Out of the box

[Umpire in Chief]

R1 outs don't matter.

 

Offence puts on the bunt & run.

 

Pitch is high and away - Maybe 4" high and maybe an equal amount away. 

 

Batter squares to bunt and jabs at the ball which fouls off to the back stop.Completely routine and I think nothing of it.

 

Defensive coach comes unglued. "He's out! He was out of the box!"

 

Me: "No, he was in."

 

Coach approaches me: "That was a pitchout. There is no way he could have hit that if he stayed in the box. Yadda, yadda, yadda..."

 

Me: "I had him completely in and jabbing at the outside pitch."

 

I let him rant a bit just saying no. Then he asks me to appeal to my partner. I again tell him no. He leaves ticked off.

 

So after the game my partner asked what happened and I tell him. 

 

For what ever reason that lit my partner up. There was no way that was a pitchout! If the batter was a few inches taller he could have creamed it. If they call that a pitchout they deserve to have lost. And on and on.

 

The conversation with my partner was more fun than the one with the coach.

[HeadHunterLA]

Those coaches that start whining about a guy being out of the box really get on my nerves.  I think I may have called an out half a dozen times in 20+ years.

[Replacematt]

I've done it once. Interestingly, it was college.

[umpstu]

I've done it once. Interestingly, it was college.

Same here and the coach who's team was in the field was pissed. He might of had a double play. Oh well.

[ukce1861]

I had a LL coach this year who wanted me to call it on a girl who wasn't stepping at all, but she was up in the box.  He said something on the second pitch of the AB and I let it go.  Third pitch, I said I had her in the box.  Fourth pitch, he's still whining.  Finally I call time, take off my mask and tell him that's enough.  He tries to argue and I shut him down.  Finally, he says, "Well, can I at least come talk to you?"  I looked at him like he was crazy and said, "NO!  Let's Play!" Some coaches just don't get it...

[Daniel]

Can't remember calling it in softball. However, when I did baseball, I called it twice in the same season (different games) on the same player. It was pretty obvious both times. Apparently he was a "good bunter" and after the game, he and him mom approached us and asked why he was doing wrong.

[Wesley]

When I was a teenager playing PONY, the opposing pitcher was so bad, and I was so desperate to hit the ball, that I stepped on the plate to rip one to RF.  PU, who was I girl I might add, immediately called me out.  Our manager came out mad as heck, yelling and looking to argue.  I had to physically restrain him before he got to the girl umpire and tell him "Yeah coach, I stepped on the plate!"  He backed down real quick...

[umpire_scott]

I've only called it once in a high school softball game my first year as an umpire.  And I regretted it.  The one team was substantially better than the other.  The bad team had a pitcher that was probably throwing under 30 MPH.  So the other coach was having his girls move up in the box.  This one girl came up and wiped away the front of the box line with her foot.  It kind of unnerved me as a rookie official that she was doing this to make it more difficult for me to see it.  So I was watching her very closely.  On her next AB she moved way up, took a big stride, and right after she made contact, I called "dead ball, batter's out".  The problem is that no one could hear me because she crushed it about 300 feet to dead center field.  My call was not fully known and understood until she came all the way around to home.  Her coach went crazy.

[scrounge]

I've only called it once in a high school softball game my first year as an umpire.  And I regretted it.  The one team was substantially better than the other.  The bad team had a pitcher that was probably throwing under 30 MPH.  So the other coach was having his girls move up in the box.  This one girl came up and wiped away the front of the box line with her foot.  It kind of unnerved me as a rookie official that she was doing this to make it more difficult for me to see it.  So I was watching her very closely.  On her next AB she moved way up, took a big stride, and right after she made contact, I called "dead ball, batter's out".  The problem is that no one could hear me because she crushed it about 300 feet to dead center field.  My call was not fully known and understood until she came all the way around to home.  Her coach went crazy.

 

If it was the right call and she was way out, you have nothing to regret on the call itself. (As an aside, you do seem overly influenced by the reactions, but that's not the point of this). However, if you do have a call like this again, get out in front of the plate or something and SELL IT! Immediately make sure you get everyone's attention and stop it...because as you learned, a surprise later is worse. I've learned this one the hard way as well.