Every Once In a While...

[Radie 88]

... a youngster amazes me with their fairness and maturity, especially compared to their coaches.

Calling the Senior Girls softball All-Star game.. HT is protecting a 2 run lead in the last inning, with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs...

A hard hit ground ball bounces off of the pitcher and deflects back towards the plate, F1 fields it and makes the throw home (most likely her only play at that point). The throw beats the runner by several steps, tag is made and I make the out call. I was in a good position but the R3 and F2 obscured my vision of the ball getting knocked free.. I saw it a half second later and instantly changed my call to 3 loud and obvious safe calls.

The coach of the HT is pretty annoyed and wants an explanation. I give it to him. He wasn't happy but maintained his composure so I let him talk a little bit (I generally give guys a long leash if they are not yelling).

Walking back to the plate, I knew I had made an error by making my out call too fast (still my first year and I suppose I was excited by how good of a game it was, my league routinely sees 27-3 games) and in my head, I was getting a little down on myself for the mistake...

When I get to the plate, the F2 looks me square in the face and says "Good call, blue. I dropped it". 

This little girl (13, maybe) made my whole day. It was made all the more special in that she was the F1 for a few innings and seemed frustrated by some of my ball/strike calls. She didn't let that stop her from being fair and respectful.

 

The next batter hits a sinking line drive to F3 and the HT still wins by 1 run. The HT assistant coach rushes the field, points to me and says "That's for making that bad call". I didn't even care, that little girl still had me feeling great. 

[JSam21]

1 hour ago, Radie said:

... a youngster amazes me with their fairness and maturity, especially compared to their coaches.

Calling the Senior Girls softball All-Star game.. HT is protecting a 2 run lead in the last inning, with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs...

A hard hit ground ball bounces off of the pitcher and deflects back towards the plate, F1 fields it and makes the throw home (most likely her only play at that point). The throw beats the runner by several steps, tag is made and I make the out call. I was in a good position but the R3 and F2 obscured my vision of the ball getting knocked free.. I saw it a half second later and instantly changed my call to 3 loud and obvious safe calls.

The coach of the HT is pretty annoyed and wants an explanation. I give it to him. He wasn't happy but maintained his composure so I let him talk a little bit (I generally give guys a long leash if they are not yelling).

Walking back to the plate, I knew I had made an error by making my out call too fast (still my first year and I suppose I was excited by how good of a game it was, my league routinely sees 27-3 games) and in my head, I was getting a little down on myself for the mistake...

When I get to the plate, the F2 looks me square in the face and says "Good call, blue. I dropped it". 

This little girl (13, maybe) made my whole day. It was made all the more special in that she was the F1 for a few innings and seemed frustrated by some of my ball/strike calls. She didn't let that stop her from being fair and respectful.

 

The next batter hits a sinking line drive to F3 and the HT still wins by 1 run. The HT assistant coach rushes the field, points to me and says "That's for making that bad call". I didn't even care, that little girl still had me feeling great. 

And that probably gets him dumped.