Coach argues my strike zone

[Umpire in Chief]

Last night I had a private school game the visitors are a perennial powerhouse and can probably beat most of the public school teams in the area. The home team is a small school which has had some good basketball teams but has never really done well with baseball.

After 1st inning 4-0

After 2nd inning 16-2

After the top of the second inning as the head coach walks by he stops and says, "Come on Warren, open it up a little."

I told him, "I'm getting what I can."

In the third I called strike 3 on 2 visitor batters on pitches which technically were not strikes but were get-able, and the visitor coach is cheering me.

After 3rd inning ridiculous-4

As we get ready to start the 4th. VC comes up to me and tells me I need to get more again. I tell him I'm getting all I can w/o looking stupid. He said he didn't care and for me to call them.

VC coach yells to his team not only loud enough for his team to hear but everybody, "Okay I just told the umpire if you're not swinging it's a strike."

Well I couldn't in good conscious go there. These pitches were 10' high, 10' wide or bouncing and I couldn't do it.

After 4 it Beyond ridiculous -4

Starting the 5th the VC doesn't say anything but just shakes his head at me as he goes to the 3rd base box.

As the home pitcher is warming up the visiting lead-off batter (my catcher) returns some foul balls to me. He says, "Coach, isn't happy your not calling strikes on us. We're now supposed to just close our eyes and swing at everything. This should be funny."

Lead off batter my catcher strikes out swinging at a pitch 10' behind him.

B2- HBP not swinging trying to jump out of the way hit him in the foot.

B3- Swings so early the pitch somehow hit the end of his bat and rolled to F5, who couldn't field it and then butchers the throw to 1st and can not put out the BR in a slow jog to first.

B4- Comes up attempting to bunt his way out or maybe into an inning ending DP I suppose, hard pitch inside Batter ends up defensively bunting to protect his body and the ball rolls up the 3rd base line and comes to a stop on the line. F1 picks it up and does nothing with is while F2 R2 is only casually walking to 3rd trying to give himself up. He barely succeeds after F5 almost lost the soft toss from F1. Now we have 2 outs.

F6 B6 - Swings so early it almost was like a warm up swing before the pitcher delivers.

VC walks by and said he's never had to work so hard to get 3 outs before.

Edited April 14, 2010 by Umpire in Chief
typos

[softballcoach]

Wow, that sounds like some of the 10U games I've seen.

[BrianC14]

Been there, got the T-shirt.

2 weekends ago, worked a college (club level) game. One team was good (visitors).

The home team would have been a bad rec level coed softball beer league team.

32 - 0. The top half of each inning took nearly 25 minutes each. The bottom half usually took about 5 minutes. 3 up, 3 down. Pitcher rarely missed his spots, never walked anyone, and gave up just two hits.

I was begging the visitors to start running into outs as we approached the 5th inning.

I suppose I could have opened it up to ridiculous proportions, but the visitors were crushing anything that was even close - - they didn't want to be walked, either.

3 hours and 40 minutes, it was finally over. :WTF

[Mr Umpire]

Lead off batter my catcher strikes out swinging at a pitch 10' behind him.

B2- HBP not swinging trying to jump out of the way hit him in the foot.

B3- Swings so early the pitch somehow hit the end of his bat and rolled to F5, who couldn't field it and then butchers the throw to 1st and can not put out the BR in a slow jog to first.

B4- Comes up attempting to bunt his way out or maybe into an inning ending DP I suppose, hard pitch inside Batter ends up defensively bunting to protect his body and the ball rolls up the 3rd base line and comes to a stop on the line. F1 picks it up and does nothing with is while F2 (should this be R2) is only casually walking to 3rd trying to give himself up. He barely succeeds after F5 almost lost the soft toss from F1. Now we have 2 outs.

F6(should this be B6) - Swings so early it almost was like a warm up swing before the pitcher delivers.

I guess the game was so bad that it made you forget who was on offense and who was on defense.

[kristoffae]

I had one of these games last night. After 1st inning, home team is up 8-1. After 2 it is 15-1. I glance over at the home coach at the start of the bottom of 3 and very discretely act like I am swinging a bat. He politely nods, turns to his bench and says "be swinging guys." Got the next 12 outs in 30 minutes, game over.

[BrianC14]

I had one of these games last night. After 1st inning, home team is up 8-1. After 2 it is 15-1. I glance over at the home coach at the start of the bottom of 3 and very discretely act like I am swinging a bat. He politely nods, turns to his bench and says "be swinging guys." Got the next 12 outs in 30 minutes, game over.

Sounds a little bit like my game last night. A 5-A conference game, with plenty at stake, as both teams are in the running (home team was undefeated in conference going in).

9-0 after three, in favor of the home team. You could see they started to relax, when they ran into the perfect storm.

Top 4, home pitcher can't find the zone. Walks a couple batters, a few key hits, bases loaded, and BOOM. Grand slam. Suddenly it's 9-7.

Over the last 4 innings, the home team got only 4 hits, while the visitors kept scoring with regularity, and their relief pitcher shut down the home team's offense.

Short story: home team lost 15-12.

And for the record, I didn't ask them to do anything.

Edited April 14, 2010 by BrianC14

[willv28]

Had a minor league level tournament game last year. The visiting team got up 14-1 or close to that. The game went on, and the VC started chaning pitchers to save his guys for the next game. Before you know it it's tied. Game went to extras. We suspended the game on account of darkness and picked it up the next day. Visiting team ended up scoring in the first inning and went on to win in the resumption in one inning.

I had a few extra inning games last year. One majors level game went to 10 innings in the tournament.

[FVB6]

I had a similar game about 5 years ago in a freshman level game. Visiting team ended up winning 35-0. They scored the 35 runs in 4 innings and struck out on purpose in the 5th. The visiting pitcher threw a perfect game.

This game was also memerable for me because the home coach offered me a donut (the kind you eat, not the kind to put on the bat) before the game. He had about 2 dozen in the dugout and all his players were eating them.

[OM3]

I had a game like this too....what the VC done was have his batters step on homeplate...because the fielding by the home team was awful....

And for all you with them large scores...you don't have run rules or don't use them during tourneys or district games? (15 after 3, 12 after 4 or 10 after 5)?

[Mr Umpire]

I had a game like this too....what the VC done was have his batters step on homeplate...because the fielding by the home team was awful....

And for all you with them large scores...you don't have run rules or don't use them during tourneys or district games? (15 after 3, 12 after 4 or 10 after 5)?

The only one we use consistently is 10 after 5. Any others depends on the tournament. But, it's kind of hard when it is 21-6 after 3 innings and the run rule doesn't kick in until the 5th inning.

[dawg-man]

GHSA uses 15 after 3 and 10 after 5.

[BrianC14]

I had a game like this too....what the VC done was have his batters step on homeplate...because the fielding by the home team was awful....

And for all you with them large scores...you don't have run rules or don't use them during tourneys or district games? (15 after 3, 12 after 4 or 10 after 5)?

Years ago I had some pinhead coach trying this... problem was, he'd send a batter to the plate, and his instructions were for the batter to "step on the plate". So the idiot kid comes into the box, pitcher toes the rubber, and the kid puts a foot out and "steps on the plate", just as Coach Pinhead told him to do. Then he turns and looks at me and says, "I'm out, I stepped on the plate."

Well, I refuse to suffer fools.

I turn to Coach Pinhead and tell him in no uncertain terms that he is not going to make this game a travesty - regardless of his ignorance of the rules.

He remained clueless. :crazy:

[Big Red]

Well, I refuse to suffer fools.

Now, that is a classic!!! :crazy: