I couldn't be more frustrated...

[Umpire in Chief]

Sit back and enjoy my friends, this will be a long one…

Saturday I had 2 games for a local parks and recs service. The game is with really young kids in their first player pitch experience, and the rules mirror LL Minors, with some additions. This is the organizations first year using real umpires. I’ve long prided myself on not turning my nose up at these lower level games and they generally run pretty well without any incidents. I go where my commissioner assigns me.

Well I had the complete horse$h1t game Saturday morning here are a few of the incidents I had to deal with, in no particular order:

1: Two coaches who don’t know $h1t from Sinaloa when it comes to baseball and both were too wound up for a game with these little kids and demonstrated nearly every poor sporting behavior a coach can. --- Come on guys your 9 year olds are acting more mature than you.

2: Extremely poor pitching. These kids missed 5 feet in any/every direction. I think I had 20 walks.

3: The Blue 3rd baseman each time the ball would actually be hit (miracles do happen) would go stand on third base. This led to 2 obstruction calls. Both times the Red runner still scored. Both times the Red Coach came out red faced hollering. I tried my hardest to explain to him that obstruction was a delayed dead ball and since his runner scored there isn’t any penalty to enforce. The second time it happened I made direct, intentional eye contact with the coach as I made the obstruction call to ensure the coach knew I had it, but he still came out yelling. He asked when I’m going to stop him from interfering with his runner. I told him I wasn’t going to stop him, but I would enforce the penalty. He goes off, “Well twice now you haven’t enforced a penalty!” I replied, “I’ve explained the situation to you twice now and I’m sorry you don’t understand. That’s enough about this, I’ve got it under control. The Red coach goes away unhappy.

4: Red pitcher throws a pitch which bounced 5 feet from the plate and then hits the batter. I award the batter first. Here comes my new best friend the Red coach. In his infinite baseball knowledge he tries to tell me that I cannot award first on a ball hitting the batter after a bounce. Once again no matter what I said I couldn’t get it through his head that the ball is a pitched ball until it is batted or caught. So if he swings, its still a strike, if he hits it its still a hit/foul/out, and if it hits him he’s awarded 1st.

5: R2, 2 outs the Red batter is walked. With all of the leagues no advancing rules I assume the ball is essentially dead, but the Red teams coach in the 3rd base box is yelling to the kid on second to run. When this happens the Blue teams coach is telling their kids to tag him. With this happening I second guess myself and think I must be wrong because the coaches are telling the kids to continue play. The Blue team does tag the Red runner, I call an out. Now comes the Red teams Assistant coach out from the 1st base box yelling. He can’t advance and can’t be out. I told him that is what I thought. I reset the runners and we continued.

6: Blue catcher bends over adjusting his shin guards. I tell the pitcher, “Step off, no pitch!” Well he still delivers the ball while I’m continuing to yell “no pitch” and the catcher has his glove off and the top of his head is pointing to the pitcher. The Red batter jumped in the box and crushed the ball for what would have been a home run. I’m yelling, “No play, no play” as the batter and runners run the bases. When the players finally stop I reset them. Here comes my new BFF the Red Coach. “You’re punishing us for their mistake. We would have scored 3 runs and you’re going to take that away from us.” I replied “You and every body else heard me yell no pitch so that’s enough”

7: Bases loaded, 2 outs, full count. The batters box lines are long gone at this point. Blue batter standing about 3 feet from the plate with the bat on his shoulder, facing the pitcher. The Red pitcher offers up probably the best pitch of the game, belt high, center of the plate. I call strike three. Blue coach goes bonkers yelling that he wasn’t in the batters box and wasn’t ready for the pitch. I told him from what I saw he was. “Well why would he be standing there?” he yelled. “Why do half these kids stand where they do? I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter to me.” He continues to yell as he goes back to the bench.

8: The Blue coach continually argued my strike zone. He made comments like that would have been a strike for them. At some point in the game, I had to call time and tell him we’re not having any more of that.

Well that game finally ended. Probably the longest hour and a half of my life. I call the coaches for the second game to the plate for the conference. As I introduce my self to the first coach who told me. “Dude, I feel sorry for you after that game. They put the two biggest a$$holes in the league together and you’re stuck in the middle. I promise you won’t have the same problem with ___ and me.” The second game went smoothly. The only time a coach needed to talk to me was a legitimate question about whether the runner had reached more than half way home when the infielder had possession. I was honest with the coach and said it was real close, but I wasn’t going to take the run away from that kid. He was very polite and said he thought it was close too and just wanted to see.

But wait the story doesn’t end here.

