Minnz

All-star makes a good metal indicator and it is notched too.

Missouri High School just released: "Any wristband with a playbook/playcard attached shall be considered equipment and is permitted as long as it is a single color and is not white or gray. It does not have to match the color of the upper garment. It shall be worn on the non-pitching arm, the belt or stored in a pocket. If under the umpires' judgement, the wristband is distracting while worn on the arm or placed on the belt it shall be removed and placed in a pocket. Players, coaches and umpires are reminded pitches are to be delivered within 20 seconds of receiving the ball and use of aforementioned playbook/playcard does not warrant an extension of this time."

I second the New Mexico stuff. Dana Pappas does an amazing job for the New Mexico Officials Association (NMOA). Make sure to search for NMOA not NMAA for the officials videos. Should be: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC935BzniaqlOJLWOgTTvPDg/videos

Starting to notice a more than usual push from a few different places to discount the current MLB shirts, especially Majestic branded. Are we about to see a new design in 2021 at MLB and MiLB levels or this just prep for the new contract with Nike over Majestic?

Do you have a pullover or jacket? Maybe it is too hot, but that can provide an option too. I would also argue then as an umpire you aren't fully equipped with only one shirt option for that game. We have to have the right equipment at all times. While most of our equipment can be expensive to have duplicates of, a shirt is not. How do you work back to back days? If a shirt would tear on a Tuesday, do you have a local place to get a brand new shirt to replace it by a Thursday game? I have always felt only have one shirt of a color for a certain position is not enough.

The area you are going to has had some change the last handful of years at the college level as associations have moved around a bit. I believe it was 2015 when Jim Paranto took over the RMAC in addition to Mountain West duties. The key as others have said, is to go to a comp where he will be an evaluator and be able to be seen by Dr. Paranto. if those are your aspirations. The problem with CO is there is not a single D3 baseball program in the state. As someone who lived in New Mexico it made entry into college baseball much tougher. The JUCO route is where you have to connect with those assignors and cut your teeth to move up the ranks.

As someone's whose day job is selling IT hardware/solutions I will say the security concern has a lot to do with free vs paid for products. The paid services will give you a better level of security as they will allow some enhanced features vs an open public cloud. My company uses Team and Zoom as some of our client use WebEx and all have plusses and minuses in terms of how they look and feel. I Know I have talked to my local association about purchasing a web meeting host in order to have the features to record and be able to offer replays of meetings and trainings longer than 30 days, we well as the enhanced security.

Add it to the list of ways our stuff is on the dark web. They aren't the first and won't be the last. Welcome to the new age.

Maybe it could be the opposite? A lot of the reason we have lost umpires the last 10 yrs is also due to the economy. When unemployment goes down, officials in amateur sports goes down as well. If we see unemployment skyrocket, we will see people turn to officiating to get money. Then those of use with experience and knowledge are going to have to double down to train these people. Make them feel welcome. Make them want to stay once the unemployment goes back down, which is always does.

Technically we can only ask them for $150. Got to get the other $20 from association. LOL Thankfully I made more than $170 before losing the rest.

I hope if you were feeling dizzy at the time a trainer was consulted for your safety.

I wish the NCAA would require schools to either display a clock or provide umpires with the timing mechanism above.

I was not aware confirmation and making sure the coach understands is considering "hammering."

With any new rule I feel preventative umpiring and working with the coach pregame is a good strategy. Why not ask a second or third time to triple check, thus avoiding any arguments innings later. It also will help some umpires understand the rule themselves. We all know plenty of umpires who don't embrace new rules understanding. I feel it does no harm and only good to make sure the coach understands what not calling out a DH means for the game.

I also think the plate meeting needs to get emphasis this year. When you are handed a lineup card and it is a 9-man lineup, I would confirm multiple times that the coach doesn't want to signal a DH of any sort.

Nice typo the have on the test. Six things qualify but only a-e called out on test answer. Oops.

Seems the don't want you to give the runner 3rd. Keep him at 2nd. The wording is wrong by saying "awarding" 2nd base. He already obtained 2nd base.

I wish they would just follow the NCAA rules but remove the "must be for the pitcher" part of it. I find NCAA rule to be really easy in the fact you have two lineups, one for offense and one for defense. Batter order can never change. So simple. This new NFHS rules is going to cause messes once subs start coming in for a guy. Then the games where the coach doesn't call out DH on the card but meant to. More emphasis needed by us umpires at plate meeting to make sure it gets called out.

Keep it simple on this. Don't use too many words. I had this last year and I simple said, "No Tag" and pointed to the ball. In this case runner then came to touch home so I signaled safe. Otherwise if tag gets applied correctly I signal out.

Nope that is simply an E5. No other fielders made a physical error on the play thus it goes down as one simple error. There is no OBS on the play as nothing was enforced due to the runner advancing.

College Wood Bat Summer League

This may have been one of the easiest I have had in all my years. T4 First batter on 2-2 takes a super close pitch, I ball it, catcher caught it horribly on a borderline pitch, honestly may have missed it and maybe should have been a K. Next pitch batter lines out to 3B, no harm done we got the out. Second batter walks on a check swing I appeal and told no swing. Third batter goes down 0-2. Catcher sets up just off the plate. Two straight pitches the mitt moves further out to catch the ball, so two balls there. On 2-2 pitcher spikes on, wild pitch, runner advances. On 3-2 comes inside, with catcher set up outside. It is a high and off the plate to me, ball four. Pitcher looks at me, "That's F*#King bullSH*#." I calmly say, "You're gone." He spikes the ball and walks off the field. As he crosses foul line he looks at me, "That's F*#King SH*#, you're an embarrassment out here, that's a F*#King horrible call, you're a F*#King joke." Summer League President was a the game which helped me in the end. Wrote my report and as told that pitcher will sit another four games now. What shocked me the most is the catcher told me he was happy to see him finally get ejected as him teammates are tired of his crap. We are only three weeks into this summer league program. Half the season to go.

No it is the same as you describe it, though for HS season it is the assigner and his LLC the schools work with, but there is a lot of gray area if you will on rainouts, no show etc. Bottom line is in MO the schools hold all the power the way they do it. Heck when they pay you less for a postseason game than regular season game that tells you something. Non HS ball you are IC for GSLAU and GSLAU chooses to hire an assigner for their contracts they hold.

All depends. GSLAU doesn't contract for MSHSAA games. Technically the schools and umpire do and assigner is hired by the schools outside of GSLAU or any association.

Would the starting pitcher still be allowed to return? Or does this violate the more than eight pitches for warmup rule etc?