orangebird

https://www.mlb.com/news/abs-challenge-system-mlb-2026

Yeah they were doing the kid pitch strikes carry over part...just not the "0 strikes means 3 coach pitches" part lol

Did u10 softball for the first time. The kids really struggled to pitch, which I can forgive, but the real frustrating part was after every ball four it was coach pitch. This felt like a reasonable way to make sure every at-bat ended with the kid swinging and hopefully putting it in play. One problem: there was no limit to how many times they could take a pitch! The amount of at-bats that included a kid just taking several pitches perfectly down the middle was absolutely brutal for pace of play and there was no rule of something like "everyone gets 5 pitches, you don't put it in play by pitch 5, you're out" which I'm pretty sure one of my u10 baseball leagues has. No one is having fun or getting comfortable hitting the ball if there's no incentive for them to swing! We hit no new inning after the top of the third and the coaches just agreed to not even bother with the bottom of the third. So yeah, I don't mind local rules, but that one could reaaaally use some fine-tuning

Anyways while I do think sticking with rec will be good for me this year...I do look forward to hopefully just needing to memorize the NFHS book instead of dealing with local rules that include a very specific definition of when you can advance on an overthrow

Got my first fall ball game of the season tomorrow, so I think it's time to blow the dust off this thread. Well, I didn't end up doing any umpiring for the rest of the summer and I think I made a reasonable decision. I had a couple orgs I could've done it with, but the more I thought about it, the more I believed I would've felt way more comfortable working a summer of travel after I got proper training that was meant for adults, not middle schoolers handling u10 rec. I'm aware that working the High Heat Classic Memorial Invitational Tournament Jamboree for two months would've given me plenty of on-the-job training, but I didn't want to feel like I blew a call, or got caught totally out of position, etc because my training was "what is obstruction?" and not something much more detailed. Also even if I thought I was more qualified, I think work-life balance, not stretching yourself too thin, etc is important too. An entire summer of doing doubleheaders with the intensity of travel in hot and humid weather I think probably would've worn me out and taking the summer off has made me feel pretty refreshed and excited for fall ball. A nice break never hurts, y'know? I'm sure some of you may disagree and maybe I'll regret not having the reps at some point, but for now I think I made a reasonable decision to not push myself further than what I'm comfortable with at this point. I'm still fully interested in trying to work HS next year, but I think sticking to rec for this year is the right decision for me.

Alright well I kinda spoiled myself already but I checked off a pretty major milestone by working my first travel tournament that wasn't machine pitch lol I was kinda surprised to even get this particular assignment, which is the real fun part. I reached out to my county's HS org like a month ago, explained my situation and just asked for more details about how everything works there with zero assumption they'd have me work games before next year. But sure enough they put in their Arbiter, I got assigned some games, I called the assignor to make sure he was aware of my qualifications (or lack thereof) and he thought I could handle u13 travel so I got myself a pair of weekend doubleheaders. Anyways, time for some bullet points I was very glad to get some reps working base, given that my rec ball tenure had included literally one base assignment and it was my very first game lol. The 90-foot diamonds didn't feel that huge to me and I don't think there were any bang-bang plays I thought I missed because I had a bad angle, which is about all I can ask for. I also like that working base allows for a modest amount of small talk with the 1B coaches, one of the games I worked wound up being the travel team for one of my rec ball leagues, so I chatted with him about already being familiar with them, told him where I went to HS and asked if anyone on his team is also going there (seemingly no, lame), etc However...a lack of reps working base does mean I had not even the faintest clue what the signals were. My rec ball training might've covered them, but I've worked like 85% of my games solo on 60-foot diamonds so it's not like I got the chance to regularly practice them. Both of my partners were understanding of my situation and none of my games felt like we had a close call with someone wildly out of position, so that's a bullet dodged! Both of my games were base first, plate second and folks let me tell you...I really prefer putting on my gear at home instead in a school hallway or grass parking lot. Going forward if I get any more doubleheaders I think I'll ask to take plate first. The higher quality of play meant I saw a ton of stuff I've never seen rec kids pull off Back-to-back inside the park homers! They actually had social media stuff for this tournament and I looked, one was a missed diving catch but the other was just crushing the ball over the CF's head and running like hell afterwards. Multiple normal homers! The machine pitch tournament had some homers with a temporary fence but these were honest to God real homers over a real fence. This included a deeply funny sequence where a kid got IBB'd and the next kid then homered. The next time they decided to pitch him and he homered. Lose-lose situation! (The tournament somehow managed to put an org's A-team and B-team in the same game so I think the IBB was a tongue-in-cheek show of respect more than a serious decision) A 7-to-3 force out! Just a smoked liner that fell in right in front of the LF, fired a laser to first, BR out by a step or two. Honest to God breaking balls! Saw a handful of curves and a couple nasty sliders. It seemed like the kids would throw a breaking ball about 1 in every 10-15 pitches, which I'd assume makes sense to not having Tommy John before you graduate middle school. Saving the best for last: a 13-year-old throwing 80! I was pretty jumpy the first inning but once I saw he had decent control and wasn't regularly throwing high and inside (because he'd probably kill someone if he did lmfao) I settled in but that kid confirmed it's time to upgrade on my Champro starter kit gear lmfao. I have not even the faintest idea if I called a good zone for him because I had not even a hint of experience seeing that kind of velocity but no one seemed to be upset about the zone so I'll take the win there. I do have a thigh bruise from a pitch he bounced but given that my gear was bought for rec 10-year-olds and not 13-year-olds throwing 80, I'll happily take that as my only wound. My first game behind the plate, my zone was definitely a bit too tight. I think I was giving the kids a bit too much credit for their ability to perfectly hit the spots. 13u travel is better than 10u rec, but they're still middle schoolers getting used to 90-foot diamonds and 60-foot mounds. Definitely wasn't a walk fest, but it seemed like both dugouts were surprised by some of my balls, especially on the outside. Second game I cleaned it up and I felt good about my zone for the team that didn't have a kid already throwing 80 mph. The HS org also does college stuff so they want us to dress like the college umps, so I now have the black/gray Smitty that the NCAA umps wear. Definitely made me feel a bit more fancy than the navy/red/white. The first doubleheader was at a very nice Catholic private high school in the Baltimore suburbs so I got to work on a turf field for the first time and talked to their head coach/manager a decent bit (he was there just to supervise the field haha). Can't imagine I'll get many chances to just randomly talk to a HS coach about my zone in a game he watched as a neutral, so that was a very neat interaction. Overall I had a pretty nice time. I learnt that u13 still requires quite a bit of zone leeway, largely had pretty cordial coaches and fans and at 90 dollars per game it was also my largest game checks of the year so that's a fun bonus too!

