The Man in Blue

I thought this was for those parents who need to pump up their young pitcher. Lets them measure how much stress and pressure they are putting on them.

Oh! He is the piece of crap from Tennessee, isn't he?!

It has been very interesting watching (and chatting with) the umpires of the WPBL this summer. If you had told me there were two umpires who had ejections, I could have told you which two without knowing. Your demeanor coming on the field and while on the field is very telling.

Poorly auto-translated or veiled AI? I'm leaning toward the latter, but I am paranoid. 🤣 I thought it was going to be another proper discussion on when an actual strike is "a ball". You know, those times when ABS "corrects" a correct call with an obvious miss.

Hell, most baseball "fans" and an unfortunate notable percentage of umpires don't know how to discern between OBS and INT.

Like I said, "We just want the calls right!" is simply code for "We just want the calls our way!"

Yes, not much to see, which is what has led to all the speculation online. I need to catch up on everything. I've "tapped out of the world" as school has started and I was/am just burned out on a lot of things. I'm not 100% certain where their umpires are coming from. There was an article in the early days that mentioned it was people who had worked their camps, but I'm not so certain about that. I reached out early on for information, but never received any type of reply. Kelly Elliott Dine and the umpire in the first ejection video worked most of the season, but we have seen a few other umpires rotate in for a few games, including Sophiyia Liu (I have a picture of her I was going to post because she is wearing a very shiny +POS bucket). If you want me to say hi to her, send me your name and her name. I would imagine the crew is here for the whole weekend.

@Lindsay . . . we have our second WPBL ejection tonight (first player ejection)! Bottom of the 5th inning with the bases loaded. Runner's interference call.

I know a single-A guy who was moved last year. His grandfather (a mentor of mine) and I were scheduled to go watch him work; he was moved a few days ahead of that.

THANK YOU @Lindsay! This has been quite fun on WPBL (non-umpire) boards. I'm either getting loved or roasted. Then I come here and @Velho just can't resist.

I don't disagree, but you can't learn the 2-umpire system or any of the others with just 1 umpire. I know, I'm just yelling at clouds.

Another tangent, since Max made this pop into my head: I am going to do my best to remain with the U1 and U2 nomenclature. It is a reminder that a minimum of TWO umpires is the norm, the expectation, and nobody should be doing or should ever be asked to do anything less (edit to add) in the amateur game.

I'm going with illegal and citing: From this position any natural movement associated with his delivery of the ball to the batter commits him to the pitch without interruption or alteration. But then, I am the guy who thinks we let them get away with too many stupid games without awarding stupid prizes.

But at what point did it become a ground rule double? 😁 Edit: Screw it, I'm giving him third base just because that was a cool no human being will ever replicate, even if Henry Winkler is still alive. 🤣