My big game ending call

[csabo17]

Varsity HS

Bottom 7th home team down 3-2. 7th inn started 3-0. Bases loaded 2 outs and a full count.

Pitcher throws an inside curveball, batter starts to turn his shoulders away from the pitch, as he does he also raises his leg off the ground causing his knee to come up and catch the pitch as it breaks across the plate. Batter starts running to first with his hands in the air, place is going nuts, runner stars coming home from third.

I step out and point to batter "hit him in strike zone, thats strike three. Batters out, ball game!"

The place went from going nuts to absolutely giving me hell. "how can he be out? The ball hit him. What a cheater! He just dont want to go into extra innings"

Home coach comes to me " you've got to be kidding me, dont take this away from these kids. you know thats not right. "

By this time my partner who was in c is standing with us. He tells the coach he saw the same thing, and the pitch was defintly in the strike zone and the batter clearly raised his knee into the pitch.

It was a hostile environment getting off the field and to my car but no one bothered us other then more SH*# talk on the way out. Partner says that was 100% the right call but it took some stones kid. Glad to see you got the balls to make the big calls when it counts. I felt this was a big compliment from a vet.

Just thought id share a big moment from this year. Anyone have a similar game ending story? I know its the rules, but ive seen guys hesitate to call that last strike three in a tight game. Seems like it takes a little bit more to make that last call.

[James Walker]

Had the same thing in a 10u game last night... Bases juices, full count. Kid pitches the ball way inside, batter starts to bail but starts swinging. Ball hits him in the hands, I call "dead ball, batter amass swinging when the ball hit him, strike three, battered out. That's ball game.". Didn't get nothing from the coaches but good game. Good call bud, way to call em right.

[csabo17]

^

wow! Thats rare. You must of actually had some coaches that knew their stuff.

[Umpy]

I called an In Field Fly during a state championship tournament, there was 1 out in the last inning, so IFF made two outs. These were young kids (9/10) who probably hadn't heard an IFF called ever, so naturally the kids all ignored my call and just ran for the next base. Also naturally, one of them was tagged for the 3rd out and that was game.

The parents of course called me a monster for calling the IFF.

[csabo17]

How could you? Your such a bad person for taking it away from their babies!

For the rest of their lives they will remember they would of won a state championship if it wasnt for that one ump.

Kills me, i tell people all the time im sick of hearing its the umps fault, its the coaches fault, or its the bus drivers fault. Sometimes your kid just didnt get it done and lost. Teach them to lose instead of teaching them to blame.

[johnnyg08]

Way to have the balls to make the right call. This is a case of where we're noticed and the phrase "the best officials are the ones who aren't noticed" is not true. Nice work. You made your umpire brothers proud with that correct, gutsy call.

Thanks for sharing.

[csabo17]

Thanks. I always say i have me best days when no one remembers me. But id say most everyone will remember me the next time I pull up at that place.

[Tyennie]

Out-F***ing-standing!! Nice job man. Gotta love those comments about the umpires stealing games from kids. "Oh and what about your 5 boneheaded base running errors, or the 13 times your team threw the ball around the infield trying to get runners out. Or the fact that six of your batters looked at strike three calls that were belt high middle of the plate??" But the coaches and parents don't remember those parts of the game do they? HA!

[ukce1861]

My son's last LL Minor's game ended Friday night after the fifth inning due to a City time limit. They were down 7-3, primarily due to three boneheaded plays on defense and 3-4 boneheaded baserunning plays. Of course, our whiny coach and all the parents were busy talking about the greater conspiracy from the league. My son was upset about the loss and started talking about how unfair it all was and I absolutely laid in to him. I said, "you scored three runs - you need at least 5 more. You had three kids thrown out on the bases because they did stupid things. You gave up two runs because your third basemen threw the ball into the third base dugout when the obvious play was at first. You gave up another run when you [he was catching] threw the ball to first trying to pick off a runner with the bases loaded. And you're going to blame this on the umpires and the league? I don't think so..."

It just really aggravates me when coaches and parents try to blame stuff on the umpires or league, instead of teaching their kids that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and you've got to deal and move on.

[csabo17]

Great job ukce! I love when parents actuallly teach the kids about losing and how to handle it.

[treydawgmt]

I had a not so crazy call to end a game. TOP 7, VT down by 3 to start the inning, but just 1 now. (13-12 I think.) 2 outs, R1. I'm BU in B. Pick off throw one ever so slightly late. Strike 1. Pick off throw two, CLOSE play, but glove in between base and R1's hand. I punch him out. I go to get the hell out of dodge, my partner reminds me my water (just a $1.00 bottle from gas station) is still on the field. I tell him, oh well, let's just go! It was RIGHT behind the 1st base coach and the guy I just punched out. So not worth it! Of course HT thought it was a great call, VT thought it sucked!

[NCAAump2]

Had a similar situation in a HS VARSITY game...this is on a Saturday morning, we are completing a suspended game from the night before. Tie game, 8-8, TOP of the 9th...the night before, the HT was down 8-2 and the VT let them back in it with 6 runs in the bottom of the 7th to force extras.

