Ever have an honest kid?

[JHSump]

Calling for all "honest kid" stories! You know, where the kid tells his coach your call was right...possibly after the coach has made a fool of himself arguing your call.

Last weekend.. 10U tournament. I'm BU. R2 attempts to steal third. F2 gets the throw off, but its a bit high. Meanwhile, F5 is about a foot or two in front of 3B, toward home, and off the foul line. R2 slides by behind F5 as F5 tries a tag --- sorta a swipe tag. I'm in good position. Watch the glove, never see it touch F5 and never see it "wiggle" in any way; it just "floats there in space." So I make the call, "Safe! No tag!"

Let me set the scene. The team currently on defense occupies the 1B dugout. Most of the players are on the field, of course. But the Head coach and his, what, 7 or 8 assistant coaches occupy the dugout. I say 7 or 8 because it's not at all clear who is and who isn't in the dugout (it's simply the place behind fence), and all the fathers are wearing what appears to be the official uniform of the coaching staff of the club --- jeans and sneakers with a variety of t-shirts and a ball cap. Some of these guys are clearly near the head coach, so maybe they are assistants. Others are just spread thinly along the fence up to the two side by side bleachers near home plate where the mothers/sisters/grandmothers are conveniently staying out of the way.

Now, like in "Twas the Night Before Christmas" there arose such a clatter from that extended mass of people, that I turned to see what was the matter. It died down in a second or two and the head coach, out of the silence, called out, "How did he miss him? Billy did you miss him?"

I look at Billy, and honest Billy immediately says, "Yes, I missed him."

I just turned back to look at the head coach...and smiled a little smile.

Head coach, continues, "Are you sure you missed him?"

Billy: "Yes, I'm sure."

F6 then tries, "You missed him Billy?!?" Billy, looking a bit miffed at this point, says, "Yes." and rolls his eyes at F6.

Sometimes the entertainment value of umpiring can't be beat.

[cyclonehokiece]

Had that happen in a Jr Legion game this summer, swipe tag misses, coach arguing asks F5 if he tagged, kid says no, coach looks like a fool, just walks away at that point.

[Jocko]

Batter swings and misses K3. Ball barely tips leather and hits the fence. Coach goes monkeysh*t about it being foul. I just shake my head, all the while giving the safe sign, after my verbal, "no catch."

Batter gets to my line in the sand, and I call him out. Coach is doing gymnastics screaming and hollering abouut a foul. Batter says, "Dad! I missed it!"

[UMP45]

Batter swings and misses K3. Ball barely tips leather and hits the fence. Coach goes monkeysh*t about it being foul. I just shake my head, all the while giving the safe sign, after my verbal, "no catch."

Batter gets to my line in the sand, and I call him out. Coach is doing gymnastics screaming and hollering abouut a foul. Batter says, "Dad! I missed it!"

And there in lies the problem "DADDY BALL" :hopmad:

[scrounge]

Believe it or not, I had a very similar situation in an adult game. By weekend warrior standards, these were pretty good guys, an over 35 league but they took it serious. A pickoff attempt at 2nd was made. F1 spun around and fired it, the ball beat the runner but F4 caught the ball about a foot in front of the bag and put the glove straight down. The runners hand made it to the far corner behind the tag, I had a great view and called him safe. F4 didn't say anything but the pitcher was whining a lot. Nothing obnoxious, just a 45-50 yr old dude who was struggling a bit on a hot day and gave me a lot of "how can you call that, he was way out". Kept it up for two more innings. Again, nothing out of bounds, just nagging.

Anyway, after the game he comes up to me and says "Blue, I just want to say I'm sorry about that, my 2B told me in the dugout he missed the tag and you had it right all along".

[johnnyg08]

I had the count wrong one time and the catcher said that it was 1-2 instead of 2-1...I was pretty sure it was 2-1 the batter looks at me and goes...it's 1-2...this was a high school game.

Mad props to the kid for being straight with me.

No idea how I had 2-1 instead of 1-2.

[Jocko]

I had the count wrong one time and the catcher said that it was 1-2 instead of 2-1...I was pretty sure it was 2-1 the batter looks at me and goes...it's 1-2...this was a high school game.

Mad props to the kid for being straight with me.

No idea how I had 2-1 instead of 1-2.

bad clicker? :P

[johnnyg08]

bad clicker?

If I'm the clicker, then you are probably on to something.

[mstaylor]

I was doing either JrLL or SrLL game, something 90ft. I had a HR over the LF fence, manager insisted it bounced over. I told him no I was sure. He said ask the F7, he wouldn't lie. I told him I was sure he wouldn't but I wasn't polling players to get a call. All of a sudden he spun and asked his F7 if it went over in the air? The kid said sure did. In most situations I probably would have dumped him for asking after I said no but I had to walk away, the look was too priceless.

I have a top umpire in my HS group that rarely ejects, he prefers to try to handle situations but occasionally he has no choice. He had a kid come into the plate and crashed the catcher and he got dumped. His manager said he wasn't trying to dislodge the ball, he simply started his slide late. The umpire told him he had him crashing the catcher and he was gone. After the game the bus was loading next to where the umpires were changing out. The manager stopped at their cars to make a final appeal. The ejected kid comes off the bus, apologizes to the PU for hitting the catcher, he was just trying to knock the ball loose.