nolanadair

I have really only done little league and travel ball. I have the Little League rule book, of course, but I also have the OBR rule book. The travel ball I do is for an organization called OCBA. They mainly play under OBR, but have their own rules also.

Just like Matt French said, our fall ball season starts this weekend. I have two games tomorrow. I am doing 14U and 13U. I have 1st base for the first game and I have plate for the second game.

Having your rulebook sticking out of your pocket is kind of like having your red flag (Little League majors and below) hanging out of your pocket so that everyone can see. Having your red flag out of your pocket is kind of telling people that you want to call it, and are looking for people leaving early a lot. I hope that makes sense. I remember seeing a picture somewhere, where there was a home plate umpire who had a rule book in his back pocket hanging out, AND his pants were ripped right in the middle of his butt. That would not be a good day.

i would have called obstruction on the shortstop. I would have warned the shortstop that if he did it again he would be ejected. In order to determine if it is ejection worthy I think I would have to be there. What would you do in this situation? Runner on third. Two outs, 3-2 count. I am the third baseman (i play high school baseball for Mission Viejo high School) and say "3-2, 2 outs, you're going". I was trying to get the runner to go home, so that if it was ball four, then we would tag the runner out at home or back at third. Anyways, I originally got called for obstruction, but my coach came out and had a discussion with the home plate umpire, who in turn asked the base umpire. After the umpire conference, the call was changed from obstruction to an out. We won the game by 1 run.

Congrats on your end of season assignments. This site will give you some terrific input from some terrific people.

I would issue a warning if the manager or any body in the dugout in constantly putting their "two cents worth" in. As a base umpire, I would never go and tell him the ball was dropped. That would make the plate umpire look bad. I am there to umpire the bases, and the whole plate guy is there to do the plate. It was not his call, it was yours. You called what you saw and that should be the end of the story. Now if the manager thought that the catcher dropped the ball, you could possibly confer with your partner, but this would be at your discretion, and not something you would have to do. Also, the base umpire should not be telling you what to and what not to be worrying about. As the plate umpire, you are the Umpire in Chief. It sounds as one of those times where you have to be there to know what to say. There is my two cents worth.

Sorry, for the confusion. I was referring to the Little League rule. I misunderstood his post.

I don't think that the local Little League should pick up the registry fee because of the following reasons: 1. I think that the money should be spent on kids sponsorship fees. Some kids do not have the money to play Little League baseball because the regristration fees are over 100 dollars in our league. 2. Spend the money on field renovations 3. You could use the money to buy equipment for under privileged kids in the local league. 4. You could also use the money to buy a piece of equipment for an umpire (I know this might be more expensive, but not if you were going to buy the regristration for all your umpires. Buying equipment for one umpire who has done a lot for your league would mean more.) If a league wants to foot the bill for the little league umpire regristry for a couple of umpires, ok, but don't do it for all the umpires in your league (assuming most leagues use junior umpires, and have at least 20 umpires over the course of the year).

This happened to me as well. I have clicked the remember me box, but even if I do not log out it will not remember me. So, I just go to google every time and search UMPIRE-EMPIRE and click on the first link that comes up. This always leads me to the site where I am already logged in.

The more I think about the more I feel I should change the way I think about the whole check swing thing. If the catcher wants me to ask the base umpire on a check swing, then I will go ahead and ask the base umpire, no matter where he is located on the field. I was reading peoples responses, and I got the understanding that it does not really matter where the umpire is standing. What is the worst thing that can happen? The base umpire saying that he did not go. The best thing that could happen would the base umpire say he did go and we get a another strike out of the deal. Thank you for all of your opinions regarding my posts earlier. They are greatly appreciated and have made me change my mechanics.

I know that these videos are idiotic, but I still want to comment on them. I think that these videos are hilarious. But part of me thinks that this guy is somewhat serious. Don't worry though, I am not taking these videos too seriously.

In reference to the first video: That video made me laugh my head off. You do not have to go over sliding at the plate meeting. In reference to the second video: I think that all umpire know that if a ball hits the chalk line in flight then the ball is fair. In reference to the third video: What kind of ejection call is that? Any ejection call that makes the manager back up is way too much. I will watch the other videos later and comment on thsoe when I watch them.

You can eject the runner for malicious contact. If there was no play being made on the runner than he could of gone around the catcher, preventing any type of harm the player. If the catcher obstructed the runner than you would have obstruction and the run would score. There would be no need for the runner to run over the catcher. Depending on the circumstances, you could call the runner out if the collision happened before touching the plate.

I would stay out of it as long as the coaches are handling themselves appropriately. If the coaches are discussing the score in a calm manner, then I am not going to get involved. Now if they start arguing vigorously, then I will stop the two managers. I would tell them that the score we will go by is what the home team's official scorekeeper has for the score. End of story.

I don't think that the umpires are responsible. So the senior umpire, is basically saying that we should put doors on all dugouts because of the potential of a playing runner into the dugout and hitting the dugout wall. It just does not make sense. Make the batting cage out of play and go on. THe batting cage probably has no where else to go. Leave it where it is and move on with the ground rules.

This umpire has got to be lying. There is no way that an umpire who did college ball, would wear white tennis shoes on the field. That is an amatuer move. I know of no such rule that supports his claim that you mentioned in number two. Now if he was talking about the third visit to the same pitcher in the same inning, then he is right in terms of the rule. But if he is talking in terms of total visits per game, then I believe he is wrong, governing any new rules I do not know about.

Pre game with your partners about fair/foul responsibilities and who has catch, etc. At the plate meeting you also want to make sure you ask the manager if there are any ground rules that you need to be aware of. There are many other things, but the people who posted above pretty much covered them. Umpire in Chief, the founder of this site, wrote an article all about the plate meeting. It is a very good blog post that all members should read.

I was reading the original post and I was just laughing my head off as I read it to one of my friends. That is classic. Was the game a close game?

Under no rule in the Little League rule book can we order a coahc or manager to remove a player from the game for lack of ability. Now, if it was affecting the way you call the game then you could simply go over to the manager and tell him that by his catcher lazily going after the ball, it is affecting the way you as the umpire call the game. This will probably get the coach thinking more about the catcher. You can not, as an umpire, tell the manager to remove a player.

I don't think that you should of told the coach any thing about the pitcher. You are there to umpire, not scout the other team. Even if you are helping your friend, you still should not divulge any information that can give the other team any kind of advantage.

The way u described it I would not throw the coach out. Now if a batter was just staying in the box and moving for a period of time, I might give a warning. If it continued, I would eject the offender. I would not even say anything until the coach unless he was still there when the next half inning started.

I know that just because the bat does not cross the plate, does not mean he did not swing.

Of course you would say that. HAHA.

I think he was accidentally swinging. He was still looking at his coach when he swung at the ball. But if he did it on purpose, then he is smart. Why not waste a pitch and just swing.

Curt Parker and a couple of other instructors told me that what I posted earlier was right. Maybe I misunderstood them. Thank you Matt.