DirtyDawg

I thought you were going to tell us that there are two kinds of umpires - those that wear throat guards, and organ doners.

Under any rules I have ever played for the above call is correct. It's just one of those unavoidable necessary evils that occur during the game. There really is no way around it!

I won't do a league with a must-slide rule due to liability reasons. If the kid slides into a base and then breaks his leg due to having to slide the league (and quite possibly you in some cases) can be held liable for any damages done.

That is if only in your judgement you think he could have got to secon, or in the case of the play at third, home. A lot of times, with the runner deciding to not run, it will be too hard to tell, so when in doubt, he probably wouldn't have made it.

That's what I want to know, too!

Am I the only one that noticed the horribly corny reference at the beginning of the article about the kid being on fire, but not really on fire. Man, with the way these writers write, I think I'm going to become a sports writer. My fiance tells me I'm about as corny as they come.

Haha....I know, I got into a Yankees game thanks to a friend of mine who was a student at the time. Got in for $15, started off in the nose bleed, and by the 3rd inning were sitting right up the third base line. I love it.

Hey, you be nice to the ball bag wearin, cap reversin, clicker clicking S.O.B.'s, their special!!

My favorite is the blooper reel where the ball lands in the umpires shirt pocket.

DITTO!!

That whole KC - Cardinals World Series still haunts my birthday!

Anybody here do any slowpitch softball umpiring or pitching wanna have a take on this topic? I'm kind of torn on the issue, because as a slowpitch pitcher, I like having the extra 2' of arc in order to try to throw hitters off. I know that the flatter the pitch comes in, typically the further it goes out. As an umpire I can see that 10' would be a much easier call than 12'.

Or what yawetag said

I would think that worse come worse the coach could probably take him out and then find some way to put him back in, even if he has to use the reentry rule.

Gotta watch telling a coach you can't see it from your angle. That will get you in some deep sh!t here!!

Sounds pretty painful to me!

Hey, I don't preach it, I just repeat it.

I did this one time, behind a newish catcher and one of the fastest girls in the league. I didn't play macho man or anything, just was running late and ran off and forgot it at home. Sure enough she lets one get away and the catcher misses the block and I can feel graze me as I pass by. My boys then procede to climb upwards as far as they can go. Needless to say, I DO NOT forget my cup at the house anymore. Once is enough!

Our area wants both the plate and base to make the call. They figure if both umpires get lucky and call the same thing, the coaches cannot argue.

I wouldn't even want to chance it, anyways. If you made the pitcher pitch, even to one batter, and the pitcher just so happens to get even a little bit more injured/sore, it's your @$$!!

There's always one piece of gear that I get in that I hope I never use.......

I am......it's like almost everything else, you take a test, pay a fee, and then hopefully find an association that does ASA. Then most of these places require you to buy their shirt, their socks, their hat, as well as their ball bag. This allows you to do any of their major level stuff.

When they told it to us they were referring more to the stretch, being that the player cannot swing his arm as soon as he steps on the rubber. I can see this if the pitcher has the ball in his hands, because he could then be swinging his arm, step off, and throw pretty much all at the same time, and the runner would be none the wiser.

I did some mid-level girls fastpitch for the past few summers, and suprisingly there were quite a few BOOs in this league. I'd say on average about 1 per week.

My favorite is when you have the ball hit right off the knob. I've even had someone do it and have the ball roll fair.