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Tthere are runners on, BU is in B or C. 1BC moves out of the coach's box to align himself with the pitcher to get a better look at a move to first. My umpire friend will call time and move the coach back to at least one foot in the box. I don't see a problem with the coach's position. I told him I would ask the experts on U-E. My default is NFHS, but would be interested in hearing ant and all levels and opinions.

Working a 10u tournament this weekend. I'm on the bases in C with R2. The pitcher sets, then raises his leg and pitches with his knee going past his pivot leg before committing to home. I called nothing but between innings the offensive coach asked about it because his runner started back to second. What say you?

See the video of my call of RLI. What do y’all think?

Wanted confirmation of a ruling we made from a Varsity Fed game from Monday. Bases loaded, outs don't matter. Chopper to 1st base, he comes home with the throw to try and get the force, but the ball isn't it time and hits either the catcher or batter (unsure) and deflects into the dugout. 2 base award from TOP? This is what we ended up doing. I was thinking this is correct since the deflection was not intentional or a secondary action.

Seeking info and feedback regarding the few questions I got wrong. Read below. 1. A force is reinstated when a runner retreats past the base to which he was forced to advance. T or F I marked False due to a runner who passes a base needing to be tagged upon returning. Unless I am misinterpreting the question. Correct answer is TRUE 2. No outs, R3 on third and R1 on first. R1 attempts to steal second. B4 interferes with F2, but F2's throw gets R1 out. During the play at second, R3 scores. B4's interference is ignored and R3 scores. T or F. I put false due to the interference from my understanding runners return back their base start of pitch. Correct answer is TRUE. What if R1 gets caught in a rundown because hes thrown out by a mile? Kill it if first attempt is not successful? 3. A coach physically assisting a runner during playing action is interference. T or F. I put TRUE and apparently its false. Any feedback is welcome.

Today the State of NJ released its annual refresher test for all NJSIAA certified umpires in baseball and softball. On first glance I find this question: A pitcher is wearing a compression sleeve that is a camouflage pattern matching the school's colors. It extends below the elbow on his throwing arm. The umpire should: Allow it since the colors match the school's colors. Have the pitcher remove it since he may not wear white or gray on his throwing arm. I have never claimed to have a backward and forward understanding of the rule book, but even I know that neither answer is correct. How does this kind of nonsense happen every single year? At what point will there be a test that is correct? And that doesn't try to trick anyone? In the inimitable words of one C. Brown....."AAAUUUGGGHHHH!!!"

Ok ... I got this ad from Wilson on my Facebook feed today and for fun ...I posted the following: HYPOTHETICAL: Your first HS game starts with the pitcher walking to the mound with this new customized Wilson glove. What do you do.... NOW .... I did this primarily because although TECHNICALLY ILLEGAL ...the amount of gray isn't egregious and I thought, well maybe I see if something is said, as to not be a "Barney Fife" and be an OOO right out of the gate. Thoughts?

Some of the leagues that I umpire for play under MLB rules. I know in federation, coaches are allowed one offensive conference per inning... What is the rule on that for MLB? You see all of these MLB players talking with their 3rd base coach halfway up the line so often and the umpires never say anything.

Hey guys, it's my first year of varsity ball and I have a number of questions that I can't find answers to. 1) Does the batter have to make an attempt to avoid being hit by pitch? 2) Can the fielder use the safety bag? (I know he can on dropped third) 3) Ball hits runner standing on second base 4) Can the pitcher feint to third base and not throw? 5) High fiving player before touching the plate on a homerun 6) Batter hits ball off himself is it the body part of where it goes off has to be in the box determining whether he's out or it's a dead ball?

NFHS varsity game tonight. R2. Don't remember the count, but it wasn't a new batter. Immediately following the previous pitch, the batter steps one foot out and is still taking a sign from his coach when F1 (who has been working fast) begins his pitching motion. I stopped it with a loud "no pitch". So far so good. My reading of 6-1-1 is that this is an illegal pitch and R2 should be sent to 3rd. My partner (who has been umpiring for many, many years and is well-respected in this area) tells, me it's just a "no pitch", R2 stays at 2nd, and we just reset. Is this because he wasn't "an attempt to catch a batter off balance", but just working too fast?

