SeeingEyeDog

It's easy to pick on Angel. It's easy to pick apart any umpire in the camera-phone/social-media era. I would encourage you to examine the body of his work and his accomplishments in his over 30 years at the MLB level. I would also encourage you to examine Angel's history with the league. Keep in mind prior to his filing suit, the last person of color who was promoted to MLB crew chief was Rich Garcia...in 19...85. And yes, the worst MLB umpire (whomever that is...) is still heads and tails above most amateur umpires. Life is not this binary, black and white existence where we just hang labels on people and call it day. There is an arc and a story or even stories and nuances to a person's life. ~Dawg

Nothing beats...Adiossssssssss! Pelotaaaaaaaaaaaa! Jon Miller is 2nd on my list to only Vin Scully. He gives you that feeling like you're at the ballpark with a favorite uncle. He is so experienced, so talented, so knowledgeable and so prepared. His command of verbs especially is all-world. The best of them know the season is 162 games and the English language offers lots of great choices and use them. I am not a Giants fan nor am I a Dodgers fan but, great broadcasting is part of the game's heritage and tradition. When Scully was on, when Miller is on...you tune into those guys. They can make some random game on a Tuesday night sound like the greatest thing ever. Their enthusiasm is palpable and infectious! If you have XM radio, they frequently carry the SFG radio broadcasts with Miller although he does break up the game, hand over the mic to a backup and go and work regional TV for a few innings. This is my go to listen after working a game... ~Dawg

Thank you, @MadMax. We see you, brother. 😎 ~Dawg

Disclosure: I have a close family member who has lived most of their adult life in a wheelchair following a spinal injury. They have limited use of their hands and no use of their legs. They do not umpire and I would like to offer the following responses: 1) How do you know? Have you seen him work? And we have all seen partners who work games who don't get up the line as they should... 2) How do you know? Have you seen him work? Angle over distance, right? Maybe he doesn't get the ideal distance moving from the plate to get FPSR but, I promise you he gets the angle. 3) How do you know? Have you seen him work? 4) How do you know? Have you seen him work? I promise you...if YOU have thought of all of this, someone in a wheelchair has too. Maybe he doesn't wedge it up as he should. Like all of us, he is doing the best he can and I'm sure like all of us, his first priority is knowing his capabilities and getting himself to where he needs to be and minimize the risk of injury to himself or those on the field. 5) So maybe he doesn't work wet fields. Over the course of a baseball season, I'm sure there are lots of opportunities for him to work under his ideal conditions. 6) Conjecture and speculation...we don't know. Again, maybe he doesn't work turf fields. The bottom line is...people may have questions. People may not understand. People may want to pass judgement. I see a man in a mask, wearing our jacket, and grabbing strikes umpiring a baseball game. As far as I am concerned, that's our brother and I'd take the field with him anytime and I hope all of you feel the same way. ~Dawg

Don't be, brother...as @Velho said, "Where there is a will, there is a way." I'm not sure if that footage is actually JUCO or not but, in 2002 NFHS instituted a rule that permits umpires and coaches to use canes, wheelchairs and other mobility aids on the field of play during games. Additionally, the Wounded Warrior program has their own umpire academy which helps military veterans who are differently abled learn Our Craft. ~Dawg

@umpstu, I'm curious...what kind of harness is on your mask and how tight do you wear your mask? (Collecting data here, this is a judge-free zone...) I wish you a speedy recovery and look forward to hearing you tell us you were able to get back out there, brother. ~Dawg

No disrespect...it was sarcastic... ~Dawg

Even learning to read what a trouble ball is from A in 2-man is a long process. We open up and we read it and we read the fielder and the flight of the ball and all of that...but, one needs reps to really dial that in. Taking 20 or even 50 of those off of an elevated pitching machine from the plate at a camp or clinic doesn't get one fully dialed in. It's an acquired skill that takes some longer than others. I still find myself going out from A in 2-man too unnecessarily. And of course, when we do this and it we shouldn't have...now our partner is left with all 3 bases if that's down fair and we've still got to go cover the plate. Of course, the reverse is even less desirable...true trouble ball and U1 busts in? Now plate could be potentially left adjudicating fair/foul, catch/no-catch, and or dealing with converging fielders and or below the waist from the catch line...😮 ~Dawg

