CJK

Do they have children? I ask because an umpire here locally is recovering from a year-long battle with leukemia, including radiation, chemo, and a stem-cell transplant. The advice when somebody tried to set up a gofundme to help him with his bills was that donations would be better served going to the kids, as a college fund, than to the umpire and his spouse. The reasoning was that insurance, medicare/medicaid, and whatever else would get in line after available funds, so anything given to the family would just be eaten up, whereas money given to the children would actually be available to the family moving forward. I know there are lawyers and financial advisors who visit here, so maybe they could shed more light on the situation to help you maximize the benefit of your fundraising efforts.

Once action has relaxed, pick up the bat and fling it at the coach.

Also, you need to pay attention to the calls in this order. When a defender is running/sliding/diving near the line, it's critical that you focus first on where the ball is when it is first touched. From there, the transition into determining whether it's caught is seamless. But if you focus on the catch, your eyes/brain won't process fair/foul as well; just ask the guy who will tell you that they were 2 strides past the line, that ball was 8 feet foul when you and the catcher both saw him touch it 2 feet fair. ("Horrible.")

In addition to what BT_Blue says: learn from your mistakes. For example, missing the fair/foul call is often a product of bad timing. Relax, slow down, see the play, judge the play, and then make your call/signal.

I don't feel bad for him, because he did do something wrong. He made a conscious choice to hide the identity of the loudmouth.

I'll quote Chris Rock: You can drive a car with your feet if you want to; it don't mean it's a good f---ing idea!

Oh, Steve R1. I thought you were talking about Steve F9, and I couldn't think of any rule obligating a defender to retouch 2B.

Mike, can we have time? <walk calmly to the calling umpire and stand NEXT to him/her, not facing him/her> I know you saw the tag with the glove, but did you see the ball in the bare hand during the tag? Do you mind checking with your partner to see if s/he had it? If I make that call, and you come running out, or holler at me from across the field, or try to go to my partner, or want to alpha me in any way, I will be INCREDIBLY unreceptive to almost anything you say or ask. If you come to me calmly and respectfully, like a grown up should, I can listen to you say or ask almost anything, and I'm likely to want to help. It's human nature.

Q: Were they intentionally acting like massive douchebags, or did it just come naturally? A: Who cares? Send them to scream at their windshields. There's no room for that level of ass-hattery around 11-year-olds.

Well, I'm going to start throwing out your "dummies" until it quiets down over there.

Umpire bumper sticker: · “ If you have 100 monkeys misbehaving, KILL ONE, watch the rest of them straighten up”- Bigumpire

I do, yes.

Someone gave me some very good advice when I was starting out: announce the count whenever the next pitch could change the batter's status. The truth is that not very many people are paying attention to me when I do it anyway, but it really helps me prepare for potential situations.

On its own, of course not. But the example also started with a tag attempt (ball in hand, hand in glove); the extension of the empty glove was a follow up action. And I know the fielder's belief doesn't matter in the judgment, but the demonstration of the distance deviated is valuable. Again, not an argument or a disagreement. Just making sure we have the same situation in mind.

If I were the offensive coach, this is what I would say about it. But if I'm the defensive coach, I'm going to say that there was a tag attempt, when the hands were together, and the runner ran around it. Or are you saying that it stops being a tag attempt when the ball comes out of the glove, so as long as he doesn't run 3 feet out of the way until after that, he's fine? The picture I have in my head is the situation where the fielder is moving toward the runner with his hands together, and the runner does a "dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge" move (either the "suck in your gut" variant, or the "pull away and arch your back" variant, like that Stuart kid from MadTV). Rather than stop his momentum, turn his body, keep his hands together, and chase a runner that he believes has deviated, the fielder extends his glove (a good demonstration that the deviation is more than 3 feet) but continues to make the next play. Maybe you had the same picture, and that's fine. I just wanted to be certain. I wish I had a good video clip.

Suppose (for fun) that F6 fields the ball in a direct line between 2B and 3B, and that R2 is running along the same direct line. As F6 reaches toward R2, with the ball in his bare hand and his bare hand inside his glove, R2 goes around F6 to the glove side. F6 swings his glove toward R2, but pulls the bare hand out to make a throw in an attempt to retire another runner. Obviously, a tag with the empty glove would not have legally retired R2; does this fact have any relevance on the out-of-basepath ruling?

I think you lost a championship game because your R1 didn't go touch 2B.

Usually I hear that word associated with umpires and think the user doesn't really know what the word means. In this case, it's apt. I pray that blessings of comfort and peace abound for those who loved Dave and those whom Dave loved.

I think it depends on the level you're calling. I use this protector for fastpitch softball up to and including 18u and like it. I do not feel vulnerable. I have taken shots to the chest, both shoulders, and the collarbone area. I feel the impact of the ball (along the lines of getting abruptly shoved), but have not been injured. The Diamond iX3 doesn't seem particularly airy and cool, but it's not bad. I don't feel like it overheats me. The stock harness is not terrible. I do not use the bicep pads, but I do use the abdomen extension. I have not used this protector to work baseball at any level. The plastic plates are enclosed in foam, which means there are necessarily gaps between them, and means that a ball hitting the right place can pass along some force to the edges of the plates. Just because that force is much more localized with a baseball, I would definitely want to experience lower-level baseball in it before I would consider using it at a JV/Varsity level.

With the benefit of super-slo-mo and freeze frame, it sure looks to me like (right around 1:36) the catcher has the ball in his glove and has not yet taken away the runner's access to the plate. Once he's got the ball, though, he's completely entitled to stick that leg in the way.

No, it's not a time play.. The 3rd out in your example is recorded on a forced runner, regardless of how it was finally recorded (tagging runner or tagging base). The run does not score if the third out is recorded on a forced runner.

No, because I'm not coaching every runner to "run no matter what," I'm coaching my batters to do it. Not every umpire has the same responsibilities on every play. Not every defensive player has the same responsibilities on every play. Likewise, not every offensive player has the same responsibilities on every play. The batter, though, can and should be coached to run on strike 3.

A. Of course not. It's without a doubt objectively easier to teach "on strike three, you run." B. It's not against the rules to run, and it might create an advantage. You should teach players to run. C. Why would you want a player looking for the ball and trying to figure out if it was caught? That could be the step-and-a-half difference between out and safe, if the ball wasn't caught, and there's no penalty for running if it was a caught. Choose any or all.

I'm really glad you asked this question. In USSSA and USA Softball Fastpitch, always TOT. (I did not realize this was true.) In USSSA Slow Pitch, same as OBR, including the "first play" language. It's always good to have a reason to stick your nose back into a rule book.

What if F5 fields a ball and then steps and waves his glove toward R3 in an attempt to hold him at 3B, and then air-mails F3? Or if F3 fields and then squares his body and feints a throw to 3B for the same reason? Is "legitimate" purely a judgment call?