SH0102

Another thing not mentioned…just about everything in life now is on video, and once something controversial starts, first thing half the people will do is start recording. I wouldn’t want to be on video anywhere near the fight. You grab someone trying to prevent a fight and all of a sudden you’re a scapegoat, or god forbid the guy you held back gets slugged while unable to defend himself, now you’re liable

Take out your notepad and start writing down the numbers of everyone involved in the fight for ejection and report purposes. You can try to diffuse or get in between when “it’s brewing” but once a fight actually begins, get the hell out of their way

I’ll admit, I know very little about scorekeeping. As an umpire, I don’t care much about it, but I think it should be a double and error. The error occurred, but the hit is not defined by the base award. The award (penalty) is two bases, but the hit is determined by where the batter would have been had an error not occurred, which is clearly second. In this regard, I’d view the scorekeepers job in judgment akin to an umpires when he must judge where runners would have ended up had obstruction not occurred. You make best judgment and do not “go crazy” in placement

You have to step towards the base, gain ground. If you want to count 1” as gaining ground, more power to you

Not gaining ground. I had a kid lift his leg and turn to 2nd, but his non-pivot leg (stride leg) never crossed the rubber. Went nearly straight down. Called balk

Oh, and invest in a pair of plate shoes! One ball off the toes and I guarantee you will, but save yourself that first hit off the toe!

May I offer some tips/observations? I will start with the positives 1) Can already tell you look the part. Fit, dressed well, and not timid. That alone will help you progress. 2) The strike is absolutely fine. I rewound it and slowed it down and I’d say half the ball was in the channel and half on the chalk. That’s a strike at every level below HS Varsity in my opinion. 3) You need to change your strike three mechanic. This isn’t opinion, it’s fact if you want to move up. Pause the video with 0:02 left. You are looking at the ground, almost 180 degrees away from field of play. What if the batter interfered with catcher? What if runner took off? What if catcher drops the ball so batter can run? Keep your eyes facing the action and POSSIBLE action 4) you have a nice “lock” mechanism (arms locked, keeps your head at the same height every pitch), prob will need to get a little lower as level advances as most college and mlb guys lock with their forearm or grab behind their hamstrings/knees. Only thing there is you drifted with the pitch, try to stay still. When you drift, a pitch that is 1 foot outside (shouldn’t be called) will look 3 inches outside bc you moved closer to it and you will grab it 5) Work the slot, you are directly over the catchers head. Very common for new umpires, but you don’t get a good look at low pitches and especially the low outside corner, will disappear on you. And above all else, is a major safety issue. Batters hardest foul balls tend to be straight back or just to opposite side (watch mlb game where foul balls get scorched backwards). Working the slot reduces number of times you will get drilled. Not so important at the age you are doing in the video but very important when you get to guys throwing harder

Few things… 1) I would have asked VT if they wanted to continue or not, not HT. Home team of course wants to bat. The question is whether VT wanted to try and get 3 outs in less than 8 mins for the right to bat again 2) Once time limit was hit, game should have ended instantly since home team was batting and ahead. By continuing beyond unnecessarily, you are liable for what happens, and a kid getting plunked should have made your heart race. If he took that in the teeth…

I just had dinner with two High-A umpires…it’s true, they have to balk any attempt that does not have a disengage step. No spin moves for RHP, no lift and step for LHP

This rule is so misunderstood…just the other day I was BU and heard from B “make sure you break up the double Play if he hits the grounder”. I wanted to say “gee coach, thanks for making my life easy on that call” but alas, I kept it to myself In layman’s terms, by the time the runner has gotten to the point where one would normally slide, they must have either initiated a legal slide or peeled away from defender in an attempt to avoid interfering. If they choose to go in standing straight up, they are leaving to your judgment about INT, and there is ZERO wiggle room in their favor. If there’s a hint of INT or any doubt, benefit goes to defense. My general principle is that if the runner truly has no desire to interfere, he has a very simple option if he doesn’t want to slide, peel off. By going in straight up, I generally feel they are trying to hinder the DP attempt in a much less obvious way than a take-out slide. Obviously if you’re doing a 10u rec game , their understanding of game, situations, and rules would be far less and you may not assume they have that intent.

Couple questions to guide your thought process… When is a thrown ball no longer a thrown ball? If the SS throws high to first and it tips off the 1B glove and goes into stands, do you give two bases from the tip ? new impetus would be for situations such as offline throw that has come to rest or nearly to rest, and in his haste to chase it down, F5 kicks the ball, or slips and kicks the ball out

I had a game once this year, on the dish, 9 inning game, where in pre-game my partners asked if I thought I could get us out in under 2 hours, and that I get a steak dinner if I did (don't know if that actually happens or is just folklore) In the top of the first inning, the pitcher literally attempted 17 pick offs (0 successfully), so I knew I was going home to a box of cereal that day.

I have been in a few situations this year where the mechanics looked bad but we got the call correct; this is a situation unfortunately that not only looked bad but also LIKELY (I will not say definitively proven but looked pretty good) also ended up in the wrong call. It is unfortunate when CWS quality umpires (in this case likely the HPU) was sure enough that U3 overturned his own call, only to be told you can't do that. At the end of the day, everything was played out by rule, and probably leads to a conversation about whether said rule should be changed or not. I don't know if that would be for the better of the sport or not, but at least yields a conversation. That said, I wrote down some goals for myself after this year of NCAA baseball, and on them, is being slower about fair/foul balls. I had a screamer blow up on me, landed an inch from my back foot, and I came up foul too quick, only to see chalk poofing up. Like every other call I make, safe/out, ball/strike, catch/no-catch, timing is key. From behind (behind U3), I can see why the ball was called foul. It was REALLY close, F5 was diving in front of him, and the slight tip of the ball sent it flying further foul, possibly exaggerating how far foul the ball looked.

