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Fun fact, I worked with Brendan on his first ever game umpiring. Literally, brought him a bag of hand me down gear and clothes and he took the bases and I and others helped him learn basics and got to see him develop and then do college, and now he’s in MILB hes a good guy and wish him the best

The rule doesn’t say the pitch must hit the batter and only the batter. If it hits bat and then body/hand, foul ball. if it hits body before the bat or simultaneously, it’s a HBP. Pitch was bad and contacted the batter, don’t overthink it Edit: I always say, the rule book can not possibly list every scenario that could happen. It lists what can’t happen and what people are required to do. The HBP rule says if pitch hits the batter, and assuming batter didn’t violate any of their obligations (varies by rule set), they get first base . Rule book isn’t gonna list rule separately for every scenario of where or how it can hit the batter

I am fine with the debate about whether the Thunder balk should be called or not, but saying the pitcher stopped bc of the batter is ridiculous. To argue he was pitching through the Thunder and then stopped bc batter flinched or dropped hands is trying to fabricate a story to fit a narrative. Saying spirit of rules should mean no balk and reset situation is justifiable to at least argue and debate, saying it’s bc of the batter is not

There’s no right answer for this. That’s bc the rulebook tells us what the zone is. What parents and coaches don’t understand is it is technically the same for 10u as it is for mlb, but we know realistically that isn’t appropriate. Bc I umpire college, I am not comfortable going into chalk. In college I try to just call the plate and buffer so my misses are on the edge of River/channel. If I’m doing HS level summer ball (I don’t do hs in spring) I try to call full channel, which means my misses are prob touching chalk. I try to never ball strikes. Cant say it’s foolproof, no zone ever will be, but if you’re consistent you can feel good about it. I don’t do 10-14u ever anymore so can’t really help there, I’d prob go full chalk at that age but I’m sure the parents who want MLB zone would disagree. I also remember learning to think of edges like a pear, you can go a little further out when it’s thigh high, but don’t go so far out when it’s at very top or bottom of zone bc that’s unhittable. Side note, I’ve long said if I ever did a travel game where both sides gave me s*** about being too big, I’d give them the d1 college trackman zone rest of game and enjoy the walk fest. Never had to though. another side note, I’ve done games where I’ve been thanked for having a smaller zone, even for 16-18u. I think the channel/river is appropriate.

There is no magic way to determine this. You either judge hindrance or you don’t. As an example, let’s take a batter who tried to hit the ball to the moon and his momentum carried one of his feet entirely onto the plate. If the pitch was outside, f2 may not be hindered in the slightest. Pitch inside corner, that’s almost guaranteed to be hindrance. Oftentimes, mainly in amateur (hs and below) baseball you will hear “he stepped on the plate!” That makes him liable to interfere, it isn’t by itself INT. If you see no hindrance and f2 gets off a good throw, don’t grasp at straws and make “the easy call”. Some BI is obvious , some is iffy, some just isn’t there. Give the catcher the benefit of the doubt on the iffy ones, but don’t grab what isn’t there. Simply put, if a coach who knows the rule asks you “what did he hinder”, have an answer. If you’re only answer is he stepped on plate or leaned across, don’t call it. He interfered by making catcher double pump, or the throw had to go over batters head, or catchers foot clipper batters, etc. Edit: Also remember the bar is much higher at the professional level. Can’t really use what you see in MLB to determine what you call and don’t call in 10u-18u travel ball and HS and LL

14 year olds should not need time to stand up, or throw ball back to the pitcher. The ONLY reason I’d consider it in this case is because I’m annoyed by the defense standing there holding the tag and delaying the game moving forward, but it is NOT so the runner can stand up

I’m gonna add another thought I haven’t seen mentioned . In this specific play, we have a deep fly ball (almost zero chance of a play at home) with a diving attempt near the line in the corner. I don’t care if BU is allowed to look away at first touch to help with tag, if I’m HPU I want his eyes on the whole action in the OF. If I have a “ball in mitt, but now on ground” situation, I don’t want my BU saying “I can’t help I looked away to get the tag up “ (of the guy who can walk home safely on this kind of play) Plain and simple, this is a hole in 2 man and no “great umpire” can get the f/f, c/nc, voluntary release, and the tag up perfectly , something has to give (as said above, distance and positioning can’t get both) and my “help” should be on the trouble ball, not on the tag

First, try to get your mindset out of “what are they supposed to do” etc. Interference with a throw must be intentional for it to be INT. Where it gets dicey is with contact. For example, if he had hit r2 in the head with his throw, that’s a whole bag of nothing, unless r2 threw his head into the ball, unlikely though there was recently an mlb player who did that. But rules, and more so at younger ages, do not want to reward contact with a fielder. While some acts of intentional contact are easy to see and call, we don’t want runners “unintentionally intentionally” trying to get in the way of the thrower. If the throw was an immediate act following from fielding, I’m okay with this INT call. If he fielded it and some time passed, it gets harrier. In reality, you said “no awareness by f5” (possible since he should just throw to first), what about your R2? Was he aware? Bc collision is to try and be avoided. Was he running into f5 bc he thought f5 was gonna tag him? That’s int. If f5 steps up to throw across, r2 can’t just blow him up. Same as batter going to first, they blow up a lazy f3 or pitcher who got in their way and then say “where am I supposed to run?” Lots of caveats here, in a college or pro game, I could see that being no INT, without seeing the actual play (video always helps as explanations often are given from a biased perspective when it’s parent or coach). In youth, I’m okay with enforcing it to prevent collisions as best we can and teach kids to avoid collisions .

