Rough day for partner...takes toll on me as well:(

[FleasOf1000Camels]

12u tournament under OBR.  Bracket play Sunday, so all games are win-or-go-home.  My partner, who is normally solid, just had a horrible day.

#1.  He's on plate.  Tie game, late innings. R2 with nobody out and count of 0-2.  R2 is running, and batter squares late and stabs at pitch that was chin high.  Foul tip direct to F2 glove and held.  Sensing a play at 3rd, I'm moving from C toward 3rd base line when I hear partner shout FOUL.  From the corner of my eye I see R2 about 20 feet from 3rd, he stops dead in his tracks.  I look back at plate, partner has both hands up and F2 is now throwing to 3rd. F5 catches throw and starts running at R2, who just stands there with a WTF look on his face.  After lengthy discussion and threats of protest from BOTH teams, we ruled the batter OUT, and sent R2 back to 2nd. 

#2. Next game, he's still on plate.  R2 with 1 out and 3-2 count.  Pitch is ball 4.  As BR is heading for 1st, F2 turns to plate ump and asks for TIME.  R2 has a huge walking lead, and breaks for 3rd...again I start moving toward 3rd base line just as I hear partner shout TIME.  What a SH*#-storm.  Nothing we could do but swallow our error and send runner back to 2nd.

#3. Next batter. Count is 1-2.  F1 blows through set without stop.  I shout BALK, but pitch is delivered, batter swings and misses.  I put both hands up, shout TIME and turn to award both runners their next base.  Partner has his right fist up, and tells batter he's OUT.  3rd base coach is charging down the line, he's out of his mind.  Partner rips off his mask, point and shouts ONE MORE STEP AND YOU'RE GONE.  Base coach freezes, and turns toward me with his arms outstretched.  I gave coach a 'calm down' motion and trotted in to talk with partner.  His eyes are glazed over, his brain is fried.  It takes me 2-3 minutes to get him to calm down and understand that since we're enforcing the balk, there is NO pitch.  Batter remains at plate with 1-2 count.

#4. Two batters later, count of 2-2...pitch is ball, and partner says 'ball four' and points BR to 1st.  I glance at my indicator, wondering if I'd missed a pitch, F2 is asking plate umpire, and defensive dugout is yelling 'that's just ball 3'.  Partner looks at me, and I give him a nod and 3 fingers.  He calls BR back to box.

Fans are getting brutal.  "Do your job"  "Get in the game, blue"

#5. Bases loaded, ground ball right over the bag at 3rd.  Plate umpire points fair, but says nothing (WE all know that is correct).  F7 is VERY slow getting to ball, acts as if he thought it was foul.  All three runners score, and batter ends up at 3rd.  I hear a fan shout DO YOUR JOB, MAKE A CALL!  Partner then proceeds to get in an animated shouting match with fans.  Very nasty stuff going BOTH ways.  I had to rodeo-clown him away from the screen.

#6. Bottom of 6th, home team needs ONE run to get to mercy rule (8 after 6).  Runner on 3rd with 2 out.  DC approaches plate ump and says 'we want to put the next two batters on,"  I'm thinking 'God, Please let partner remember OBR'...he doesn't and tells batter "take your base."  I'm trying to get his attention without being too indiscrete, but have no luck...so I trot in and remind him.  He's like 'oh crap. that's right.' and calls BR back.  DC is stumped, unfamiliar with rules...pretty obvious his players have never been exposed to this procedure.  DC asks for time to conference with his defense, partner says 'fine', but then I reminded both DC and partner they already had used one conference this inning.  DC said "yeah, I know," then proceeded with his conference.   As conference was breaking up, I noticed the same pitcher was on the mound.  I said to DC "Skip, you need a new pitcher"   He says "why?" I say, "pro rules, 2nd trip in an inning requires pitching change."  He proceeds to have F1 and F2 change places, all the while grumbling to his assistant "I don't know which is worse, a plate guy who knows nothing, or a base guy that knows too much."  Time drags as they are having trouble getting the gear switched, players and fans are restless, fans are making remarks, my partner looks like his head is about to explode, I want to crawl under a rock. 

