LAZY Partner

[grayhawk]

Worked a couple of 13u U-Trip games yesterday with the laziest partner I have ever worked with.  I knew I was in trouble when I got there and he wanted to head to the field without a pregame (which I wouldn't allow).  Examples of his laziness: standing with hands in pockets, or with arms crossed in B & C.  Never moving at more than a snail's pace, never mirroring my signals (like it was literally too much effort for him, though I did get a nod a few times), and even sitting on the steps that lead to the spectator area between innings (the piece de resistance).  Even his calls on bangers were completely nonchalant.  To any casual observer, it was like that baseball field was the last place on earth he wanted to be.

 

His laziness led to a couple of poorly judged calls, which of course reflects on both of us.  I ended up ejecting an assistant coach for counting calls in the 6th inning after a close play at the plate where I called an opposing runner safe.

 

Looks like I have someone to block in Arbiter.  I don't want to work with anyone that is there for the paycheck and nothing but the paycheck.

[LMSANS]

I currently have 3 people blocked in Arbiter. They exhibit the same type of behavior as you describe. Larry Sansevere Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[semper_fi_72]

Feel your pain brother.

You already know that I had a real Winner for a partner on Saturday.

Was good to see you out there yesterday and glad you got the call to work the games.

I am tired after this weekend.

Think I am getting old.

[grayhawk]

Feel your pain brother.

You already know that I had a real Winner for a partner on Saturday.

Was good to see you out there yesterday and glad you got the call to work the games.

I am tired after this weekend.

Think I am getting old.

 

Do tell.  I don't know the details and I'm sure everyone would be interested.

[Jocko]

True story. My last career SB game. My partner was the assigner's son. He brought nothing but uniforms to a 2 day tourney. Instead of loaning him my gear, I opted to do all the plates. I hate loaning gear. Who wants someone else's sweat in their TWs and CP (YUCK!)?

Anyway, last game of the day for us. I've done 5 plates. Assigner asks me to let him use my gear and get the last plate. I VERY begrudgingly, conceded. His plate meeting was less than complete. Before he flipped MY coin, I felt obligated to ask both HCs if their players were legally equipped. Dude goes, "Oh Yeah!"

First inning, I'm in "A" . Greenhorn gives the count after every pitch. He holds it up, then turns to show it to the OT dugout, then turns to show it to the DT dugout, holds it straight up arms fully extended, then rotates his arms at the shoulder until his arms are parallel with the ground. EVERY PITCH. B1 hits a line shot right over 1B. Ipause/read/react, announce that I'm going out and am in position to see a diving F9 touch the ball in fair territory knocking it foul. I signal fair/no catch and clear to make sure I'm away from F9 fielding the ball and watching ball for DBT. F9 grabs it and throws it to F6 to play on BR. HP is standing behind with his mask parked on his head : luckily, BR was very very safe.

I get with him between innings and give him a few rotation instructions (AGAIN).

Skip a few innings. Still doing his count ritual after every pitch. R1, 1 down. I'm in "B". Batter gets a clean base hit to F7. I assume the working area, see R1 touch 2B and head for 3B. Never hear HP announce he is taking 3B, even though he gave me the rotation signal. I look to see where the play is going. R1 digging for 3B. Cutoff receives the ball. I move to the cutout (I know, right?) at 3B and bang the out. BR digging for 2B. I bust it as close to 2B as I can get and lock in as BR slides into the swipe tag. I bang the out. When I look back, HP is standing behind the plate with his (MY) mask parked on his head. Dude never moved

He had 1 whacker at the plate. Never moved from POP. Slide and tag in a cloud of dust. He points to me in "C" and yells, "Whacha got?!?" :

After the game, BOTH HCs shook my hand and told me I did a great job, they appreciated the hustle. I was exhausted. 2 very good teams with lots and lots of action.

We get back to the dressing room, and I lay into him for throwing me under the bus on every single play. Assigner tells me he wants us to work together exclusively. Hell no! I told him that would be my last tourney. I would rather go back to coaching than umpire if those were the only games I had. I washed my hands of SB. That assigner is the only game in town.

For the record, when I did call the occasional SB game, I used my ingrained BB mechanics. Heck with them. I'm a BB umpire calling SB games. There were ZERO comments from anyone about the difference.

[GreyhoundAggie]

Lol. Wow Jocko. You were working with Jimmy the Softball Umpire this time it sounds like.

 

My partner and I changed up the rotations a few times last night. But he let me know with signals whether he wanted everything, or whether I was rotating up.

[Jocko]

Often, when calling small fields/non shavers, my partner and I will change the rotations. Mostly, we will kill the rotations and BU will take all calls on the bases or vise-versa.

[Engineer]

My laziest partner told me that the base umpire has all the calls on the bases and wouldn't move from home plate.

[Umpire in Chief]

I currently have 3 people blocked in Arbiter. They exhibit the same type of behavior as you describe. Larry Sansevere Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I wish my commish didn't have that feature blocked out.