Home Run Mechanic

[Scissors]

I do youth baseball so I've only seen about 2 homers in my couple seasons umpiring. Should a homerun mechanic be done every time one is hit, or is it just on a close ball near the edge or maybe a close fair/foul? I'm talking about the spinning finger pointed straight up, but if there's a different mechanic let me know. Thanks.

[wolfe_man]

For me, I signal on anything I think someone missed or would question or didn't see.   If it is obvious for everyone that it is a home run, then I don't see a need to signal. 

Think of this in the same manner as foul balls, you don't yell out "FOUL" on every foul ball, but only on those that are close or you think that someone didn't pick up where the ball went.   If everyone in the stands and field can see it's foul, then you don't call it.  To the same end, if everyone sees a no-doubter go over the fence as a home run, then there is no need to signal it.

[Aging_Arbiter]

Along with @wolfe_man's FOUL comment...…………….I like to call those "no $#!tters".  If the ball clears your backstop/fence (foul)….everyone saw it.  If you yell FOUL, someone probably yells back "no $#!T"!

[ArchAngel72]

On the no "#&iiters"   I call those with runners on.  They are sometimes off as the pitch is crossing the plate ( or sooner if they are bad) and well they do not always know where the ball is. ( LL of course)

 

[Biscuit]

7 hours ago, ArchAngel72 said:

On the no "#&iiters"   I call those with runners on.  They are sometimes off as the pitch is crossing the plate ( or sooner if they are bad) and well they do not always know where the ball is. ( LL of course)

 

I will turn towards them and say, in a slightly louder than conversational tone, "foul ball", or "It's foul", but I'm not giving a mechanic or anything, just doing them a courtesy. 

[Replacematt]

2 hours ago, Biscuit said:

I will turn towards them and say, in a slightly louder than conversational tone, "foul ball", or "It's foul", but I'm not giving a mechanic or anything, just doing them a courtesy. 

There's two people on the field who have nothing better to do than tell runners what's going on and what to do. I'll confirm if a runner asks me, but I've got other responsibilities that I'm going to do instead of being a redundancy.

[ArchAngel72]

13 hours ago, Biscuit said:

I will turn towards them and say, in a slightly louder than conversational tone, "foul ball", or "It's foul", but I'm not giving a mechanic or anything, just doing them a courtesy. 

Well I am usually alone. Also its a taught thing in LL call it all the time..

[Ump0000]

I give a homerun mechanic every time

[SeeingEyeDog]

I think much of this is level dependent...

Generally speaking, the lower the level, the more players and coaches are learning about the game. I'm sure we all know or have seen an all-around athlete who is pressed into service for the first time on the baseball or softball field to keep a varsity program going for one more week or even season but, as you move up there is less and less you need to verbalize.

That being said there are ALWAYS calls at ALL levels that demand we "come up big" with a clear mechanic and a loud verbalization as a means of preventing a mess.

Admittedly, I'm still a bit uncomfortable not putting the ball back into play formally with no runners on. Obviously, if there is a quick or otherwise illegal pitch, we can kill that but, I've always found this to be a moment when pitchers like to try the umpires. Putting the ball formally back into play eliminates much of this.

~Dog

[aaluck]

On 10/2/2020 at 1:52 PM, SeeingEyeDog said:

Generally speaking, the lower the level, t

I agree. If I'm doing a LL game and someone hits one out I'm running in front of home plater and waving my arm (not finger) in a circle--maybe even yell "that's outta here!!".  Make the kid's day, make it a huge deal for him.

[noumpere]

Mimic the home-run call of the local MLB announcer ("Put it on the board! Yes!" :"Back, back back....gone!" "That's long gone").

 

or not.

[MadMax]

 

Apologies for its inclusion of Hawk Harrelson. Ugh. 

[SeeingEyeDog]

Just once...just ONE time, I'd love to hear an announcing crew in a gi-GUN-dous moment say (with the crowd going nuts), "Hey man...did you see that?"

"What? The fair ball over the fence?"

"Yeah..."

"Yeah...I saw that."

"Yeah...me too."

~Dog

[kylehutson]

3 hours ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

Just once...just ONE time, I'd love to hear an announcing crew in a gi-GUN-dous moment say (with the crowd going nuts), "Hey man...did you see that?"

Several years ago, I was listening to a high school football game on the radio (as I was on my way to said game, running late). Local, inexperienced broadcast crew. I hear "Whoa! Did you see that? That was amazing." No. I didn't see that. This is radio. Was it a sack in the backfield? A TD run? A turnover? Give me a clue here.

[noumpere]

46 minutes ago, kylehutson said:

 Give me a clue here.

We've been asking you to get a clue for nearly all of your 1,101 posts.  ;)