Finally, we're ready to go.  Batter steps in, pitcher engages, partner says PLAY.  Catcher is standing 4-5 feet away from plate, nowhere NEAR his box.  I think to myself 'NO WAY I'm ending this cluster on the infamous catcher's balk'.  Pitch sails over catcher's head and goes to backstop (which is not very deep), runner scampers home, F2 tosses to F1 covering...play is close...plate umpire raises right hand, then gives safe signal "he's O-SAFE."

In 30+ years, I have never been so glad to get off a field.

[Mad Mike]

Wow, that is quite a list of "accomplishments" from your partner. I can imagine you would want to get out of there.

Maybe your partner needs to buy some adult beverages and a few polish dogs?

We have all been there before....he must have had other things on his mind.

How was your partner in the pre-game? Was he engaged? Sounds like he really mixed rule sets up in several examples given above.

[stkjock]

57 minutes ago, FleasOf1000Camels said:

He proceeds to have F1 and F2 change places, all the while grumbling to his assistant "I don't know which is worse, a plate guy who knows nothing, or a base guy that knows too much."

I realize you said OBR, at 12U, no modifier to protect the arm of the catcher?

 

 

[PonyUmpire]

This is an example of one mistake leading to more mistakes. One of the hardest things in umpiring is bouncing back from a royal screwup and putting your game back on the rails. When one screwup become two screwups, it's easy for things to go downhill quickly. You go into defense mode, and all you can think about is how badly you want the game to just be over.

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[PonyUmpire]

Although it seemed to work, I'm not a big fan of "one more step and you're gone". Maybe "coach, you need to slow down!", coupled with a stop sign. Ultimatums are never a good idea.

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[grayhawk]

8 hours ago, stkjock said:

I realize you said OBR, at 12U, no modifier to protect the arm of the catcher?

 

 

Little League is the only organization that I know of that restricts catchers from pitching in certain circumstances.

[blue23ll]

I am curious, how many games did he do this day? 

[FleasOf1000Camels]

7 hours ago, blue23ll said:

I am curious, how many games did he do this day? 

4 games total; 2 bases, 2 plate.

1st game was PLAY-IN for semis, then 2 semi-finals and championship.  I originally suggested we have one guy do plate for games 1 and 4, the other take both semis...that way nobody had plate for the same team twice in a row.  He didn't want to have to change gear twice.  In hindsight, I wish I had stuck to my guns on that rotation.

Trouble all started 6th inning of game #3, which went 8 innings.  We had a 45 minute break between games 3 and 4.

[blue23ll]

4 games isn't a whole lot of games in a day, but for some it may be their limit. I find that if I work a tournament and have 6 games a day, by the 4th game I'm pretty much toast. There is no value in working umpires that hard, in my opinion, as the quality will suffer in the later games.

[Thunderheads]

12 hours ago, grayhawk said:

Little League is the only organization that I know of that restricts catchers from pitching in certain circumstances.

coming soon to NFHS .....................

[Thunderheads]

16 minutes ago, blue23ll said:

4 games isn't a whole lot of games in a day, but for some it may be their limit. I find that if I work a tournament and have 6 games a day, by the 4th game I'm pretty much toast. There is no value in working umpires that hard, in my opinion, as the quality will suffer in the later games.

I'm comfortable with 4, ..I can wrap my arms around that, ...2 bases, 2 plates, go home!   5 games is what's tough ....sounds weird, but that one extra can be a killer.

Lesson learned in this scenario ..... don't do 2 plates in a row.  Regardless of time, and regardless of whether you partner doesn't want to change twice .... ROTATE

[ElkOil]

On 4/18/2016 at 9:17 AM, FleasOf1000Camels said:

I had to rodeo-clown him away from the screen.

That right there would have been worth the price of admission.

