moblue

I think looking the part definitely plays a role in the respect you gain. If you look the part then hopefully initial judgments about you will not be negative. They say not to judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to officials, we all know appearance is part of how we are judged.

Guys, this clinic was absolutely GREAT! It was worth every penny that I spent to go down there. Eric Prater ran an excellent camp with excellent instructors. I learned several new things that I can use in the upcoming season, and I know there was one, possibly two, individuals there looking for umpires for college baseball. The instructors that were there were excellent and did everything they could to help us learn and improve ourselves. If you are looking for a good two-man clinic to attend next year, I highly recommend making plans to attend this one.

I had a situation earlier this year that I wish I had stepped in and said something, but I did not. Thankfully it was not as severe a situation as the one listed above, but the coach, IMO, crossed a major line. His team wasn't doing so hot at some kind of high end tournament, and he took a mound visit. The field was near silent when he got to the mound and started yelling at his team. Where he crossed the line was dropping the f-bomb loud enough for everyone to hear. In retrospect I don't think I should have tossed the coach, but I should have gone to the mound immediately to end that trip. We were on school property, so that kind of language was certainly not acceptable there.

I will be there. I almost wasn't able to make it because of a job I have applied for, but luckily I was able to get a different date arranged.

Start with your most recent infraction and work backwards. In this case, as long as all runners, including the BR, advance at least one base, both infractions are ignored. If you have an out on any runner prior to all runners advancing at least one base, call time and enforce CI if it would advance all runners, including the BR, at least one base. If it will not, then back up and enforce the balk penalty. Example: R1 R3. Pitcher balks and delivers the pitch. CI on batter results in a swing and a miss. Enforcing CI will not satisfy the balk penalty, because R3 will not go anywhere (unless he was stealing on the pitch). In this case you must back up and enforce the balk penalty. R1 goes to 2B and R3 scores. Batter remains at bat with the same count as before the balk. Another Example: R2 R3. Pitcher balks and delivers the pitch. CI on batter causes him to swing and miss. Enforcing CI here also will not satisfy the balk penalty because R2 and R3 will stay put unless for some reason they were stealing on the pitch. Back up and enforce the balk, which advances R2 and R3. Batter remains at bat with the same count as before the balk. I will admit that I am not sure what to do about allowing the result of the play, because I would think you would still need to satisfy the balk requirement. If the BR was out at 1B or any other runner was put out before advancing at least one base, then I would probably call time and enforce the balk penalty.

With the way the walls are made in Busch Stadium right now, I don't know why they wouldn't call anything off the top of the wall a homerun. The outfield wall (at least parts of it) have a large flat area between the front of the grandstand railing and where it drops off to the outfield. If I had to guess, this was probably designed to keep people from interfering with possible home run balls. But the flat distance is large enough that, imo, if a ball hits the top of the outfield wall it should be a homerun. I know that the rules say that if a ball hits the top of the wall and comes back into play it is in play, but I don't think that the intent of that rule was to cover walls with a flat top as large as the ones in Busch.

I am flat-footed and have to have plastic custom inserts in any shoe I wear. The only "comfort" I get out of a shoe is how it wraps around my foot. How the heel and arch of the shoe are don't matter much as long as the arch isn't so big in the shoe it makes the insert not fit right. It gets annoying sometimes that I can't wear shoes like everyone else, but at least I can be on my feet for long periods of time without being in pain.

I have used plate shoes for the past two seasons, and I was surprised that they already look bad and need to be replaced. Judging from this thread it sounds like two seasons is plenty long from a plate shoe.

I prefer to shut coaches down early. If you give them an inch they seem to want a mile. Earlier this week I had a fall ball game where a coach complained from the third base coach's box about a pitch being "a foot inside" (in the first inning). Usually I wouldn't answer unless it was looking/staring at him for a while in acknowledgement or giving him a warning. For some reason I pulled my mask off and engaged him. I basically said three sentences in the brief exchange between us, and he shut up for the rest of the game. Looking back I really can't believe I did that, but it was my third game of the day behind the plate, and it worked. I don't advocate taking my course of action here, but it just goes to show that different things work in different situations.

There's no need to point on tags in a rundown. Reason being: How else is the runner going to be out? Just give the appropriate safe/out signal for the tag.

Once you have called the runner off the bag, stick to your call. You saw him off the bag or else you wouldn't have called it. I am not saying that in this instance it was the correct call (he did look straighlined), but I disagree with asking your partner for help just because one team asks you to.

I wouldn't call that interference. Your out on R3 would come from MC, not interference.

I had the chance to test out the Unequal this weekend with kcfan. He and I were working ballgames and didn't get the memo that the first two games of the day were rained out. We used part of the time to video a test of the Unequal compared to the All-Star System 7. Kcfan has the video and will be posting them sometime soon. I will say that my overall conclusion was that the System 7 was by far superior to the Unequal. I would not personally use the Unequal for anything above 10U. Hopefully the videos get posted soon so you can see them and maybe make a better decision for yourself on how they perform.

Sleep, staying hydrated, and remembering to eat are very important. Also, like someone else said, don't be afraid to take your time between games. I'm not saying take forever, but if you need a few extra minutes between games (and later in the tournament you probably will) then slow down how long it takes for you to get ready. Waiting five or ten more minutes won't hurt anyone. If I am working with the same partner all day, I prefer to take half the plates for the day if I can. This maximizes your time between games to rest instead of changing clothes.

Coaches very well might think that about me, but I didn't show up to the game to make friends. If they are smart enough to throw that word back at me (used correctly) fine. If not, they are the one that ends up looking like an idiot. That said, I can't say that I use big words in arguments much. I don't think on my feet quite like that. It looks like we will have to agree to disagree on this subject, but I understand your point of view.