I'll give more details on Sunday or Monday once I finish but I have my first travel tournament with kids pitching and it's a two-day format where day two the teams are seeded based on how they did in a 4-team pod. Tomorrow I'll have the teams who finished fourth today. Place your bets now, will the parents/coaches be 1. Pretty chill, just happy their kids are getting two more chances at winning at least one game 2. Very cranky, knowing that they're staring down a 1-3 or 0-4 weekend

Gonna take those GIFs to mean you think a new umpire should've worked with a veteran adult sooner than June 4 for a season that started in mid-March? @The Man in Blue

90 feet, first time working the adult sized diamond haha

Hi everyone! After 2.5 months of either working solo or working with high schoolers, I had the chance to finally work with my first adult, veteran umpire last night as a base umpire. There were no real issues, however, our postgame debrief included some feedback I was surprised by: he wanted me in C with 1st-and-3rd. My understanding from both my rec ball training and reading other material is B is ideal for 1st-and-3rd, under the assumption you want to be in a good position to see a possible 4-6-3/6-4-3 double play. I don't remember exactly how he explained preferring C, but his thought process definitely included wanting to be close to the lead runner. So...does anyone else believe in using C for 1st-and-3rd or did I simply work with a partner who doesn't agree with the industry consensus.

I do not know NCAA rule minutiae but for those who do...have fun!

Encountered the final boss of weird local rules tonight This seemingly exists to game the no new inning rules and sure enough, it came up in my game! The coach warned me in advance he wanted to do this, I admitted I had no idea how that rule worked and they seemingly were able to summon the commish on-site to confirm they had everything correct. Wasn't really an incident, no one argued or raised their voice but that really made me understand why this website doesn't like local rules lmfao.

Eh I haven't had any huge issues working solo for rec and it's an extra 15 per game if there's no base umpire which definitely adds up pretty quickly, the 60-feet diamonds are pretty doable to cover for me. Plus if I turned back every solo assignment I think my UIC/assignor would start getting a bit annoyed lol And for the game levels: I've already decided I want to ask for u15 assignments for fall ball explaining that I'll be trying to work HS next year, hopefully at least one of my orgs will accept it

40.15 (plus shipping) here for one of the Champro ones. I've used it for u10/u12 baseball and u13 softball without feeling even the slightest pain https://www.leagueoutfitters.com/products/champro-varsity-umpire-chest-protector?_pos=7&_psq=champro+chest+protector&_ss=e&_v=1.0

Alright back-to-back doubleheaders, including a title game complete, my big picture thoughts I am never working solo for anything higher stakes than rec, especially a title game I am never working a game with higher stakes than rec that includes any sort of "did the runner go halfway" rule Overall it was a good learning experience and a nice way to have a very profitable weekend but I 100% now have these lines in the sand and I don't think I'm gonna budge on them for as long as I want to do this

Don't have an answer but bumping this because I def find it a useful website and hope someone else has the answer

