Thatsnotyou

If I hold a date for you/conference/schools, and then I don’t get a game out of it (and likely don’t know until that day), I should be compensated somehow. I get why assignors do it - it rains and I have guys held. But if you don’t have games, only the umpire suffers? It’s overbooking the flight with no repercussions. That or TBDs have to be agreed upon going in. I’m willingly clicking on this - I’m OK if I work, I’m OK if I don’t. Don’t assign me a TBD and tell me it’s a contractually held date.

Odd thing to focus on. I get a nice appearance. But an extra sharp crease in the pants? This has to be the work of someone that’s 80 years old.

This is still so frequent. I don’t get how coaches don’t understand this. They watch the same stuff we do (allegedly). I try to get it in warmups. Turn your foot a little bit. If I can see it go up and down/move into place to go parallel once you’ve started your windup, you’re good. It’s easily the most tiresome one to enforce/fix.

If I was in the market, I’d consider it. As it is, I love my force 3.

I’ve got a force 3 and a mag. I use the force 3 for HS, and usually flip to the mag for travel games like a 12u. Anytime I put the mag on after a string of HS games, I definitely notice that the sight lines are far worse in the mag. I don’t know if that means the force 3 is that good, the mag is poor, or somewhere in the middle, but it’s significant.

In my neck of the woods, starting times and length of games are becoming a major issue. It’s never been quite this bad. But only the umpires suffer, so no one does anything about it. Things I’d love to address: 1) Starting games on time (move games to a realistic starting time if necessary. Stop saying 4:30 when we start at 5:00 and had no shot for 4:30). If not, rules regarding when a game must start based on late arrival. Or when a time limit kicks in based on original starting time. 2) I/O rules re: starting on time. This is a luxury, not a necessity. We don’t need to run a practice before the game. Starters only, first of all. 3)Time between innings. Let’s use a clock of some kind. It’s low hanging fruit. 4) Address a time limit and/or extra innings. There is no reason to play extras in a regular season game. I’m supposed to be there for 10 innings for 3+ hours for no benefit? We’re supposed to be about player safety, too… MLB is so much more enjoyable with pace. I know we can’t do all that, but man HS can be a slog. Without any motivation, teams show up when they want, warm up for as long as they’d like, and play at whatever pace they see fit.

I’ve had a guy hit his knees and cover his ducking head probably 30 feet from the bag - that’s not a veer or a slide - but unless the throwing lane was supposed to be two feet off the ground, there’s nothing there. Spirit of rule vs letter of law. A slight duck near the bag? Yeah, grab it.

I don’t. Hence I said take the mask off if you need to use more words or up the ante. You can argue we’re not part of the show, but we’re also not there to listen to yelling nonsense. You want to keep your mask on and be quiet the whole time, great. I described the way in which I use it. Pick your spots. It’s another step before an ejection, is the way I see it.

I’ll indeed disagree a bit. I try to do as much as I can with the mask on and a stop sign. As a general rule, yes. Mask on, don’t walk a bunch. The mask off, as things progress, is another physical cue to show them unless they have no feel - that they are about to be restricted or ejected. At some point, a lot of words with the mask on, from a distance, looks a bit off. I don’t use it often, but the mask off stop sign with “enough” or whatever usually gets good results. Either way, I’m letting them play a choose your own adventure game. I’m not a guy that says things about what I will do next if they do/don’t do X, or this will be an ejection etc. Try to get them to stop. They know what happens if they don’t. It’s (likely) not their first baseball game.

I get you’re joking, but I don’t feel bad about having a water bottle or whatever on the field. I don’t want it in a dugout…ever. Our options are extremely limited at that point.

I’m a big fan of Nuun tablets. You need more than water to stay properly hydrated. As others have said, go in hydrated and then keep it rolling. The other thing I do is take teams up on their offer for drinks. I always used to turn this down. Now if they have extra Gatorade or water to offer, I’ll take it. Or I’ll ask if someone can re-fill a bottle at a fountain or whatever as to not delay the game and make sure I keep hydrating. I’m not shy about it anymore when it’s 90+. You only have so much on the field/ability to re-fill, so I take people up on the help. They know we’re taking the worst of it out there.

If the language somehow ends up being that time needs to be called, and the SS runs to the pitcher, this is simple. Call time yourself. There’s your conference for the inning.

Hard disagree. He comes set on the second progression and pitches, now it’s very easy for me to see that second progression as a stop every time. When he goes to a third progression, well, it may have looked like a set on the second one. Now I’m watching every single part of the set with a lot of scrutiny, and you’re likely getting balked for appearing set if you’re going to play that game. When coaches say vary your looks, it’s not referencing setting four times. Or three times. It’s referencing looking at the baserunner.

I don’t love it either re: multiple stops. But if he’s doing this every single time, I’m good with it. We know it, we see it, other team does too…no advantage. Now if he starts coming to a “final” stop at various points in there and then delivering…now I’m going to have an issue with it. I’ve never had anyone do it that I can recall.

Disappointed they didn’t address time between innings. Enforceable with a clock of some sort. As for getting together on the mound before the inning - I’ll let them know that if they do it anytime 2nd inning on, it’s going to count. As it should. Needless delay. I also look forward to having the SS ask me for time, and instead of me saying “for what purpose?” or “no, just throw it” I can now say “do you want to use a charged conference to get the ball back to the pitcher?”