Mr_Blue

He's not trying to have it both ways. He's letting the play happen unless it gets to the point where it's too dangerous. If there's a sliding play and the batter is on the ground then he could take a cleat to the face and lose an eye, have some teeth knocked out, or get some kind of traumatic brain injury/concussion.

Thinking about this situation I had last year. Coach of the offensive team was livid between innings because his batters were asking for time (a little too frequently) and he somehow thought that the pitcher was forced to step off the rubber every time I granted the batter time. He kept saying "it's in the rules of the game" like he had just read that word for word in the rulebook or something. I can't see anything saying that just because I give the do not pitch signal that it means "Do not pitch and also you have to step off the rubber." All I can see is that the ball can be made live when the pitcher, catcher, and batter are both in legal positions. Nothing about "having to disengage the rubber and then reset." If the pitcher is standing there in the windup position with no runners on, who cares if he steps off? If he's ready then I'm letting him pitch as soon as the batter is ready.

Wow. Thank you. That's a really cool offer, but it's really just because of my job. I could afford to spend the money but it'd be too short notice to burn vacation time most likely. I have no problem with paying you. You guys deserve to be paid for the time and work you put into it and I'm sure it would be well worth it.

Yeah that's where I set up too. I didn't necessarily mean exactly behind the pitcher. I saw a guy who's B position was in the outfield this year...

1. I have Baseball Umpiring Mechanics Illustrated published by Referee magazine that my state (Kansas) mailed me for 2 and 3 man high school crews. I've learned a lot since getting affiliated with the state. I obviously need to keep reading the stuff they've sent me so hopefully something like this doesn't happen again. I've always done my best and haven't had any big problems until now. 2. I probably won't reply. I feel like he's the type of guy that wouldn't care if I said I was sorry and that it was my fault. He would just say something like damn right it's your fault, now leave me alone. I already said I don't want to talk to you. If I see him in the future after he's had time to cool off I'll apologize, but if he's still a dick about it then I'll just let it go and not talk to him again. I felt like he was pretty full of himself from the moment we met in the parking lot. Wore aviator sunglasses the whole game, which I haven't seen someone do yet. Might have been a rock star, who knows. 3. You're right. I definitely watch the game differently now and focus more on the umpires than the game sometimes. 4. I would love to attend a GOOD 2-man camp. I drove 3 hours to do an 8 hour class that my state put on for guys with 0-5 years experience but it was an okay class at best. We didn't really do much and most of it was explaining the absolute basics to guys who were totally new. Umpiring isn't something taken too seriously here because the majority of it is smaller size towns that can barely put a team together. I'm lucky if I'm able to work with a guy who even shows up looking like an umpire and not wearing black work boots with a striped football referee hat and an old raggedy brown leather belt. The Mid-American Umpire clinic they're doing this year in Springfield would probably be good, but I might have to wait a year before trying that. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Hopefully I can work with guys more like you in the future.

Sorry. I forgot it wasn't the very next batter that the ejection happened on. I was in A when it happened so it was during one of the next few at bats.

No, I obviously didn't do the right thing. Reason I'm posting is because I still feel like crap about it. I usually just read posts here but felt like I had to ask for help and see what other people thought and I just wondered how common it was to see a guy appeal to the BU in B or C.

I'm pretty confident everyone at the game besides the PU knew it was a swing. He missed it and it happens. Especially with how hot it was. Sweat gets in your eye sometimes, the sun might have been a problem, anything could have happened. I know that it was a swing but what I was trying to say is I still feel like the coach would have argued saying "How can you tell if it's a swing if you're behind the pitcher?" I know I should have called it. It would have probably been just a simple explanation and then everyone stays in the game. The coach went out towards the PU by the plate to argue. I went up to the plate right as the coach did thinking I was gonna get an earful because I had kind of asked for it, but he didn't stay long enough to lay into both of us and he went back to the dugout after being warned by the PU. He did a good job handling him. We set up for the next pitch with me being in A. Then he was tossed for something that he said that the PU heard. No, not filling in. I'm still young and I've only been doing this for 7 years. Just registered with the state for HS ball last year for the first time. I'm sure you're surprised but in all my years of playing and watching baseball from little league through HS and up until now I honestly haven't seen a PU appeal to a guy in B or C which is why I was so confused because I haven't seen it happen "all the time". And yes definitely learned something from it. Never making that mistake again. I would have apologized to him in person but I had a message to call my other half asap because she wasn't feeling well and went into the emergency room so I was on the phone with her. There was just too much going on this morning.

I say in the post that yes that's what SHOULD have happened. But that didn't happen. I was too surprised that he asked for help on that one. It was a swing but still close enough that I feel like it would have been an argument either way.

Felt like I had to make an account to ask about this situation. Have you ever been asked "Did he go?" while you were standing behind the pitcher? Happened to me. 0-2 count. Batter appeared to obviously offer at a close pitch, his hands looked well in front of the plate and bat also looked like it had went around with his wrists breaking enough that I could say I'm 100 percent sure it was a swing. I'm sure everyone watching the game knew it was a swing, including everyone in the stands and definitely the 3rd base coach who was ejected for arguing after what happened. It looked like one of those calls that are pretty easy to make from where I was standing. Anyways, I'm waiting on the PU to make the call and he hesitates then points at me and asks if he went. I was so shocked that he was asking me for help on this one that I made a mistake here. I should have just made the call but I looked back at him and just said "It's your call." Now I guess everyone thinks that neither one of us know even though it looked like a pretty obvious call. Now the dugouts are starting to chirp a bit so I call time and we talk for a minute. I tell him what I saw and that it was definitely a swing. I wouldn't call it a swing if it was close but this one wasn't close. We call the kid out. One of the coaches comes to argue, even though I'm sure he had to know we got the call right he wasn't happy with how we made it. He keeps arguing and is warned not to continue and he goes to the dugout. He stops for maybe 10 seconds but is tossed for something he says when he gets to the dugout. Game went okay after that. Then the PU punched out the next batter on the first pitch because I guess he forgot the count wasn't 0-2 anymore. So that didn't help us look any better. Overall the game went okay after that. We handled the coach okay. Ejection went probably as well as it could have. After the game the PU wanted to switch crews so I worked with a different guy. Then he texted me after the game "Thanks for screwing me today ***hole I pray I never work with you again. This is high school varsity ball not the little bull**** you usually do." Which I thought was a little ridiculous, but oh well. I can't help but feel bad for being caught off guard on that play.