A lot of the times? They DO know exactly what they are doing. We have several HS and travel coaches in my market who know our progressive discipline is the hand, verbal, written, dugout and ejection and they make sure they take it to verbal every time...EVERY time. I've said for years that the number and type of warnings a coach receives in a season should be tracked and there should be appropriate consequences even if they never get ejected. Then you can establish a mean for the group of coaches in question. If the mean is 7 verbal, 5 written and 3 dugout restrictions for the season...and you've got an outlier with say 50 verbal and 40 written and 30 dugout restrictions? You have a problem coach who needs to talk with the league or state authority. But, what we permit, we promote. Don't let them spend any more time in your head then they need to for you to evaluate their choices, behavior and words. We all know what we are going to individually allow and prohibit over the course of umpiring a baseball game. Now go out there and illustrate that to the coaches and players. ~Dawg

Um, with my first round selection in the Umpire-Empire Fantasy Umpire Draft, I am taking Cameron Bernard of NHLL District 1 and we've never even seen him work a game. How do you not give a kid like that all the support and a helluva look as an umpire? Also, I just ran one of these myself this past weekend for the first time. I ran a dozen first timers through an hour of classroom and an hour on the field. My thought as I pulled into the parking lot which then became my opening statement was, "At pro school, students get 240 hours of umpire instruction in 30 days. I'm giving them 2 hours today and then they're off to work games..." LL has a lot of helpful umpire resources and it was very challenging to consider what was important enough to make my presentation and what was left on the cutting room floor. Lots of observation and evaluation to come... I'd also like to take this opportunity to say, if you are not working with your local LL umpires in some capacity, please consider doing so. You don't have to work games, you don't have to schedule games, you don't have to sit on the Board and attend meetings, you don't have to be a UIC, you don't have to adjudicate ejections, etc. Just contact your local league, tell them you're an umpire and would they like some assistance with pre-season training and/or mentoring. ~Dawg

Well, yeah...when one's sight is so limited, the extra bits of auditory based information are so helpful. 🙂 ~Dawg

So, my partner on the plate tonight has been umpiring at some capacity since the mid-1970s. With a runner on 3B and a flyball to RF, I cross over the working area from C staying chest to ball and as I setup to view the catch/no-catch, I hear my partner behind me on the plate say, "I got the tag up at third, partner!" He did it on two other similar occasions. Of course we know it's a fundamental of umpiring that someone has the ball and someone has the runner(s). We know PU has ALL tag ups at 3B. When I asked him about the verbalization in post-game, he said, "Yeah...I think it's preventative umpiring. Yes, I am reassuring you that I have that tag up and...I am also telling the teams and coaches too that I have that tag up. Does it fully stop every coach every time from coming out of the dugout? No, of course not. But, it significantly reduces the likelihood they will." Brothers, maybe I'm the last one on this train but, I thought this was a really brilliant addition to the 2-man system...what say you? ~Dawg

I have seen videos of umpires demonstrating various neck and trapezius weight training exercises. Typically they incorporate some sort of harness around the back of your head, you're bent at the waist head down and you have a 3-5 pound weight dangling downwards in front of your face connected to the harness and you're lifting your head up and back under control so the weight simply rises and falls. Is there any truth to the claims that these and other exercises that tone these muscles would help provide more shock absorption/injury prevention? ~Dawg

Just my opinion but...maybe if we as a society enforce suspensions as they are "earned" which in this case would possibly mean a forfeit, then perhaps we don't have to issue and I quote..."11 ejections" in the future. Maybe it's a deterrent for future acts maybe it isn't but, consider what message is being sent by staggering the suspensions. The NCAA's coffers must be low if they can't afford to forfeit one baseball game... ~Dawg

Thank you, brothers. I don't know...it was a feeling and my feeling was it was genuine. But, I am also completely open to the possibility my crew got worked on this. At the end of the day, it's judgement. If the worst mistake I made in that game was letting a coach get an uncharged conference, I had a good game. ~Dawg

If a coach is checking on an injured player, as umpires we know by rule that is not a charged conference. Or rather, we have the authority to declare that's not a charged conference...and will preventively umpire that with an announcement of, "No visit!" I had a situation recently where the coach asked for time in the middle of an at-bat. F1 is displaying no signs of discomfort, pain or anything unusual. Coach goes out to the mound, motions his infielders to stay put, including F2. My partner was in C and dropped back to the back edge of the infield dirt. I brushed the plate, took 5 steps to the mound and the coach left the mound headed to the dugout. As he is walking off, he said, "Hey Blue, he's been dealing with a nagging elbow injury and I just wanted to check on that injury. Is that a visit?" I had to think for a moment but, I granted his request and announced, "No visit!" and the game proceeded and was ended without further incident. On one of the changeovers, I asked my partner if heard "anything strategic" on the conference and he simply said, "I didn't hear anything. I got nothing there. I was out on the edge of the dirt." Brothers, what do YOU have here? I need to have the best information on any visit to determine it's injury related but, I also don't like sticking my nose in every defensive conference to determine the context so I know whether to charge it or not...thoughts? ~Dawg

