aaluck

Congratulations. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time. Please let us know what games you have.

Sorry @Kali and @ArchAngel72 I already have this title. In a HS varsity game I had a kid duck on a curve ball and it hit him square in the head (helmet), directly over the plate, waist high. Third base coach, also the head coach, came flying down when I called it a strike... "what, what, you didn't see it hit him in the head?" I said coach I sure did and his head was in the middle of the strike zone. After about 20 seconds of nonsense I told him we're done please return to the coaching box. Of course, he didn't so I restricted him. As he was going to the dugout I GOT THE TITLE!!! And the reason I claim it over you two is because this coach added "and I've been doing this for 42 years". Plus all of his fans agreed, so it clearly belongs to me, one coach and 20 fans agree. On a positive note though I did spare him from watching the worst umpire in the world by sending him to the bus.

Not to pick at this but then why is this okay... If someone still sees you but its the next day, or maybe the day before the game, does that make you neutral?

Why do they need toddler sized plate shoes?

Your diagnosis of OCD MIGHT be an understatement!!! 😀

A couple of the parks allowed "walk up music" here in Dixie baseball. They claim it keeps the kids from going to "travel ball"? Anyway, there wasn't anything vulgar or inappropriate. In fact, it was 90% popular country and I liked most of the songs. However, i there was I would have done the same thing as @MarsOmega . I have to listen to that crap when I'm filling up my truck, in a public parking lot, etc, on and on. I'M NOT LISTENING TO IT WHEN I'M TRYING TO ENJOY MYSELF ON THE FIELD.

Given the way the game went I probably would have said "great and I have some advice for you as well, you made quite a few coaching errors." That being said, as @BigBlue4uand @The Man in Blue said getting input from as many folks as possible is never a bad idea. You can disregard most of it but sometimes you may hear something you can use or maybe didn't even consider.

The correct call is always the correct call. If R1 made a great slide to make it to second why would we call him out just because the throw beat him there by two steps? (other than maybe those situations discussed above). If the ball was hit to F3 and F1 was covering first and beat the BR by 3 steps but missed the base would you call out or safe? OP you did the right thing given the situation.

Maybe its just me, but Im very confused. Did this happen in the bottom of the LAST scheduled inning? If it did the game was over once they took the lead, assuming they were behind to start the inning--otherwise why have them bat. If it didn't happen in the bottom of the last scheduled inning why didn't you start a new inning, with 25 minutes left? What am I missing?

That's the issue. What do you do? I try never to 'throw him under the bus' but sometimes I will explain that we are trying to accommodate every game with two officials and sometimes that means using folks that are still learning. You can pretty much 'fix' anything that happens IF you have coaches that are reasonable. Like in my example above, BOTH coaches know what the result of the play would have been had there been no screw up. The problem is that the coach on the 'losing end' usually will pitch a fit. Bottom line...I just do the best I can to fix it.

This is also a problem here--although I don't blame the assigner. I know this because I have called him and was told "I have to put him somewhere to cover the games and I want him with someone I trust". I've had this one guy twice this year. He is famous for not moving. If he is in A and "thinks" the ball is going to be caught he stays in A, doesn't move but to turn his head to watch the fly ball go to the outfield. Because of this I've watched him make at least 4 (close) calls at second about 6 steps from A, still in the outfield. The same guy called an infield fly (that wasn't caught, probably wasn't even an infield fly with less that 2 outs) with 3-2 count, two outs--runners going full blast on the pitch. Try and un&^%() that!! It gets very difficult to keep peace with coaches when its nearly impossible to defend your partner. That puts us in a very difficult position.

You are far from alone, Im right there with you. This year, despite a shortage in my association, I cut back to one day a week--two in an emergency situation. I'm going to set a mileage block for football as well.

Although I agree with 99% of your statement--I do not expect a varsity coach to know some obscure rule that may come into play once a year, if lucky. However, I do expect that my employees read the rules that pertain to their employment--as I suspect any employer would. Reading the rules of your job should be expected (anywhere) and IS part of their (the coach's) job description (I'm not talking about youth/JV level coaches). If you are the head coach of a varsity baseball program you should have read the rule book more than once. Most have not. I know the because the most common argument from these coaches is base awards on overthrows out of play--a simple, simple rule to apply and understand. Further, the same coach will argue this two weeks from the last game, which clearly tells me he didn't even bother to go look at the rule after it came up two weeks prior.

I did. Thank you.

For some unknown reason some umpires feel they need to be "part of the game". Most of us prefer that we aren't even noticed for 7 innings. Not a knock but I see this problem with younger youth umpires. They feel like they have to be recognized as important during the course of the game. Not sure there is much you can do about that.