jmadigan001

I am 15

So, I umpired a first grade machine pitch game the other day. I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate for umpiring such a young age, but whatever, because I love umpiring so I don't really care about the age. This was the last game of the year for both of the teams. During the pre-game meeting, I kind of got a bad vibe from the visiting coach, but of course I just kept it in the back of my head and moved on. So during the top of the first, the visiting assistant coach was feeding the machine and he was getting kind of impatient with the home catcher and having to wait for the home catcher to be standing and looking at the machine so he didn't get hit. Again, I really didn't think too much of this, so I said something to the home assistant coach when he came out to feed for his team, and then that issue resolved itself by a new better catcher for the rest of the game. So during the bottom of the second inning, with no one on, there was a little grounder hit right to the first baseman. Instead of forcing the runner out at the bag, he decides to try to tag him. The runner dodges the tag(while staying in the three foot box) and I call him safe at first. Immediately after that, the visiting coach is fuming at my call. Shortly after, I get the rule straight with him and my call stands. Later in the inning, the visiting head coach thinks that there are 3 outs after a groundout play, but both me and the home scorekeeper who happens to be the home head coach have 2 outs. We continue play with 2 outs, and a few pitches after some hits by the home team later the visiting coach proclaims to me "Hey blue, What are we gonna do? Keep playing until there are 7 outs?". The home assistant coach who is feeding the coach immediately retaliates with a comment about sportsmanship to him, and it keeps going for a bit, when the visiting coach calls me over. He tells me that if the coach keeps being an asshole(sorry for the language but I thought it was important because under league rules, "Swearing and profanity are prohibited. Umpires are authorized to give up to one warning to the individual violator before removal") that his team would walk off the field. He also made me give a warning to the home assistant coach or they would walk off. (What a great lesson to teach first grade boys right??) After that he told me he wanted the game to be over as quick as possible, but I really do not have any power in how quickly the game goes. I ended up not warning the visiting coach(I realize now I should have), and I gave a warning to the home assistant coach, even though I really did not feel it necessary, because he had done nothing wrong. My speech to the home coach went something like "Coach I am sorry that I have to do this, but this is your official warning. I do not agree with this, but I want to keep these kids on the field, so let's quiet down and just play baseball". Anway, in our Pre-K through 3rd grade leagues, we have something called the infield possession rule. It is as follows: "When the ball is in the possession of an infielder in the infield area, and he makes no attempt to make a further play, a base runner between bases may advance at his own risk no further than the base he is attempting to reach". This came up later in the game when the home team was at bat. One of the infielders for the visiting team clearly had possession of the ball in the infield, but a kid had started running home while the ball was in the glove of the infielder in the infield area, therefore breaking the infield possession rule. I start to call him back, but the other coach insists that he score for some reason, so I sent him home.(Another great lesson to teach these kids) This later happened on a dead ball with runners on 2nd and 3rd(in the same inning with the home team at bat). The ball had barely rolled into the visiting dugout, so the home coach and I had agreed that the runners could stay, but the visiting coach insisted that they advance or they were done, even though it increased their losing deficit. In the next half inning with the visiting team at bat, there was a tag play between 2nd and 3rd that made the third out. After this tag play as both teams were exiting the field, I heard the visiting coach tell his kid who just got tagged out, "Run way out of the baseline next time and you will be safe"(referring to the other tag play where he thought the runner was out of the baseline). I tried to give the coach a stare, but he didn't look at me. As the teams were transitioning to the next inning, from across the field, I heard the coach saying something about the game, and then I heard the word SH*#. I was going to give him a warning, when I saw that there were only 2 minutes left in the game, so I figured I would just catch him after the game. So after 2 minutes of play, I called ballgame, and honestly, I'm surprised that nothing broke out between the visiting coach and the home assistant during the postgame "Good Games". This is kind of a side note, but there was this one parent for the visiting team, who said that the home team cheated, by having a defensive coach in the outfield. This is perfectly legal in our league, so I just ignored her. I ended up not finding the visiting head coach after the game so I just let it go. Anyway, was there anything that I should or should not have done during that game? I feel like I didn't take enough disciplinary action against the visiting team. Thanks for your help and long reading!

Well regarding training, there were a few meetings with going over the league rule book, and then there was a clinic one day. Also, thanks to everyone above for all your help, and as you can probably tell I’m not the best umpire because this was my first season. And also regarding what @MadMaxsaid, at the time of the game I didn’t know the correct ruling on the play at third, and i didn’t want to change just because a coach told me something, because that seemed kind of biased. Now I will start being more active on this website because everyone is so nice and willing to help about anything.

So, this summer, I started working as a rec machine pitch umpire, and I have had some pretty bad situations(for me). One wrong call I made involved a ball hit along the third base line. It was a popup. The ball bounced on the line, and I clearly saw chalk bounce up, yet for some reason I called it foul. Needless to say, the coach of the team at bat was not happy. Just a few seconds later, I realized that I totally blew it. I don't know whether I should have said something to the coach, but I ended up just moving on with the game. This coach was notorious for being way too competitive for second graders (he was not happy at some judgement calls I had made in past games), but I understood his frustration because I was wrong. Did I do the right thing(after the call)? Anyway, I had a worse situation last week with first graders. It had been raining that day before the game, so we decided to scrap the machine and just have the coach pitch. This was the game with the absolute lowest stakes I had ever umpired, because normally for coach pitch the coaches act as umpires, but I was told to stay on the field. So, there were runners on first and second, ground ball to shortstop. Runner from first advances. Runner from second goes to third, but overruns the base. Third baseman steps on the base while the runner is off the base. I call the runner out. I later learned that I was wrong, and that the runner would have have to have been tagged to be called out, but the coaches from the team at bat were very angry. After several minutes of disputing, I keep my call, because I don't want to change my call just due to what one of the coaches was saying, because that wouldn't be fair to the other team. We moved on and kept playing. Anyway, did I do the right thing with moving on with the game? Also sorry if I put this in the wrong place I'm new to this website. Thanks for the help!