Here we are, bottom of 9, HT gets a runner on 2nd and the kid tries to steal 3rd. Throw beats him by 5 feet or so, but F5 dicks around and tags high on the left thigh late, I have the runner's right leg getting into the bag first, so I call him safe. VT HC groans and complains a little, but nothing too bad. They IBB the next 2 hitters, and then the HT gets a single to win it. As we are walking of the field to go to the cars in between games, the VT HC comes out as they go to line up and says "You cost us that one, Aaron." Really? It was that call at 3rd, not the 6 runs your kids gave up yesterday, wasn't it? Give me a break...

It gets even better. Same two teams played right after the completion of the suspended game (one conference in STL plays a home-home series with each team). So we come out to the plate meeting for the next one, and this moron comes out and says, "so, what'd you have on that play down there?" (points toward 3rd) I said, "Well, the throw beat him but he got his leg on the outside corner of the bag before the tag." He's got the balls to say, "Wow...Well, you missed that one. I really hope you're better this game."

I couldn't believe this son of a bitch. (pardon my language, but SH*#...come on.) First of all, he didn't come out on the initial play, but now he's bringing up a previous play AND telling me I'm a bad umpire. I should have thrown his ass out right then before the game even started...I guess part of me couldn't even believe he had the balls to say something like that. Who knows...luckily there were no problems in the 2nd one. WTF is wrong with people?

[csabo17]

I would of restricted him to the dugout to start the second game.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Should have been run for bringing up the past. Just like the late Charlie Williams did when Padres manager Steve Boros came out to home plate the next day with a video tape of a call Charlie had supposedly blown in the last game. Bringing up the past is so automatic, and the coach probably knew it was and wanted to go home and have a beer.

Here is my rewrite of what the conversation should have looked like: "so, what'd you have on that play down there?" (points toward 3rd) I said, "Coach, we are not going to discuss the past. End of story."

[fallschum04]

I had the almost the same thing happen in a 10U CYO game and if anyone knows anything about CYO coaches, you know that one team was beyond ticked off. At least it wasn't to end the game, but it was for a strike three. Kid is up, maybe the fourth inning, they've got a good rally going, bases loaded, two outs, 2-2 count. Kid thinks the ball is going over his head, so he ducks his head over the strike zone. Ball drops right to his head, hits him on the helmet. He starts running down to first. The PU (I was BU) calls "Ball hit him in the strike zone. That's a strike. Strike three. Batter is out." Parents were all confused. They didn't know that was an actual rule and the coach was livid. We let him have his say, but we weren't changing that call. He eventually cooled off and even told us "Good game" afterwards. He told us he looked up the rule after it happened on the bench and told us we were right. It's nice to hear that from a coach when a call like that happens.

[SoCal Lurker]

I had the almost the same thing happen in a 10U CYO game and if anyone knows anything about CYO coaches, you know that one team was beyond ticked off. At least it wasn't to end the game, but it was for a strike three. Kid is up, maybe the fourth inning, they've got a good rally going, bases loaded, two outs, 2-2 count. Kid thinks the ball is going over his head, so he ducks his head over the strike zone. Ball drops right to his head, hits him on the helmet. He starts running down to first. The PU (I was BU) calls "Ball hit him in the strike zone. That's a strike. Strike three. Batter is out." Parents were all confused. They didn't know that was an actual rule and the coach was livid. We let him have his say, but we weren't changing that call. He eventually cooled off and even told us "Good game" afterwards. He told us he looked up the rule after it happened on the bench and told us we were right. It's nice to hear that from a coach when a call like that happens.

Had a game this season where the U called this a foul ball . . . I assumed he thought it hit the bat first until he explained it later . . . . . . sometimes there are reasons why coaches never understand certain rules . . .

[johnnyg08]

"so, what'd you have on that play down there?" (points toward 3rd)

"I had an out. Lineup card please."

[scrounge]

Had my own game-ending call, though a rather unsatisfying one. U15 high school, decent JV/freshman quality. Felt great behind the plate, consistently calling lower in the zone, not much above the belly button. Both coaches even told their pitchers, stay low, that's what's being called, to the point where a coach told his hitter "don't complain, that's been a strike all day".

Anyway, 7 inning game is tied and goes into the bottom of the 9th inning. VT pitcher just can't hit the zone, gets two outs on bad swings for weak hits but then loads the bases on a hit and two walks. Count goes to 3-1 and pitcher goes both high and outside, close but not that close. I hadn't called that a strike all day. Maybe if it was just high or just outside, but I couldn't give both. So the game ends on the walk-off walk. I braced for the inevitable "you just want to go home", but amazingly no one said it. One fan - the local high school JV coach - did yell "oh come on, you've called it all day". Huh? The same coach was the one just one inning later saying that my zone was LOW all day. Oh well....

I didn't really want it to end like that, but that was the situation that presented itself to me.

[stl_ump]

Out-F***ing-standing!! Nice job man. Gotta love those comments about the umpires stealing games from kids. "Oh and what about your 5 boneheaded base running errors, or the 13 times your team threw the ball around the infield trying to get runners out. Or the fact that six of your batters looked at strike three calls that were belt high middle of the plate??" But the coaches and parents don't remember those parts of the game do they? HA!

You mean something like this?