Thatsnotyou

That’s not true. Contest ratings and top 15s will roll over to next year, as they use the current season as well as the previous two seasons to calculate the percentile rank.

I’ll gladly hold a stop watch if it speeds up my games.

Give us a stopwatch between innings, please. Last pitch at X seconds, regardless of how many (if any) have been thrown. Total D conferences - absolutely. Use them wisely, random infielder.

Black is overwhelmingly the default color in the Chicago suburbs. Everyone dusts off their navy shirt for the playoffs. Would love to wear the new panel shirt.

Yeah, but more thinking turf game where it’s annoying rain (or on/off) but not cancel worthy.

I’m also a fan of long sleeves on the plate, no jacket, but I do make one exception. If it’s raining, sometimes I’ll go with the jacket to keep all of it off me, as a long sleeve shirt is going to get wet, stay wet, and start soaking through other layers.

A lot of baseball tournaments use 1:45 or 2:00 limits. Softball uses what, 1:15? 1:10? Softball games take less time even sans limit, that’s just the nature of the games. You can’t pay those the same rate. But again, don’t decrease the softball fee, increase the baseball fee.

I had one like that maybe 15-20 years ago. Probably got it from Honig’s at that point. The timer was useful for tournaments.

It’s really not. You pause so you don’t run into the BR when trying to get inside. By the time he runs through 1st, he’s somewhere in the vicinity. Let’s say it’s a low throw he may pick - you’re set. Then it bounces away. You’re not already moving. A lot of times you’ll have to cross the path the BR would have to get to 2nd. BU can watch the ball on the boundary. Consider where you’ve seen BU make the call at 2B on a play after this. Unless they are really quick, they are looking up the a$$ of the play. It’s pretty brutal. The PU can always get a better look at this if he’s moved up the foul line as a starting point. If you think about where each umpire is when the ball *suddenly* gets away, it’s obvious which umpire will be able to get closer and more importantly, have a decent angle on the play. Jog 45’ feet, then run inside with an angle and stop when necessary to make a call? Not much different if BU goes out on a trouble ball. Why would BU cross at this point? PU obviously would take him to 3rd.

To build on this, another logical change would be with no one on, throw gets away, PU takes BR to 2nd. He’s already inside up the line and has an easy way to get an angle. The BU has to freeze, wait for BR to clear and then take off and end up far away with a bad angle with a throw coming from behind him. I’ve pregamed this and most times I’ll call off my BU as soon as the throw gets away.

Not me. The batter.

Smart batters won’t take a hand off the bat and will just verbalize time. That way if they don’t get it, they are ready to hit. A verbal time call that causes the pitcher to stop (sometimes batters are loud with it) - I’m not balking that either, just as outlined above. I do like when hitters get in the box with a hand off - and leave it off. Then the pitcher looks in for a sign - but wait, my hand is up! Usually gets a “put your hand on the bat” from me.

Batter: “Time” Me, unless the pitcher has held it while set forever: “No” Once you start the “time” game, it’s hard to stop it. The gamesmanship element of “time” is garbage. The longer I’ve done this, the more comfortable I’ve become at saying no.

Sure, but we’re also doing it off scheduled start time. I’ll gladly give back some money if I’m under 1:50 (rare) or whatever if I get more when I’m over 2:10 (becoming more frequent it seems), broken out by the minute. Advantage us. It doesn’t “even out” over the course of the season. Even mercy rule games usually take two hours.

“Neither game is timed”. In the regular season, this could be fixed (and go off of expected game time, not start time). There just isn’t a good reason to be doing an April game that goes 9 innings or drags and goes 2:30. If I was a new-ish umpire, I don’t know how many times I could do this realistic scenario and return for more: Come into work early to leave early. Get to the school a half hour early, just to watch the visiting bus show up 5 minutes before game time. Watch said visiting team take their time getting to the dugout, warm up, and insist on a full infield. Start the game 20 minutes late. Said game goes 2:20. 20-30 minute drive home. What I thought/planned/expected to be roughly two hours starting at say 4:30, became 2:20 at 4:50. 7:10 vs 6:30 out time. 40 minutes, or 33% more, for absolutely zero benefit. And those 40 minutes, especially you are returning home to any sort of responsibilities (log back on for work, S/O, kids, chores, make dinner etc.), are quite important.

The thing is, softball umpires shouldn’t make less, which is a line of thinking I’ve heard a bunch. Baseball umpires should make more. Not going to lie, at some point when I’m older the smaller field, but really, the shorter game time and awesome pace of play (in terrible April weather) will have me considering switching. We’re all kind of silly for working baseball.

All black shoes are as cool as navy shirts and heather gray pants.

I got the idea from a few coaches last year. I’d be like aren’t you cold with only that pull over jacket? And they would tell me about their heated vest underneath and swear by it. It wouldn’t interfere with umpire duties and you wouldn’t see it underneath a top jacket anyway. Why freeze on the bases for two+ hours (always feels 20 degrees colder out there) when it’s one of those wind howling days? If anyone has specific brands, features they prefer, I’m all ears.

Does anyone use one on the field? Considering getting one for the bases when it’s 38 and windy in the Midwest for half the spring.

If I really think I should have had one, I’ll see how the at bat plays out. Guy pops out, easy to let the catcher know before the next batter “hey I should have had that curve, I’ll get it next time”. Even if I have rapport with the catcher, I’d rather not admit I missed one and then the guy hits a game tying double. Nothing to gain there. As someone already said, that may get back to the coach or pitcher etc.

Wait, 7 = 90 but 12 = 130? That doesn’t make any sense. Even the 140 for 5 is still low.

I get the notion, but those aren’t mutually exclusive.

This isn't true. Length of games were too long and everyone knew it and tangible, impactful change was needed. The only way to change it was by introducing a clock and enforcing it, whether it was visible to the fans or not. Most people can figure out the difference between a 2.5 hour game with pace and a 3.5-4 hour game with no pace, regardless of if they can see a pitch clock somewhere. It's extremely noticeable. The game moves now, and it's apparent to even to those that don't pay that much attention to the changes and the rules and the clock. You're going to lose umpries, quietly, the more they have to deal with slow pace, walking around, 2.5 hour freshman games, and teams showing up late. Or they'll just choose a different sport that has a clock. So if you'd like to treat this as a fans = umpires scenario to get a clock in, by all means go ahead.

In regards to what color the umpires wear? No attention on my end. We have limited options (IMO mainly two). I basically wear black every game all spring. If someone thinks we’re biased because we’re wearing black and one team is wearing black…that’s absurd to me.

Oh some of them unfortunately get varsity games, just don’t dare give them the plate.