Bad Game

[umpire_scott]

I know we all have and I actually only feel like I kicked one of the calls but it was the proverbial snowball yesterday.

 

PLAY #1 - Tie game at 1-1 between two very good 12U teams.  Team A is batting with R1.  Attempted steal of second, ball beats runner by a mile.  2B goes to apply tag at midsection of R1 about 5 feet in front of 2B.  I see tag and call him out.  Apparently some part of R1 hit F4 in the jaw.  F4 comes out of it rubbing his jaw.  Team B DC calls time and comes out to talk to me.  He claims R1 went in high with his elbow.  I tell him my eyes were focused on the tag and I saw nothing malicious.  In between innings I ask my partner if he saw anything and  he said he though that R1's helmet made contact when he dipped to try and avoid the tag, but he saw absolutely nothing malicious.

 

PLAY #2 - Team A batting with runner on second two outs.   Scored still tied 1-1.  Bases are 70 feet, mound 50.  I'm in "C" and there is a pickoff at second.  I'm not sure what was going through my mind or if I just wasn't very focused.  I turn with the ball and the runner goes back in standing up.  Fielder swipes and hits the shin just before it comes down on the base.  My arms start to come up to signal safe (I don't know why other than had he dived in he would have been safe and so based on the throw I anticipate and that was on my mind).  I give about 1/4 of the safe mechanic then loudly proclaim "out" and give the arm signal.  Of course the DC from the third base dugout asks what changed from when I was calling him safe. I simply said the verbal was out and it was the correct call.

 

PLAY #2 - Next half inning (and I'm still kicking myself for the first call) Team B batting there is a pickoff to first.  R1 dives back in plenty of time, but dive back with his hand like 6 inches short of the bag.  The 1B makes a lazy effort at the tag (should have easily had him) and R1 brings his hand back and touches the bag.  I go into my out mechanic to quickly and realize that I think his hand got back just prior to the tag on his back.  But I literally feel that after the first play I have to just bang him and take my medicine.  I give a less than emphatic out verbal with my out mechanic.  First base coach puts up a very small argument.  I simply tell him that he came up short of the bag.  Coach says I know he did but he got his hand back on the second attempt before the tag.  I think coach was probably right, but it was close.

 

PLAY #3 - R1 and one out Team A batting.  Ball hit to 2B, should be a routine DP.  2B bobbles ball and flips awkwardly to SS.  Ball pulls him off bag but he catches it early and sort of stumbles and I see his foot hit corner of bag while he was ball.  I call the runner out.  DC, dugout and fans (they are on the third base side) goes bonkers.  Play looks bad because SS ends up like 3-4 feet from second because of the way he rolled.  I clearly verbal and non-verbal that I had his foot dragging the corner of the bag. I tell DC to return to his dugout and he does.  He had comes out to near 3B.

 

PLAY #4 - We are now in the top of the 7 inning of a 6 inning game, still tied 1-1.  Team A batting with runner on first.  R1 attempts to steal.  Catcher makes an absolutely perfect throw.  I see glove and ball hit dirt and foot press glove into the base.  From where I am easy call, but it was very close.  I bang him out, and I know I had the right call.  Of course Team A coach thinks differently and yells something like "you have to watch the whole play"?  Not even sure what he meant.

 

Team B ends up scoring the winning run in the bottom of the seventh when catcher chucks ball into LF on an steal of third.  In these tournaments the BU (me) keeps a scorecard and has to have both coaches sign it after the game.  Team A coach tells me that I took the game away from a bunch of 12 year olds, but the fans sure knew I was there. 

[Mike Prince]

Sounds like poor timing on some and not selling the hell out of a few bangers.

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[umpire_scott]

Sounds like poor timing on some and not selling the hell out of a few bangers.

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Definitely on both.  No excuses other than it was my 7th game in less than 24 hours.  I had three games Friday night (5, 7 and 9 PM) and then had 5 more on Saturday starting at 9:30 a.m.

[BigUmpire]

Umpire Scott is back from the dead.

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[Majordave]

As said by our esteemed colleagues, I'll restate the key points in a slightly different way for repetition's sake:

Timing, timing timing!

And,

Any close play requires/deserves appropriate emphatic verbal calls and mechanics.

Being tired is a problem. 5 Hour Energy or Monster/Rockstar/Red Bull/caffeine of any type always required for me when doing game upon game like that.

[SteveJ]

I will add that along with the advice already given you might want to look at your distance from the play.  Sometimes you can get too close to the play and miss things happening due to tunnel vision.  That might be what the coach meant when he said "you have to watch the whole play".  We all know that there are no more knowledgeable coaches than 12U club team coaches......

[UMP45]

 

Sounds like poor timing on some and not selling the hell out of a few bangers.

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Definitely on both.  No excuses other than it was my 7th game in less than 24 hours.  I had three games Friday night (5, 7 and 9 PM) and then had 5 more on Saturday starting at 9:30 a.m.

 

And there is the real problem. To many games worked!

[dumbdumb]

 

 

Sounds like poor timing on some and not selling the hell out of a few bangers.

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Definitely on both.  No excuses other than it was my 7th game in less than 24 hours.  I had three games Friday night (5, 7 and 9 PM) and then had 5 more on Saturday starting at 9:30 a.m.

 

And there is the real problem. To many games worked!

 

But with that 4 man you are bound to be going to in the near future, and by volunteering (somebody has to do it) to start at 3B every Friday for the rest of your career, you will suddenly have more energy to work more games next year, just like the OP.

[GetItRight]

Any close play requires/deserves appropriate emphatic verbal calls and mechanics.

 

This is fairly overrated.

 

If there's any kind of crowd and/or depending on the weather conditions, no one is really going to hear your verbal anyway.

 

I give very limited verbal on the bases, even for really close plays.  That's why signals were invented in the first place.  A crisply delivered signal, with accompanying confident body language, is generally enough to sell most plays.  The really tight ones are going to elicit a response from one side or the other anyway, no matter how loudly you scream "Out!" or "SAFE!".

 

I guarantee I have some of the softest verbals of anyone on the board, and I've had a pretty successful career so far (high school state tournaments and up to the Division II level in college).  When I see umpires that really SCREAM their calls out, it tells me that they're trying to convince themselves on the call.  Just be smooth with it.

 

Just trying to provide a different perspective is all.