Man I love having this option that NFHS gave us with for warning the coaches. The restriction adds a little more bite to a warning. So let me set it up for you; MS game, Bottom 6th, 2-2 game, 0 outs, Runners on 1st & 3rd. BR goes for the bunt and misses. R1 takes of on the pitch stealing 2B. F2 attempts to throw out R1 and in the process runs into BR. BR never left the batters box, never made any movement after the bunt. So I make the call "I've got nothing here". Next pitch, BR attempts to bunt again. This time after he attempts and misses, his momentum carried his front foot out in front of the plate. F2 goes for the backside pickoff of now R2 and again makes contact with BR. Now I've got interference, and call BR out. OC comes down from 3B box to argue the call. He swears to me that his batter was stepping out the BACK of the box, and that F2 induced the contact. I calmly tell him that the BR stepped out of the front of the box and that is why I called interference. Coach doesn't like it, gets closer to my face, clearly attempting to intimidate me. I simply say "Coach, we're done. It's my call." He turns around to go back to 3B box, not happy but quietly. I'm all ready to put the ball back in play when I hear from the 1B box "LEARN THE DARN (Yes, darn was the word used) RULES!!" Turned right over to the coach, and said "Coach I'm giving you a warning; you're restricted to the dugout for the rest of the game." If that rule hadn't been in place, I probably would have ended up ejecting him. Why that coach had to chime in, I'll never know. Next batter brought in the go-ahead run, and the Home Team won 3-2.

Had a strange situation come up last night. Interested to see what the other guys thoughts are. I'll post what we ended up doing after some people chime in. FED rules. Varsity District Game: Top 7, 1-1 ballgame. 1 out with R2. I'm BU in this situation. Batter swings and hits catcher's mitt (catcher's obstruction) and the ball goes into RF for a hit. The play continues. RF comes up throwing trying to get R2 coming home. Ball is overthrown. B/R ends up at 3rd after play ceases. PU calls time and HT coach comes out and says "hey you said dead ball". Pitcher and Catcher both say the same thing. Partner and I get together and he says "yes, I signaled delayed dead ball, but then put my hands up and said dead ball". What do you do here?

This is on the NJ test this year... Question #18 The bases are loaded and there are two outs. B1 hits a triple but misses second base. A legal appeal is made by the defense. How many runs should score? a. 0 b. 2 c. 3 What have you got?

Hey all - sorry if this was already on here but I could not find anything on it. Just wondering how your association goes about picking umpires for playoff games (and the championship games), and who works the plate. Thanks in advance!

NFHS rules. R1, no outs. The batter hits a towering fly ball to shallow centerfield. R1 stays on 1B. The first-base coach, seeing the full-speed batter-runner might pass R1, reaches out and grabs BR and slows him down. The ball falls uncaught. F8 flips the ball to F6 who steps on the bag for an expected force out. F6 does not tag R1, then R1 slides into 2B. Per 3-3-2, the BR will be out for interference, and there is a delayed dead ball. Any outs made on the play stand, and any runners return to TOI base. So, is the BR's out effective immediately, thereby eliminating the force out at 2B, so R1 will be returned to 1B? Or is the BR's out assessed only after action ends, in which case R1 is forced out?

For those of you that use Facebook. I am the admin of a closed group called Umpires - Federation Group Feel free to join us. We have almost 500 members. I try to keep it civil. Umpires - Federation Rules

All, there's not a rule that would cause INT, or anything else if while during play, and end-cap is released from a bat and it distracts a potential fielder? That ball would be in play, play stands, and you'd remove the bat at that point.   yes?   I can't find anything ...   Thx

Had a Varsity 3A district game last night. Both teams towards the bottom of their district but it ended up being a decent game. I thought i had a solid zone all night. My partner said it was small but consistent. Had a 0-0 ball game heading to bottom 4. Leadoff runner gets on. So we have R1. Batter lays down a bunt. Catcher fields it about 2 ft inside fair territory. Throws it to first and hits B/R in helmet. I thought B/R was straddling the line a bit and his left foot was inside the line. He gets through first base before i call time and call him out for interference and send R1 back. Of course the HC comes running out and jumps my butt about it. Of course he says he was in the lane and he's "right where we teach him to run".I told him i had his foot inside the line. He disagrees of course and calls it a terrible call. I head back to home and the fans are yelling "had to involve yourself in yhe game" etc etc. I know its not a popular call, but almost no one is willing to call it. I am sure i got this one right. They end up scratching a run across to make it 1-0. Had a play at the plate in top of 6 that i might have had an ejection on if the catcher didnt drop the ball. R2 comes arounf and outfielder makes a good throw. Drop to 3BLX and watch the play. Ball and runner arive at same time almost. Runner slides and gets feet through catchers legs. I have him safe even before ball comes out. But i didnt call it until ball was on ground because i saw it pop out. My partner said he thought he woulf have been out after the game, but i said o thought different. I bet the coach would have come unglued if i had him safe if he holds onto the ball . Later in bottom 6. Home team ends up down 3-2 after a bad top of 6. They get R1 no outs. Batter runs up towards front of box and bunts. Hes safe. VC comes out to argue that he was out of the box. I told him i didnt see it that way. He says "you know its your job to see that" i told him i did and that he wasnt. Of course the front lines are obliterated by this point. Next batter does same exact thing. But i thought i his foot eas out in front of ths plate. I call him out. I maybe should have let this call go. I know it looked terrible after other coach just complained. But i did call it. HC comes screaming down line. Telling me where waa he out of the box. Show me. Etc. Batter waa behind him ans he proceesed to try and point to the front line with his bat. I raised my voice and told him nlt to do that. Coach gets more pissed. I tell him loudly "Coach thats enough" and my partner runs down to steer him back towarsa third. He yells"thats another inning youve taken me out of " i say nothinf and we go back to pkaying. The fans of course are mad and yelling. "Do you like your car blue" etc. I ignore them. Just being dumb fans. HT takes the lead 5-3. Ended up with bases loaded. They scored onece. HT held on to win 5-4. Interesting game. Just wanted to post. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Got another one for you guys. Varsity Game. Fed rules. Top 1. R1. Batter squares to bunt and R1 steals. Batter pulls bat back and hits catcher's mitt before catcher has the ball. Catcher unable to catch the pitch, he picks up the ball and throws down but doesn't get R1 at 2nd. What is the ruling? I'll tell you what I did after getting a few responses. I have been getting the fun ones lately.