He literally used the words “batter was obstructed by f3” I then said, BASED ON THIS, that’s Obs and a base award (in HS) Please read entire writing and intent before singularly replying to one sentence

You’re wrong technically and probably right practically . In NFHS rules, obs is automatically a one base award (at a minimum), whether they would advance or not is irrelevant. since you said “batter was obstructed by f3”, he should get second in HS rules, there is no “but he wouldn’t have”. Practically however, if f3 didn’t “impede his progress” or hinder his ability to go to second, in practicality we don’t want to just give him second, otherwise we would encourage batters to just bump into f3 every time. But if what happened matches what you said, you should call it in HS and award second. Moving up into college and pro rules you won’t have that issue

So many things to address… First, let me start by saying I can only imagine how difficult the situation is in the moment. Much easier to offer advice in this setting, also this is just my 2 cents which might be worth less than that: First, I realize 10u plays and needs umpires, but at age 61, you prob are good enough and experienced enough to not be doing 10u. If I walked into a 10u game and saw 5 coaches (five???) for one team, I’d already know I’m in for a s***show. Okay, to the game: YMMV but I would never start a game with the plate meeting sharing all the things we expect to go wrong. Saying “if you think we blow a call please do this” or “we won’t be tolerating this and this today” sets the tone that there will be issues. You’re in control, not them. If a situation happens, guide them to proper behavior or dump them if they won’t follow the lead. Before a pitch is thrown, everyone is hearing about all the issues you expect (even just being proactive). Also, not trying to be disrespectful, but you set that tone at the plate meeting and then proceeded to let assts scream and bark, (twice you said you shut that down) and then didn’t dump all of the assts that charged at you, only one. So how meaningful was it to say all that at plate meeting? Also, even though they’re lying sometimes, people say they just want consistency. They didn’t come unglued bc you called a balk, they did bc you didn’t balk the other kid and now you balked theirs. You were trying to be fair, I get it, but they prob didn’t even realize you let several of their balks go before, they coach 10u, they aren’t baseball savants, all they know is you let one go for them and then banged their kid . Again, you’re not wrong, you’re getting the big ones , but I think you’d be far better off just calling them like you would a HS game if it’s “that high level”. F em. Even saying “we’re only calling the obvious ones” leads to arguments bc that’s subjective. As for the catcher; this one kills me bc I love working with my catchers, but I do college and we don’t have that issue as much. Best advice I can give is do not say anything to a 10 year old during a contentious situation. You didn’t know he would lie, how could you, but you did say the coaches came unglued and he was visibly frustrated/confused, that is not the time to be chatting with him. Throw the ball back to the pitcher yourself and get game going. i had a conference tournament last week and a guy got ejected by one of my crewmates, and catcher asked me what I thought . I said “I’m not allowed to speak about ejections, sorry”. Now, I’ve never seen that written, and I had an adult catcher, but a contentious situation calls for silence and more silence . It can’t be misquoted. If the catcher refuses to continue play he gets ejected. and it seems like we know where the catcher gets his attitude , his dad thinks you said “shut up” and is so mad about it he launches a profanity laced tirade, pot meet kettle… Anyways, remember that at 10u, the kids are learning what’s appropriate. I hate all those balks but if the league/tourney/level wants and supports them being enforced , just enforce them. If they hate how many are called bc they’re 10, maybe they’ll change the rule. But also they see what’s appropriate and not with behavior. Five coaches charge you , they’re gone, sorry kids , your game ended early bc your coaches act like they’re the ten year olds. Don’t “spare them” if they’re charging at you

It is boringly simple. HPU will only pre pitch a point to third with r1 only (for if u3 goes out), the rest of the time they point “staying home”. Still signal IFF and time play U1 and U2 signal slide (reverse rotation) every other situation No pre pitch signals with no runners on

First, this is a report to your league/commission. In Ohio there is a place to report things like conduct, facilities, etc, both good and bad. While your state may differ in forms/reports, you absolutely can report this up the ladder. Agreed that pro ball is different but in HS, sportsmanship is required and that ain’t it. If that’s a public school, where coach is being funded with tax dollars, I sincerely doubt that is accepted by the AD and principal, especially if the HS coach is also a teacher/counselor/etc If it’s a private school, then he’s violating their religious policies. At a minimum, submit a report that the level of cursing and animosity towards the kids made you uncomfortable. Leave out anything that is subjective, such as “he was awful to the kids”. While likely true, that is subjective and can be argued . “Here are the facts , here is what was said (don’t temper it down, be exact), it was at a decibel level loud enough to be heard across the field, and it made me uncomfortable” that can’t be refuted. What they do with it is out of your hands

