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.

At the very beginning of your story, I thought this situation showed some promise. Unfortunately you made it take a turn for the worse. YOU were the one that started the entire ordeal when he came to the plate. Calling strike two that high just to get a response from him? That's awful. You went looking for trouble, and I mean REALLY looking for it. What if the kid had decided to do more than make the verbal exchanges he did? What if he started yelling at you from the top of his lungs in the dugout and wouldn't stop? You already told him you weren't ejecting him. You gave him the green light to act like a moron and get away with it, then proceeded to fan the flames. I will say that this should never have been your problem to begin with. The coach(es) and parents should have done something so the problem never fell to you to fix. However, I think your final conversation with the girlfriend made the point that needed to be made all along. If you have a "next time" try to make that your first and only course of action. The kids learn their lesson about commitment, and you still have the game go as normal.

If you don't toss on what he said, you've just made it non-ejectable. Every batter can do that now, because you can't toss anyone for it without being unfair. You honestly think this? I agree the batter should have been ejected for what he said at the plate. I was simply trying to put a positive twist on the mistake. He gave the batter a chance to stay, but the batter kept up his behavior and got tossed. As to my thoughts on using big words when a coach comes out to argue, yes, that is really what I think. If you can only think of larger words right away to put in a sentence, that's fine by me. It isn't the umpire's fault if the coach isn't smart enough to understand. Granted there is a line that shouldn't be crossed with that. I don't think you should study a dictionary every night just to be able to use big words. However, words such as "perogative" are not so over the top that you shouldn't be using them. Having a good command of the English language can be an asset in nearly every part of life. If you are questioning whether I believe the last sentence of the post, then notice the way I worded it. "It makes you sound smarter" Yes, using big words makes you sound smarter. "thus potentially enhancing your credibility" This doesn't apply to every coach, but if you were having a discussion regarding a call you were already right about, your credibility could possibly be enhanced. Not everyone will agree, that's fine. It's just my opinion on the matter.

I have to agree with bam. Based only on what information you have shared with us, that is a very harsh statement to make. You say he only made two main errors. While those are important problems to fix, that is not worth saying umpiring is not for him. If his judgement and rules knowledge are good, he may just need, as Stan said, "re-training." Don't count him out after one game. Two things to keep in mind 1) old habits die hard and 2) he may have also been nervous about working with a new assoc. president. Give him a few more games before you rule him out completely.

My thoughts on the ejections overall, taking your level of experience into account: Excellent. You gave the player a chance to stay in the game, and he didn't appreciate it. Just for future reference though, I agree that the batter should have been tossed after a swear word directed at you. Also, while the "additional information" you gave the AC was not necessary, I think it's great, especially if you used those exact words to him. I was told at JEAPU to not use big words in an argument (in your case "perogative"), but I disagree with that line of thinking. If a coach cannot understand what you are saying because you are using words too big for him, he cannot create an effective rebuttal. It also makes you sound smarter, thus potentially enhancing your credibility.

From the one angle I could actually see where the bat came to rest (for some reason watching videos on the MLB site makes them "jumpy" and hard to watch) it looked like the bat could have been left where it was. However, using the NAP method (Necessary, Available, Possible) I would have considered clearing the bat to be necessary and available, but not possible given the time when he went to move it. If it was going to be cleared, the better way to do that probably would have been to clear it immediately IMO.

So that is a permanent cast that he is able to use behind the plate? I'm interested in finding out about it in case I ever need a cast like that.

After watching the clip from mlb.com I have to ask: what is the BU wearing on his forearm? It looks like a heavy duty cast of some sort.

I'm the same way. I wore a HSM when I first started (Sold it to LMSANS). The vision is pretty good, but not that much better than a traditional mask to justify the added weight and awkwardness of taking it off every time. Plus you can't really wear a hat with it, as I will not wear anything shorter than a 6-stitch. Maybe I just wear a 4 stitch, I don't recall off hand and my umpire gear is packed away for now, but I can wear a hat under my HSM. I did so at JEAPU when I went and seem to surprise people when they find out I can wear a hat under my HSM, and remove my mask without pulling off my cap. You just have to adjust the straps on your mask to allow it. I have found that I am more comfortable with a hat than without. Maybe that's just the padding in my mask, or because I still have yet to adjust the straps so that I don't need to wear a hat. Either way, it's possible if you really want to wear a HSM.

Some of this on the appeal is a HTBT situation. The way I am reading this though, there was a pause in the action between the time BR/R1 asks for time, the defense attempts to figure out how the appeal should work, and R2 breaking for 3B. If there was a break in the continuous action, then the defense lost their right to make an appeal when they put out R2 at third. Now, that said, I don't know if there was enough of a break that maybe all of that could still be considered continuous action. If it was, then the runner would be out on appeal. Either way, it sounds like you did a good job handling the situation. Younger players always seem to create the most confusing plays possible.

I don't ask to see the ball. I have been looking through some of my things from JEAPU, and can't find this in my notes or book, but I am thinking that we were told not to ask to see the ball after plays. Anyone else care to comment on this?