Monday I get an email from my commissioner. The league director was apparently at that game and contacted my commissioner about my “Inexcusable poor performance in my games Saturday”

Here are some of the things my commissioner relayed to me:

1: Batter not in batter's box, pitcher allowed to pitch called out on strikes with bases loaded to end the inning in a game that ended up being lost by 1 run on team called out.

I explained to the commish as I had above. Until I heard that I had no Idea who won or lost or the score.

2: Batter hit by pitch called a ball

I do not recall such a situation. If there were a batter hit by a pitch that I called a ball I did not notice the batter being hit. I cannot even remember a pitch which anybody complained about anything like this...

3: Batter walked,1st base open, runner on 2nd tries to advance, gets tagged and called out by the ump

I explained to my commish as stated earlier

4: Missed 4 strike 3 calls, batter given an extra strike

I don’t know what to say. I was using my indicator and never lost the count. Additionally, I gave the count after the third pitch (1-2. 2-1, or 3-0) and when the count is full, or when asked just as I do for every level of play. This accusation is completely unfounded.

5: Inconsistent with strike zone.

What the ... I got any and every strike I could get without being ridiculous. But with pitches being so far off I couldn't get too many. I must have had 20 walks.

My commissioner and I had several conversations about this and I was completely dumbfounded. The commish thought it was somewhat funny that this was directed towards me. He originally thought I would find it amusing, but it just really fired me up.

The one thing I can say is that my commissioner stood rock solid behind me.

This league director is concerned because I will be calling several of their playoff games. He further mentioned to my commish that he will be attending my next set of games Saturday morning to monitor my performance and improvement.

Here’s what I observed and relayed to my commish:

The instances which did occur all were against the Blue Team. The “controversial” calls which went against the Red team are not mentioned. He told my commish he waited to hear from the coaches before contacting him, it appears he only received feedback from the Blue Team coaches. I have a problem with this for 2 reasons; a league official apparently soliciting negative feedback from a coach instills a no confidence vote towards the umpire (and officials in general) in the coaches mind giving validity to the umpire being the cause of the problem and secondly the initial appearance is that he solicited and is basing his feedback from the loosing coach. What type of feedback would he be expecting. Also the director mentioned that he observed me “for the last 2 games.” I do not see anything that can be referenced to the second game which with one minor exception went smoothly. This seems to be a continuation of the epidemic of “blame the official” running out of control through youth sports.

I also mentioned to my commish that based on what the director told him I bet the director either has a kid playing for the Blue team or has some other type of relationship with the Blue team due to his errors of omission of what occurred with the Red team. I also brought up the theory that based on him “observing” things which did not happen whether he was actually there or not and just received complaints feedback from the Blue team.

I have half the mind to turn back the remaining games I have in Arbiter for this league. On the other hand I’m not going to let these ignorant coaches and director get the better of me and run me off. I am so frustrated I could scream.

[Bigdog]

Hey all,

UIC, in #8 you said Blue team coach continually argues your strike zone. I don't care if this was T-Ball, TOSS THE RAT!! I would give him a warning on the first occurrence, and the old heave-ho on the second one. The is no excuse for a RAT to get away with continually arguing the strike zone.

WOW, glad the second game went smoother than the first.

I am glad to see that your commissioner has your back, it sounds like the league director has no clue about what really went on. Forget about him, he is NOTHING if he is going to attack you like that based on the sayings of the losing manager without any input from the winning manager. It sounds like your line of thinking may be correct, the LD might have a connection with the blue team, OR he might be just as clueless as the others.

Oh, well, carry on.....

Bigdog:cool:

[LMSANS]

Bet you wish you had a little of that rain you carry around with you;):eek:

[Umpire in Chief]

UIC, in #8 you said Blue team coach continually argues your strike zone. I don't care if this was T-Ball, TOSS THE RAT!! I would give him a warning on the first occurrence, and the old heave-ho on the second one. The is no excuse for a RAT to get away with continually arguing the strike zone.

I just an still hesitant in a youth game, we'll see what happens if I have that team again.

Since the league director will be monitoring my progress Saturday, I think I will have my varsity A-game strike zone and see how everybody likes a walk-a-thon. Since they have a rule that the side is retired after batting through the order I bet we could get 2 innings in in the hour and a half.

Bet you wish you had a little of that rain you carry around with you;)

I was wishing for anything even a rabid raccoon coming out of the woods and attacking me.

[Kyle_Stevens]

Barnum and Baily...

Sounds like the Commish is a fellow coach or former coach. Also sounds like the commish and the coach he talked to are buddies. If these 'coaches' think they are so 'good', tell them to go get a real coaching job. I am sure there is a JUCO or high school needing a coach to save their program. If there is not in your area, there are several here!