You’re entitled to your opinion of course. At every level below major college and pro we are taught to call strikes, so saying we shouldn’t call a strike bc catcher reached is silly to me. And then in major college and pros you need to be right, so again, balling a strike is against your goal. Catcher influence absolutely is a thing and I am not implying it doesn’t matter. But if you know it’s a strike and you’d be correct in calling it, I don’t know how or why we would discuss consciously choosing to ball it. Edit: ^ again, not saying influence doesn’t matter. If catcher is diving, or they take the 12-6 into the dirt, I’m aware of the game mgmt aspect of not calling that a strike even if it technically is. But just a reach? Pffft

Let me ask, if the catcher sets up 6-8” outside and the pitch hits him square in the chest and he sticks it beautifully, do you call it a strike bc of how good he made it look? If your answer is no (which it should be) then you can’t intentionally ball a pitch that’s a strike bc of how he caught it. That said, if you get fooled by the pitch bc of how bad it’s butchered, that’s human and natural, esp your example where he dives and falls down. Yeah, no. But if you know it’s a strike; why are you passing on it bc pitcher missed his spot but still got it over plate?

It’s a pitched ball out of play, 1 base award, all codes. Batter gets first and r1 gets second

There are rules and there are reasons for rules. can a batter be called for INT on a pickoff attempt by f2? Absolutely, and rule supports it. But, the bar should be higher than on a steal. On a steal, the batter usually knows they are stealing (signs given, everyone is yelling “runner”; f4 or f6 is crashing the bag) and as such, is much more liable for his movements and actions at the plate. By rule, a savvy catcher could just wait for left handed batter to step back and throw to first and collide with him and “get int”, or wait for a righty to step back and get his signs and backpick to third. Raise the bar, I would only call it with intent or negligence by the batter

Might be a balk for failing to step toward first, but not looking at first has nothing to do with it.

Look at the still frame of the video in OP, the batter has the right to swing at that pitch. if he swings, the catcher is going to the hospital. Thats the reason that rule exists and why the penalty is so severe, they’re trying to prevent that from ever happening. While his foot may not be past edge of plate, the catcher most def interfered with the opportunity to swing at the pitch, if f1 had stepped off and thrown home, catcher can be all up in there. Pitch, he can not

And this is why I don’t like the automatic base award. Id absolutely protect him back into first base, so if you say that’s nothing bc he isn’t getting second, he could theoretically get put out bc he is on ground hurt and tagged. Id make no call as someone else suggested and wait and see, and if they’re going to get him out bc he was knocked to ground, get obs and rules require he go to second. Much easier call in ncaa and obr bc you can call it, and not award anything you don’t feel he’d have gotten

What about the old sandlot “ghost runner”. The kid hits a ball through the infield, it’s a single and put a courtesy runner on first, he hits a gapper, courtesy runner on second. Kid hits a bomb, let him enjoy a walk around the bases. its 9u, who cares what’s written, do what’s best for the kid

You answered your own question but wrong rule set. The one base automatic award is HS rules , pro you let obstruction play out and then award (if necessary) what you think would have occurred if the obstruction hadnt happened. If a runner is out by 40 feet and was obstructed maybe a step or two, he’s still out .

Not sure where you are located, but there is a “true” 3 man clinic at mid American , usually in September I believe. if you’re anywhere near the Midwest, Bruce Doanes 3 man camp in western Michigan is good, I’ve been 3 times and this last time they really elevated the experience. That’s end of Sept or first wknd of Oct every year. In Morgantown WV Elite Umpires , a CBUA affiliate group, puts on a 3 man clinic in February. Also, United Umpires puts on a ton of really good camps all up and down the eastern coast and southeast (Atlanta is their biggest one I believe). Check their schedules for which are 2 and which are 3 (or 4) man. I don’t believe they have this years posted yet but they go all summer and fall and even have a couple pre season ones. Also might depend if you’re looking to improve (instructional) camp or doing a job interview (evaluation) camp. Also, find out what instructor and assignors will be at the camps . If the assignors only conferences nowhere near you, it wouldn’t do you much good unless it’s purely instructional, to improve before an evaluation camp. Unfortunately my knowledge is east of the Mississippi, so if you live out west someone else would be more help.

This is actually a funny topic bc I’ve often thought about how many games are played every day and how rare it is to see this happen. only once have I had to leave a field and hold up a game, fortunately it was doing a 65 year old Roy Hobbs league game and they all laughed and said “it doesn’t get better at our age”. One game in a stadium I took a leak in between innings but they had bathrooms in the dugouts so that was a nothing-burger.

Rich already answered so side question, with 2 outs, how did r1 not reach second before all this happened?