Youth Tournament Today

[mstaylor]

I did three 90ft 13/14 baseball games, two plates and a base. Everything went pretty well but we had a ton of balks and we had the two of the toughest balk guys in the assoc, myself and my cousin. We were in the third game, the second with the same team, and I called a balk in the top of the first. I hear from the stands,"Could we just not call balks?" Ahhh, no, part of the deal. At the plate meeting the VC tells me he's also an umpire, oh joy. R2 stealing, catcher comes up throwing, and the batter backs into the throwing lane causing the catcher to make a rainbow throw. That's batter's interference! Time! That's batter interference, batter is out, you back to second. Here the comes the coach, pseudo umpire. Was there contact? Doesn't need to be any, he simply has to hinder the catcher's throw, which is what he did when he backed up in his lane. Then I get the ubiquitous,"Then where is he supposed to go?" Stand still Mark, that's what he has to do. After the inning he comes over and says he also umpires and I probably call it tighter than he does. You think? So exactly what are they allowed to do?

Earlier in another game we had a pitcher that would swing to look at first. He slowly swung to look, ok, so far so good. Then as he goes to swing back he stopped and swung to first quickly, then repeated it. So he essentially swung three times in the same look. We balked him. The manager says he is allowed to do that. They have an ex Boston pitcher that teaches that and he bets I wouldn't tell him he is wrong. My answer, happily if he were here. The look was priceless. As the game went along we talked some more and I explained the 80/20 rule and told him that pro players don't know rules for squat. I told him I would make gentleman's bet. Ask you pro instructor if a RH pitcher can stand on the rubber, step to first and throw without stepping off. I assure you he will say he can't, and he would be wrong. 

I umpire this coach several of times a year so I told him to let me know next tournament. Then he said the problem is how many umpires know that? I agreed too many wouldn't but at 13s and above they should all that. I assured him that any I train know it. 

The only other odd thing was R1,R3, pitcher comes set, Both runners break, the pitcher rolled over to second and threw. R3 scored, rundown with R1, who makes it to second. When the pitcher rolled over to second, the R1 stopped halfway. I really expected the manager to bark about throwing to an unoccupied base. Surprisingly, not a word. 

Edit:

Just remembered the relief pitcher in the third game warmed up and he was throwing with some decent zip, much faster than the rest of the day. He gets two quick outs and the third batter is getting around on him but fouling it off. Pitcher throws a very nice knuckleball that just fell off the table. Batter steps back and told the catcher, "That was just nasty." He did a nice job of setting it up. He get them geared up trying to hit his fastball and then throw the knuckleball. 

[Dannytheman]

OK on all!!   Do love me a good knuckler!!   I always know I am in trouble when a coach tells me he umpires, too.  Might as well just wait for the issue to arise after that.

 

Good day for you!!

[afaber12]

OK on all!! Do love me a good knuckler!! I always know I am in trouble when a coach tells me he umpires, too. Might as well just wait for the issue to arise after that. Good day for you!!

It's awfully tempting to tell them " then consider yourself warned for any potentially ejectable offence" when they say they're an umpire. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[guyinaredhat]

I worked 5 games today . 10u ball , only good game that didn't end in a run rule was the last one , and even that one wasn't that good. Oh we'll at least I have te 16 's tomorrow , and I get to work with a former milb /current college guy. I've worked with him before but it's always great to observe and learn from an experienced guy.