I can understand being hesitant to show someone the door in LL; however, this might be a good time to make an example of someone, set the tone. To me, they know what they are doing, by giving your grief. They have gotten away with it to this point. Once they cease to be good examples to their kids, there is no need for them.

[Bigdog]

Since the league director will be monitoring my progress Saturday, I think I will have my varsity A-game strike zone and see how everybody likes a walk-a-thon.

Hey all,

One thing that I have noticed about YOUTH pitching: the worse they can throw and get a strike, the worse they will throw.....wait...never mind the YOUTH part, ANY Pitcher will adjust or the manager/coach will end up pulling them when they reach their pitch count. Someone on the team has to be able to throw straight.

Bigdog:cool:

[Umpire in Chief]

Just to follow up...

I arrived early enough to talk to the director, got pointed in his direction and introduced myself. Nothing of substance was said, he told me about the field condition after the nights rain gave me a bag of balls to leave with the home coaches in case the balls became too muddy.

I was hoping to hear something directly from him, but he just gave me the extra baseballs and left the field.

[HokieUmp]

Just to follow up...

I arrived early enough to talk to the director, got pointed in his direction and introduced myself. Nothing of substance was said, he told me about the field condition after the nights rain gave me a bag of balls to leave with the home coaches in case the balls became too muddy.

I was hoping to hear something directly from him, but he just gave me the extra baseballs and left the field.

Was this Green Run LL, by any chance? Or Plaza?

[Umpire in Chief]

Was this Green Run LL, by any chance? Or Plaza?

Welcome back HokieUmp,

It was a new client of ours Courthouse Rec.

[Umpire in Chief]

I want to set the record straight a little bit.

The league dir is not involved with the Blue team, he is actually coach for the black team.

I worked his tournament and for the first time had his team. The game went well (other than there is no time limit in the tournament).

He was very nice and we had a good conversation, but stayed away from the topic of that email to my commissioner.

Yesterday, I received a check for that league and thought I had been overpaid. So I contacted the league director.

He replied, "The umpires who worked our tournament did such a fantastic job in such awful weather that I instructed the treasurer to pay each of the umpires $10 extra per game." He also mentioned that he tried to contact our commissioner to let him know.

The weather the day I worked their tournament was 100+ degrees with 90+% humidity. It was horrid. On the way home the thermometer in my car gave the outside temp as 112 and I can believe it.

[catoblue]

As much as I don't like tossing coaches in youth games, both of those coaches would have been tossed well before the game was over.

ESPECIALLY in youth ball, I have zero tolerance for coaches setting a bad example for young kids. They get their one warning, then they can go to the parking lot.

[littleleagueump]

Sit back and enjoy my friends, this will be a long one…

Saturday I had 2 games for a local parks and recs service. The game is with really young kids in their first player pitch experience, and the rules mirror LL Minors, with some additions. This is the organizations first year using real umpires. I’ve long prided myself on not turning my nose up at these lower level games and they generally run pretty well without any incidents. I go where my commissioner assigns me.

At the plate meeting with the coaches, you are required to tell the coaches, "there will be no arguing balls, strikes, safes or outs. If you need to for any reason to talk to a player or an umpire regarding the rules or a play, request TIME. I will grant you time once all plays have stopped."

This is the only warning that you need to give. I coaches wish to yell, scream or make problems in a game, CHUNK HIM! If a coach charges out of the dugout or the coach barges out of the coaches box without requesting time, ask him if he needs a timeout for any reason. If he clears his head on that, that is good. If he is still outrageds, he is requesting to be ejected! If a coach has a problem or would like to discuss a call or rule, let him. Keep it calm, short and direct.

If the coach would like to show emotions such as waving arms and pointing at the play where it happened, what he saw when he was 50+ feet away and you were less than 10 feetaway with a better angle TOSS HIM!!!!! Or as Bigdog says, "toss the rat.":cool:

Don't pursue or look for the commisioner. He is not your buddy. He is all of the coaches best friend even if he hates the coaches. Your direct scheduler/chief umpire is all you need to know or talk to. He is the one that has your back. If there is additional problems with this game, who are the coaches from the second game. Get them to speak for you. It may be a good idea to get them to speak for you to whomever now.

You took a lot of abuse and the kids playing had to witness it and the bad coaching. By tossing the coach, the kids will see less rage from their coach but also may understand not to screw around with the umpires and the rules.

Let all teams play the game, enforce the rules, answer questions just as if you were working at Lowes or Home Depot, where all employees know where everything is from the other side of the store (that has always amazed me).

Help them with all problems that they need answers for, explain.

By all means, don't let them use you as a door mat. Try to keep from ejecting anyone until you have to. Don't be afraid to toss anyone, just better have a good story why you did it though.