Sometimes first impressions really are correct...

[scrounge]

So I pulled into the parking lot yesterday a half hour - the customary time in this area - before the scheduled U17 game last night (essentially, summer varsity teams). I'd never met or heard of my partner but that's pretty common as well. He said hi and said he was just about to call me to see if I was coming.

He steps out from behind the car to shake hands and I notice he's rocking a navy ball bag AND a grey ball bag. Cool! They were kind of old and dusty but held on by the brown dress belt on the grey dress slacks. At least the pants were pretty close to the right color, even if they were just normal dress pants.

We exchanged pleasantries and he mentioned how he felt more comfortable at the plate, since he didn't really know base mechanics. Turns out he only did softball, having taken the baseball class a few years ago but never working it. NOTE: this is NOT a slam on softball, as I'm pretty sure a lot of this wouldn't fly over there either.

Anyway, I ask him what color to wear. He says he has his navy school shirt (which we're not authorized to wear after the school season ended last week) and dark blue. Dark blue - as in a short sleeve polo shirt. As in a shirt you'd wear to the office. I didn't bother looking to see if there was a little alligator on the breast pocket, but there easily could have been. Luckily, I had two powder blue shirts in the car, so I tactfully suggested that it would be best if we matched, so he should borrow my shirt. He saw the shirt and said "Oh, wow, that's nice - where'd you get that?". Oy.

So we get to the field and the coaches chit-chat with us, noting that the pitcher for one team is a raw but talented Dominican home-schooled kid who was being scouted by the Reds that night. After the chat was over, he mentioned that he was kind of nervous and asked me to run the plate conference. Oookay. It became plainly evident that he was spooked. Didn't observe any of the warmup pitches, was bailing out on nearly every pitch, turning his body and ducking out. A lot of them weren't even all that fast. Called some strikes at chin level, let some beautiful curves go as balls, called a couple pitches strikes that hit the dirt and went to the backstop. I'm pretty sure he was judging them on how they looked ten feet out, cause there was no way he was tracking them while bailing out. Oh, and didn't make any mechanic for strikes either - just a verbal call. A deaf person would never have known one pitch from another.

During the game, on a 1-2 count with 2 outs, batter struck out swinging but thought it was strike 2. He was the only one who thought so, as the defense is heading in and the OC at 3B started walking back. But PU just stood there, not responding to questions from the DC that "that's 3, isn't it????". The crescendo started building but still he just stood there. Finally, I felt I had to head off a storm and get people un-frozen, so I went in and talked with him. He lost the count and froze up, so I discretely said it's three and we went on. Later in the game, R1 and R2 and a towering hit right down the 3B line clanked off what I assume was the foul pole. I was watching the runners touch so didn't see it, but it was too high to hit the fence. But no call. OC is asking for a call, saying it hit the pole. Dude just stood there. OC asks him to ask me for help - so he points at me and yells "I didn't see anything, did you?" SERIOUSLY?? Anyway, I came together and said I heard something that sounded like metal but didn't see it. The team that hit the HR was way down (9-1 or something) and it was the top of the 6th of a 7 inning game, so I just said give it to them. Whatever. Not a peep from the defense - they knew it was a HR. The 1B told me the next inning he saw it hit halfway up the pole.

Luckily, all involved recognized the situation and didn't really bitch much at all. I can EASILY see how ugly that could have been, but these two coaches are some of the best I've met. One of them was a mentor and instructor in my basketball refereeing class, so I knew he'd be cool, but both of them were. Even on blatant, head-scratching calls when I could barely contain a "WTF?", I didn't hear a word. And, probably equally fortunately, it wasn't that close of a game.

It certainly could have been so much worse....but then this post would be in the war stories forum!

[umpcoachfather]

Hopefully you had a discussion with him after the game and told him he really needed to brush up on all facets of the game before he did another at that level.

[JaxRolo]

Hopefully you had a discussion with him after the game and told him he really needed to brush up on all facets of the game

before he did another at that level.

Or any level!!!! Yikes!!!

Did anyone ever have a partner so bad that you had to switch positions?

[Welpe]

Hopefully you had a discussion with him after the game and told him he really needed to brush up on all facets of the game before he did another at that level.

Assuming this guy was not a rookie, I'm treating this as a Get in. Get done. Get out. scenario. Some men, you just can't reach.

[scrounge]

Hopefully you had a discussion with him after the game and told him he really needed to brush up on all facets of the game before he did another at that level.

Assuming this guy was not a rookie, I'm treating this as a Get in. Get done. Get out. scenario. Some men, you just can't reach.

Exactly, he was an old guy. Nice guy, personable, but clearly out of his element and not seeking any info on doing better. If he would have asked or shown any inclination to find out in any way what could be done better, I'd have been more than happy to talk. But he was pretty much relieved when it was over and didn't ask, so....I just got my shirt back, sprayed it with Febreze, wished him well and hit the road.