😆...thank you, brother! Yes, @The Man in Blue...coaches are of course required to refrain from actually reading the rules and or any modifications! Hey...a little cynicism makes us feel alive! ~Dawg

@Miss Prospects, typically what is "supposed to happen" is PRIOR to the tournament all coaches and umpires are provided with the rules via email or text or the umpires are advised by their assigners. Typically, as @Jimurray stated, the basis of the ruleset is given (NFHS, OBR, etc...) and THEN the modifications are given. "This tournament will be under NFHS rules, however we will have the following modifications..." Then, at each pre-game plate meeting the plate umpire will typically restate what was provided in advance off the tournament, "Ok, coaches...we're playing under NFHS rules with the following modifications..." As umpires, we want everyone to be WELL AWARE of what EXACT rules will be applied before we actually play the game. In summary, absent a SPECIFIC modification to the rules, we revert to the base ruleset and yes...as stated above, NFHS is 3 charged defensive conferences per game and F1 must be substituted for on the 4th conference. Additionally, if the game goes into extra innings each team gets 1 additional defensive conference per inning played and they are no cumulative so, if the extra inning conference is not used in that inning, it cannot be used later. ~Dawg

[John Lovitz voice]: Yeah, yeah...that's the ticket. When they see it, they'll call it... ~Dawg

Coach on coach yelling...coach on opposing player yelling...player on player yelling...and likely a dozen other player/coach/umpire interactions involving yelling? That all falls under sportsmanship. Every amateur baseball ruleset has (in varying degrees) some kind of aversion to poor sportsmanship. What's difficult about yelling in and of itself is...not everyone who yells is mad. Sometimes people are just to lazy to walk over and have a perfectly civilized normal volume conversation. But, in the wrong context people yelling across a baseball field can be interpreted different ways depending on the circumstance? Bottom line...when I see these kinds of elevated, animated verbal exchanges? I read them and try to let themselves burn themselves out. Once it becomes prolonged, I will step to each head coach (whether they were the perps or not...) and say, "Coach, this is a sportsmanship warning. If it continues, you will be restricted to the dugout." and in most cases this is the end of it. Remember, it's never about US (as umpires) "making it about us". (That expression has always ground my gears...) If people are exhibiting poor sportsmanship, it's the umpires' responsibility to address it with our progressive discipline protocols. It does not "take care of itself" and what we permit, we promote. As Don Knotts famously said, "Nip it, Andy! Nip it in the bud!" ~Dawg

Ok, so the ball creates friction with the batter's shoe which generates heat which can then be detected with an IR camera. Doesn't the ball also create friction with the ground and generate heat? This is clearly hitting the batter's foot. I'm just wondering how definitive it is... ~Dawg

I've always wondered what percentage of coaches coaching under FED understand what they are doing when they agree that all of their players are legally and properly equipped and all of their equipment is conforming to FED rules? ~Dawg

Mannnnnnnnn...why is this on the umpires? Full marks for requiring the AED, no question. But, this should be on the school principal or the AD and ultimately on the school system's superintendent. Good for you for filing a report. What is the implementation? Are they required to have one at each field? (Football, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, bass fishing...) Or just required to have one accessible to all the fields? ~Dawg

Bro...take that pie from the sky, put it in the oven and then eat and enjoy that pie. Let's Go! 😀 ~Dawg P.S. Oh...and as the kids say...Pics! Or it didn't happen!

I'm just asking the questions... May it please the court, Coach Smith has testified here today that at the pre-game plate meeting you confirmed the location of the AED. Is this correct? So, when Coach Jones collapsed and could have been aided by the administration of the AED, why are you seen here on the 50 game and cell phone cameras doing nothing to facilitate the administration of the AED and simply remaining on the field? SIDEBAR: I'm not saying don't concern yourself with where the AED is. That's ALWAYS a good idea in ANY environment or situation. My only concern is what liabilities are we assuming by vocalizing this out loud? I can't really answer that because I only play an attorney on Internet forums...We all know that by God, if they can hang ANYTHING on an umpire, they will do so. Unless of course, your association or state athletic organization "requires" you to speak of the AED at the plate meeting in which case I have another rant... This was by no means a sermon, simply an expression of my concern for you @The Man in Blue and what liabilities you may be unnecessarily be taking on, brother. ~Dawg