A couple of situations or plays that I had last night. I wanted to run them by you. I had the pot for the game. This is JV, FED rules. My partner is a very senior guy, in his 60's. No one on. Outs don't matter. Had a dropped strike 3. Ball rolls away a bit. The B/R starts running to 1st, he is in the running lane. Catcher yells outside, throws the ball, and hits the B/R in the back. B/R makes it to 1st safely. My partner goes "No no no, we got an out here." The offensive head coach comes out to argue. I creep up towards the conversation to listen. My partner's explanation is that since the defense yelled "outside" that the B/R has to be on the inside of the line. The coach of course was unhappy, and said "So it's up to my player to listen for the call, and move accordingly? So that means we could just lie if we were on defense." He asked my partner to get help or ask me. My partner didn't. The coach comes and asks me to get with him. I called my partner over, and I told him I thought he was applying the rule incorrectly. The B/R has every right to be in the runner's lane, that is what it is there for, and it is up to the defense to work around him. He told me he disagreed, and that he was 100% right, but that I was the man in charge and it was up to me. I reversed the call, and the defensive head coach comes out to discuss the call with me. He asked me how I could overturn my partner's call. I told him because it was a rule misapplication and not a judgement call that I was changing it. Between innings he told me he knew I was right, but that he had to come out since I changed it. So 2 questions. 1. Did I apply the rule correctly? I am 100% positive I did, but I could be wrong. 2. Was I wrong to step in and overturn my partner? I never would on a judgement call, but I felt I had to on what I believed to be an incorrect rule interpretation. Situation 2. Later in the game. R1 and R3. R1 walks off and tries to get in a run down. F1 steps off and catches R1 in a pickle. R3 breaks for home and they throw to F2. F2 is standing in the middle of the base path. R3 slows to a stop about 2-3 ft from F2 as the ball is coming in to F2 because he thinks he is gonna catch the ball. F2 drops the throw, and R3 then comes to a stop and turns around back to 3rd because F2 is in his way. He makes it safely back to 3rd. I call time and award R3 home on obstruction. F2 never had possesion of the ball and was squarely in the base path. The defensive coach came out to argue and I stated my position. Did I make the right call here probably? I realize it is probably a had to be there play. R3 didn't want to truck F2 since he looked like he was gonna make the play, but then F2 didn't make the play. Thanks for your input guys.

Hey gents. Quick mechanics question out of curiousity. Wanted to poll you guys and see if you do it any differently. Nobody on. Book mechanic is for the PU to rotate to 3rd and the BU to rotate to home if needed. Clinic's and most guys I work with, as well as me, have the BU take him all the way to 3rd, no need for PU to rotate up. R3 only I had a partner who said he plays this as the PU rotates up to third and treats is like Nobody on when there is a clean hit. This guy is a board member and called for over 10 years. I told him I had always treated it like Nobody on. PU takes BR all the way and PU stays home. Just wanted to see if I am off base on this?

This question is on our association's 2013 NFHS study guide: PLAY: With the bases loaded and one out, the batter squares to bunt. At the last moment, he ducks away from a high fastball. The ball hits his bat and rises several feet in the air toward the pitcher’s mound. The pitcher makes the catch. RULING: This is not an infield fly. True or False?

Anyone seen this yet?   This seems like a pretty good idea.   Yes, your state should send you all the current books for 2013, but this kind of makes senses ....thoughts??   http://www.ump-attire.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BBSSI&Category_Code=UMPIRE-RULEBOOKS&Product_Count=2

Took this from a poster on another site. Thought it was a good post. - -