The 1B coach told me that they have 5 starters that have never played baseball before. I decide to eat crow and call obstruction and award the runner 2B. I think most of the people think I confused obstruction and interference. But I called interference because I was thinking WTF is R1 doing running at F3, and it did seem intentional. Immediately after calling it, I realized that I don't have a rule to back up the interference call outside of a malicious contact call, which wouldn't have made sense as F3 was more than twice the size of R1. Maybe he realized that he was going to get thrown out, so he chased an obstruction call and got it.

Can somebody explain the "going to the mouth rules" for FED? I had a kid that would go to his mouth and then wipe on his pants, but sometimes on the rubber, sometimes off the rubber, I did balk him for going to his mouth then directly to the ball while on the rubber. I'm just not sure about the various combinations. The second one is base awards from the pitcher on pick offs, I'm assuming that if he steps off, it should be a 2 base award and if he is still on the rubber it is a 1 base award. Where I get confused, is the jump turn. If the pitcher does a jump turn and his pivot food doesn't land on the rubber, is that the same as stepping off. What if his pivot foot lands on the rubber? Thanks.

In my JV games, if the whole ball is between the inside lines of the batters' boxes and bottom of the ribs to the bottom of the knees, I'm taking a strike. I've only had one coach ask me about it and my response was, "There were only 5 strike outs and 6 walks total in this game. Both teams were swinging the bats and making contact. What was your question?" He nodded and walked away. My partner was happy as we finished a 7 inning game in 1:39.

This early in the season, open it up. For me JV2 and frosh are getting anything where the ball is between or over the lines. Later in the season, the majority of the ball has to be between the 2 lines. Varsity is getting anything where the majority of the ball is between the 2 lines. Later in the season that will tighten up. Right now, I'm looking to build up the confidence of the pitchers, so that later in the season they don't completely crap the bed after walking a batter. Coaches need to stress pitching to contact. Let the defense do their jobs. Trying to strike everyone out is a bad idea.

Last year, I worked with a guy who didn't believe that making sure the teams are hustling would save us that much time. So I kept track. We had 49 minutes of BS time. That doesn't include the 75 seconds I gave them to get on and warmed up. Rule is 60 here, but I give a little extra if they are close. And I piss off some catchers, when they come out at 65 seconds and I tell them that we are going. "But he didn't get a warm-up." Not my problem, I told the dugout at 20 seconds that they needed somebody out there. And if it's sub-varsity, I mention it at the plate meeting.