[bam]

2 games in a day is enough.  i remember my days of doing 8 hockey games in a day.  SMH.  

[ricka56]

1 hour ago, bam said:

 i remember my days of doing 8 hockey games in a day.

Skating uphill...into the wind...both ways. 

[Welpe]

2 games in a day is enough.  i remember my days of doing 8 hockey games in a day.  SMH.  

Yep. Two games max. It's the choice of a new generation.

As for that day of baseball, Flea it sounds like you needed a 12 pack in compensation from your partner.

[KenBAZ]

Some of those mistakes a good umpire just does not make. Engaging with fans is one of them. I would not hold up the game schedule to change gear twice. No matter what he is still your partner, good job supporting him.

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[FleasOf1000Camels]

On ‎4‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 8:12 AM, blue23ll said:

4 games isn't a whole lot of games in a day, but for some it may be their limit. I find that if I work a tournament and have 6 games a day, by the 4th game I'm pretty much toast. There is no value in working umpires that hard, in my opinion, as the quality will suffer in the later games.

We routinely work events with SIX games in a day, but we take a THREE man crew and rotate so everybody works FOUR with a break.

[FleasOf1000Camels]

On ‎4‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 7:37 PM, PonyUmpire said:

This is an example of one mistake leading to more mistakes. One of the hardest things in umpiring is bouncing back from a royal screwup and putting your game back on the rails. When one screwup become two screwups, it's easy for things to go downhill quickly. You go into defense mode, and all you can think about is how badly you want the game to just be over.

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I'm quite certain that this is precisely what happened.  He knew he screwed-the-pooch on that first one, and it distracted him and led to the next, snowballing from there. 

[MadMax]

Due to the lack of serviceable umpires, and the glut of tournament games all vying for the relatively short window of opportunity in Wisconsin's weather patterns (Spring comes late, Football arrives much too soon), tournaments will gang up 6-7 games per Saturday and 5-6 per Sunday, and you'll see workhorse umpires (neighhhhh) work the maximum of 15 games (2 on Friday) in a tournament weekend. Granted, they're all time-limited games (1:45 is typical), giving 15 minutes of bleed-n-feed time between starts. This is where you get partners who bristle at gear changes, and insist on "staying in the gear". Me, I'm a former catcher, and while I could live in my gear, I'm a practiced hand at rapid uniform changes.

There's also reasons why we tote multiple masks, 15 shirts, and rely on (nice) combo pants.

One of the pitfalls of these tournaments, too, is fixed field assigning. To make things as simple as possible, you'll be assigned a partner (if you didn't predetermine it ahead of time) and a field for the entirety of the day. You can get some... challenging partners. The problem becomes the crowd. Because the games are set up one after another, the next teams and their fans are usually waiting in direct proximity to the field (at least the parents are... the ballplayers are usually on some unused section of grass doing long-toss and making sure little Robbie has his eye-black on "right"), and see and hear every call you make. Make a few contested calls (not even wrong ones), and parents begin to fill out a mental rap sheet on you. 

To make matters even more challenging, if one crew is defying the tournament rules set, or interprets them wrong, or implements a different rules set (OBR vs Fed vs... their own), we've now got at least two teams now dispersing off to other games and crews, misinformed, confused or with a bone to pick with any umpire they see in the next 24 hours.

Take as many games as you want or feel you are able to, but when you can make most of your rent money in one packed weekend, I'm one of those guys who will take any game the TD offers.

[MObetterBlue]

It sucks making a bad call.  It sucks worse having a bad game.  I think the snowball affect can get any of us but just being aware of it should help us to knuckle down and focus on the next play.  The most important pitch is always the next one.  Nothing we can do about the last one.  Take a step back, take a deep breath, refocus and be ready for the next pitch.  Doesn't matter which game it is, 1st or 7th (if you're that crazy - which I've done a few times ).  4 games is good for me now - 2 and 2 then head home for a shower and an adult beverage.