I read that At pro school, they have umpires make calls at first blindfolded and their accuracy rate improves. Teaches them to use the sound to decide safe/out (obviously blindfolded we are assuming foot stayed on the bag) I never said people can’t be fooled, but my point is not wrong. You might believe you see something, but you literally can not see something that didn’t happen

No you didn’t, you saw an illusion, hence the part about THINKING you saw something

@LRZ....because the call was overturned, I assumed (and said as much in my response) that the BU had a clear look at the no-tag...if the BU was unsure, he damn well better not have convinced the HPU to overturn his/her call. Generally speaking, a call is only overturned when there is clear evidence or conviction that the original call was incorrect. If the BU came in and said "I didn't see a tag, I think he missed it", there is no way I am overturning my "out" call. And thus, that went into my paradox I have about all of officiating. If it human nature to miss seeing something that did happen, but it is literally impossible to see something that didn't happen. If I try to tag someone and miss, literally do not touch them, it is physically impossible for you, as an umpire, to see me tag him. You might THINK I did, or be forced to use context clues (reactions of the players for example) that lead you to call a tag, but you can not possibly see me tag him if I didn't. Thus, if BU is 1000% there was no tag, the HPU called something he couldn't have seen

Some good advice already given here, so I will add a different perspective, and this just comes with experience, it is difficult to "think this out" in the moment... I am going to operate under the assumption a tag was never made (the BU had better be 1000% sure to overturn that) So, if a tag was never actually applied, the HPU quite literally could not have seen a tag occur (since it didn't happen) As an umpire, you should not call what you don't see. Had an out not been declared prematurely, the rundown would have continued and LIKELY still resulted in an out, and this whole situation becomes moot. Also, if he doesn't call out but was wrong (missed the tag), it is a lot easier to fix that situation than this hypothetical (runner is out b/c he was tagged, R1 is only discussion, he would have achieved 2nd at worst, 3rd at best) So my point is, don't call what you don't see, which then leads to "why didn't he see it?" Poor angle? It is easy to get roped into a rundown (lot of yelling and hoopla) when you aren't experienced...slow down, work a good angle (which sometimes requires adjusting throughout the rundown), and call what you see, not what you THINK/GUESS happened.

Try to consider the provision/rule that states that anytime a team is penalized for an umpires error, the umpire has an obligation to correct the error. If you let the out stand on the hidden ball trick, the offense is penalized. If you call balk, the defense is penalized. Your Point is they should be penalized and morally, I can agree with you, but by rule, the mistake was on the umpire. To correct this, you simply go back and make it right. “Pitcher, you must have the ball for play to begin”. No balk, no outs

The rule applies directly in that the provision is if the batter and runners all advance at least one base…the only part that fails is “the ball remains live” bc on a HBP, obviously, the ball is no longer live. You enforced it correctly. What else could you do? Not award first to batter? Then you’re using HS rule where balk causes dead ball and not the HBP. Allow runners to try and advance beyond their award ? Can’t do that when ball is dead. Ball is live after the balk, HBP “counts”, so batter gets first, which awards R1 and R2 next base by force. Since everyone advanced one base, balk is ignored. Be curious to hear what people thought should have happened, bc this seems clear to me

I’ll leave it to people who are softball officials for official rule, but this sounds ridiculous to me. Courtesy runners aren’t official substitutions (at least in baseball) and are simply a means of speeding up pace of play. And usually the rule is someone off your bench or last out who is furthest from that spot in the order

I’d have protested the fact the home team was batting in the top of the ninth 😂 In all seriousness, that’s crazy. If umpire judged the ball hit the knob, then it is a fair ball. so maybe they didn’t get rule wrong, just where the ball hit (knob vs hand), which is trickier in wood bat leagues than metal

Fair point...but man, that is a lot...so as a coach, I can "make my point" 4 or more (more depends on how many times you ignore it) times in a 7 inning game...I feel for you brother, that is not how I would want to umpire, but you are right, it is possible you would not be supported by assignor/evaluator with only one warning

Fellow umpires have given good advice about quick pitch, so I will go in a different direction. The phrase “last warning” should be removed from your vocabulary. There is only one warning and then it’s early departure. Multiple warnings carry no weight and similar to parenting, teach a coach that they have no real value or meaning, and do not deter them bc they expect multiple warnings

No way what? I said the rule is asinine. if my team is winning 6-5 in bottom of seventh, and they have 2 on and 1 out, I can slowly walk to my Pitcher to conference, catcher can call time, I can fake an injury, I could come set and stay there until batter calls time , I could purposely throw balls so they can’t get a hit….list goes on. and then I win bc time is up. say what you want, but the rule is stupid. Don’t start an inning you can’t finish. Amend the rule or schedule less games so you don’t need a “hard stop” at ___ time This rule is pure greed to ensure games can be scheduled to the brim. if you’re okay with that, more power to you, but I’m not

Yes, it is a balk. You can not feint a throw to first unless you disengage from the rubber