Alright baby's first travel doubleheader notes Machine pitch really is lovely for pace of play, I'll tell you that, I think both games wrapped up in under 75 minutes Stood on the third base line about closer to home than third with my mask but with no CP/leg guards. If I didn't wear glasses I might not have even opted for the mask but all it took was one foul ball to break my glasses so better safe than sorry! Didn't feel much wear and tear during the second game, which was nice. Some of it is probably helped by the pace of play but it's definitely easier for me to get more reps (and more money!) if I can at least work doubleheaders working base without feeling sore and tired Definitely had a bit of trouble with a rule that was "anyone in the infield can call time, runners not halfway go back" The rule seems reasonable to reduce 8-year-olds throwing the ball everywhere but it's a lot of extra judgment calls for me Def had a few plays where the fielding coach felt I let them keep the base without them being halfway but I think as long as I was consistently doing that we'll live, don't make me work solo in a tournament with a rule none of my rec games have used lol Also had a few normal judgment calls that felt pretty close, I will tip my cap that u8 travel kids are much more polished fielders than u10 rec kids Def felt one coach getting a bit frustrated at me, but this team lost by 12 so I think he was just frustrated by everything. His team at-bat had some weird plays with the kid not making the cleanest plays at first that could've gone either way to the naked eye. Both games were 5-inning mercy rules so any close calls didn't matter that much in the grand scheme of the game, or at least I'd like to tell myself No grumpy/hostile parents, which was a relief. Overall a solid 7.5/10, would be a 9/10 if I didn't have to make a judgment call every time someone hit the ball to the outfield and then threw it in

Had probably my biggest "yeah that's why you need 2 umpires" situation that thankfully was solved peacefully but wanted to confirm it's quite the doozy of a situation 2 outs, R1 and R2 on base. BR hits a single, takes a big turn around 1st and he gets in a small rundown, is eventually tagged out. During that time, R2 rounds third and is hoping to score while the rundown happens. I don't remember my exact positioning (around the mound towards the first base side I think), but I do know the plate was absolutely not in my line of sight and definitely not my focus once I saw BR take a wide turn and realized we were looking at a possible tag on the basepath. The coaches seemingly agreed on if the run scored or not but it definitely made me realize a closer play in a higher stakes working solo would've been...not fun to unpack.

Game management win for me: worked softball on Monday and had a bit of trouble with batter interference on WPs/PBs and had another game yesterday so I made sure I 1. double-checked and then triple-checked the rules for it 2. told the coaches at the pre-game conference to make sure the kids knew to get out of the way both for safety and because I'd call someone out if someone was standing in the box on anything close to a play at the plate after a WP/PB 3. told any RHB with a runner on third to make sure he got out of the box if it got past the catcher at the start of his ABs 4. told said batters "get out of the box" if a pitch got past the catcher just to make absolutely sure we didn't have any issues And lo and behold, in a game that probably had 5+ runs scored via WP/PB with a RHB at the plate, all of them happened without any RHB standing anywhere near the play. Can't imagine this is the kind of thing HS umps need to worry about, but definitely felt nice to ensure a bunch of 10-year-olds successfully got out of the damn way.

Okay so this only happened for a split second and no one was on base so it didn't become A Thing thankfully but it definitely made me wonder what on earth are the relevant rules here: catcher chases after a pitch that rolls away and somehow a part of the gear gets caught in the fence and they can't move for a second or two while the play is live. In this case, the glove seemingly got caught on a chain link fence but it doesn't seem impossible to imagine a loose strap on a chest protector or leg guard managing to create a bit of an issue if a ball rolls to the fence. So what would the call be if 1. the catcher gets the gear tangled in the fence for about a second or two but can at least detangle themselves on their own 2. the catcher gets the gear tangled and genuinely seems stuck without outside assistance

Yeah I've contacted the org that works HS for my county, they offered two summer training things for travel but they were not convenient for time or location based on other plans so that's a bit of a bummer but I'll reach out to see if they'll offer anything for fall ball, figuring the networking and what not is definitely useful Haha I have been exploring options for nicer gear that can survive stuff above u12. Will probably ask both of my rec orgs if I can work u15 plate for fall ball (if it's a developmental season for the kids, it can be developmental for the umps too, right?) and if I get a yes I'll get nicer stuff then. Yeah I have normal prescription glasses so the idea of getting prescription sunglasses on top of that is a bit pricy, but does definitely seem necessary if I work another 6 pm first pitch with the sun setting in my line of sight like that

I have gotten my first ever travel assignment...and it is...drumroll please...u8 machine pitch lol Saturday/Sunday doubleheaders for a Memorial Day weekend hosted by one of the little leagues I work with and I guess they needed enough bodies that they're trusting the rec ball umpires with games that don't require a strike zone. I find the idea of playing travel without even having real pitchers kinda silly but weather permitting (knocks on wood) it's 280 in one weekend without worrying about my strike zone a single time so hopefully it goes smoothly

You guys aren’t going to believe what scenario just happened again lol