[umpcoachfather]

I'd throw the shirt away, You could inadvertantly absorb some unwanted mistakes.

[RichMSN]

So I pulled into the parking lot yesterday a half hour - the customary time in this area - before the scheduled U17 game last night (essentially, summer varsity teams). I'd never met or heard of my partner but that's pretty common as well. He said hi and said he was just about to call me to see if I was coming.

He steps out from behind the car to shake hands and I notice he's rocking a navy ball bag AND a grey ball bag. Cool! They were kind of old and dusty but held on by the brown dress belt on the grey dress slacks. At least the pants were pretty close to the right color, even if they were just normal dress pants.

We exchanged pleasantries and he mentioned how he felt more comfortable at the plate, since he didn't really know base mechanics. Turns out he only did softball, having taken the baseball class a few years ago but never working it. NOTE: this is NOT a slam on softball, as I'm pretty sure a lot of this wouldn't fly over there either.

Anyway, I ask him what color to wear. He says he has his navy school shirt (which we're not authorized to wear after the school season ended last week) and dark blue. Dark blue - as in a short sleeve polo shirt. As in a shirt you'd wear to the office. I didn't bother looking to see if there was a little alligator on the breast pocket, but there easily could have been. Luckily, I had two powder blue shirts in the car, so I tactfully suggested that it would be best if we matched, so he should borrow my shirt. He saw the shirt and said "Oh, wow, that's nice - where'd you get that?". Oy.

So we get to the field and the coaches chit-chat with us, noting that the pitcher for one team is a raw but talented Dominican home-schooled kid who was being scouted by the Reds that night. After the chat was over, he mentioned that he was kind of nervous and asked me to run the plate conference. Oookay. It became plainly evident that he was spooked. Didn't observe any of the warmup pitches, was bailing out on nearly every pitch, turning his body and ducking out. A lot of them weren't even all that fast. Called some strikes at chin level, let some beautiful curves go as balls, called a couple pitches strikes that hit the dirt and went to the backstop. I'm pretty sure he was judging them on how they looked ten feet out, cause there was no way he was tracking them while bailing out. Oh, and didn't make any mechanic for strikes either - just a verbal call. A deaf person would never have known one pitch from another.

During the game, on a 1-2 count with 2 outs, batter struck out swinging but thought it was strike 2. He was the only one who thought so, as the defense is heading in and the OC at 3B started walking back. But PU just stood there, not responding to questions from the DC that "that's 3, isn't it????". The crescendo started building but still he just stood there. Finally, I felt I had to head off a storm and get people un-frozen, so I went in and talked with him. He lost the count and froze up, so I discretely said it's three and we went on. Later in the game, R1 and R2 and a towering hit right down the 3B line clanked off what I assume was the foul pole. I was watching the runners touch so didn't see it, but it was too high to hit the fence. But no call. OC is asking for a call, saying it hit the pole. Dude just stood there. OC asks him to ask me for help - so he points at me and yells "I didn't see anything, did you?" SERIOUSLY?? Anyway, I came together and said I heard something that sounded like metal but didn't see it. The team that hit the HR was way down (9-1 or something) and it was the top of the 6th of a 7 inning game, so I just said give it to them. Whatever. Not a peep from the defense - they knew it was a HR. The 1B told me the next inning he saw it hit halfway up the pole.

Luckily, all involved recognized the situation and didn't really bitch much at all. I can EASILY see how ugly that could have been, but these two coaches are some of the best I've met. One of them was a mentor and instructor in my basketball refereeing class, so I knew he'd be cool, but both of them were. Even on blatant, head-scratching calls when I could barely contain a "WTF?", I didn't hear a word. And, probably equally fortunately, it wasn't that close of a game.

It certainly could have been so much worse....but then this post would be in the war stories forum!

This is why I have a personal rule -- if I'm stuck working with an umpire I don't know and don't trust, I work the plate. The base guy might kick 2 or 3 calls, but watching him butcher the strike zone would make for a very long day. Last time I let a guy work the plate in an adult game, I almost had to eject the entire infield after they started screaming about cockshots being called balls.

Fortunately, where I live we solicit our own games. Out of the 57 games I've done in 2012, I've worked about 30 with one particular partner who's a top notch umpire.

[Dragon29]

Did anyone ever have a partner so bad that you had to switch positions?

No, but I've wanted to!!!

[mstaylor]

I had a very good partner, Harry grad, that was just having a bad day. He was on the plate to finish a college game,two innings that turned to three, and then was supposed to stay and do the plate on the nine. His zone was awful and he knew but couldn't figure how to fix it. I knew we were in trouble if he stayed on the plate for the nine. After the first I asked him if he wanted to switch or stay. He opted to switch, I went to each coach and told them we were switching. They both were very happy and didn't mind the extra time.