End of my rookie year

[clawdad]

Saturday was the last game of my first year doing HS baseball. Of course, it happened to be my FIRST game on the big field working alone. The game went along great, both teams played well ( for MOD level). It was actually sort of relaxing to me not to worry about if my partner was going to miss a rotation. I hustled out on plays at the bases, and had no complaints from the coaches. I did (as Jim Joyce said) "kick the $#!+ out of a call." 2-2 count on the batter, ball comes in outside for ball 3. He heads down to 1B thinnking it was ball 4. R1 starts trotting for 2B. I call R1 back to the plate, and send the runner back to 1st. I hear the OT coach asking someone "isn't the ball live?" Then he says "Blue, my runner was stealing." The DT fans start chirping about the BR being out for INT. I know i have read this situation on these boards before, and the ball was live, and that R1 should have remained on 2nd. I just couldn't process it. (FWIW- by this time, I had done 2 LL majors plates the night before, worked my regular job overnight, and had this game at 10 a.m. so no sleep for a while. add in the heat and my brain was starting to implode on me). Next pitch the BR smokes a triple, R1 scored so really no harm.

Between innings the coach comes to me and says that his runner was stealing, so he should have stayed at 2B. I told him I kicked it and he should have stayed at 2B. I also told him I might have been more convinced of the steal if his runner had actually been running to second instead of almost walking. He said "I know, I said that out loud just to keep some of my players parents off my back." Apparently he has had some issues during the year. We both laughed and headed our seperate ways. Again, this is MOD baseball, so the coaches were really relaxed.

So I now wait for our end of year meeting to find out how I did on my evaluations during the season. If I did well enough, I will get a taste of Varsity games next year. I worked hard during the season, studied the rules/case book, and asked questions of the veterans when I had them. I was told by a couple of the veterans that 2 of the rookies were being considered during the year as a fill in on some Varsity games, and I was one of them. That made me feel pretty good.

Now I will be doing LL majors for the rest of the summer, and was already told I will be doing some tournament games. I will be looking to build up my library of reference materials, and continue to make myself bettter. I will also continue to come here, because I feel that reading the forums gave me a bit of a leg up on the other rookies. I will let them know that if they are really interested in getting better, they should look here as well. Many thanks to you all.

[dmdhiker]

I too completed my first year. Thirty-one freshman A and B games with a handful of sophomore games. All solo. Very interesting year, learned a lot. Been out of the game for 30 years so getting back on the field is great. Continue the hard work and your efforts will be rewarded. Nice job.

[umpcoachfather]

Good luck

[clawdad]

Just got a call last night from my assignor - picked up a JV game Tuesday. Guess I'm not done yet :)