2 Ejections(kinda) in a weekend, have I mentioned I HATE 10U?

[ErichKeane]

This weekend I had my first "I understand why umpires are just leaving the game" feeling that lasted a long time.  I was assigned 9 games (4 Saturday, 5 Sunday) that ended up being quite a few 9U and 10U tournament games.  Sunday was _2_ championship games, which are untimes, but the rest were 1:45 no-new-inning.

Saturday:

My 4 Saturday games started at 1, last game started at 7, all 9U.

My 1st game on Saturday was uneventful, and going reasonably quickly.  We had the end of an inning, and the clock had >10 seconds on it.  By rule, we had to do 1 more inning!  That inning took nearly an HOUR.  Pitchers stopped being able to hit the backstop, let alone throw strikes.  Each half had at least 5 pitching changes (45 pitch max to pitch the next day causes this) What was a 2-1 game ended up 9-9 after an hour (but ties allowed for seeding games). So I'm already way behind.  I opted to skip my breaks through the afternoon to try to catch up, so i could get home at a reasonable time.

My 2nd game, was a half-decent back and forth, with only 1 major incident.  There were a handful of side-line-rumblings (oh come on, he was safe!) through the game, but I had rabbit-ears turned off for the most part, but just the 1 notable:  As is my most hated thing, I had a catcher keep setting up way outside.  One of the assistant coaches was silently fuming apparently, and on one particularly 'good looking' pitch that was a foot into the outside batters box, I hear, "Come on man, you gotta call it both ways!".  I INSTANTLY yelled time, walked over to him and said (quite angrily):
"You do NOT get to question the integrity of an umpire."
Him: "But it looks like it!"
Me: "That is your ONE warning."

He clammed up, and I walked back to position and continued the game.  The rest of the game went fine, though it TOO was a tie game (10:10!) that went past the time limit.  Still almost 45 minutes behind, I once again skip break, and get the next teams playing.

3rd game was a walk-a-thon that went over time, but stayed close as well, ending 19-18. 

4th game is where my FIRST day got most interesting.  The assistant coach's team from game 2 was back!  During a quick warmups (I gave 10 minutes to give myself a snack break), the assistant coach came up and apologized, told me he was absolutely wrong, etc.  He was really pleasant outside of that 1 interaction (which is why I didn't toss him right away!), which was appreciated. 

However, late in the game, I have bases loaded, 1 out, 'previously troublesome' team in the field (and down by quite a few).  Grounder to SS.  I haul it to the mound to cover the play.  Expecting a touch at 2nd, but the SS goes for a TAG of the runner!  Best I can tell, he steps over the base with his left foot, then drops his knee on the base/tag on the runner, but the runner slides and touches 2B before either.  I call safe.  The bench and stands keep yelling that he touched the base before trying the tag, but I didn't have that.  I turned to the bench/coach and yelled, "He did NOT!" and did the wave off, which silenced most of the yelling.  Behind me I hear, "Thats terrible, thats terrible, you're terrible!" from behind the plate.  I snap my head around and the offender yells, "Yeah, it was me, I said you're terrible!  What are you gonna do about it! You're terrible!"

I eject and say, "you're gone!"
Fan: "Gone where?" (yelling throughout this).
Me: "Off the premises" (firm voice, not overly elevated)
Fan: "You can't eject me!"
Me: "Yes I can."
Fan: "You have to give me a warning first!"
Me: "I do not."
Fan: *Stares*
Me: "Now Leave".

I turn my back to him, and go to the coach, telling him he needs to control his sideline, and to get him out of here.  Coach is apologetic, and fine with it.  I also explain that he's also likely gone for the weekend (usually the rule in the tourneys is ejection-day + 1 day unless UIC determines its not deserving). Coach says, "Oh, I hope so, please make that happen.".  I didn't get asked, so I didn't explain what I had. I text the SD, who escorts the fan from the edge of the parking lot to his car.  Game ended uneventfully, and reasonably early thanks to mercy rule, so I get a decent night of sleep.
 

 

[NateWalter]

7 minutes ago, ErichKeane said:

We had the end of an inning, and the clock had >10 seconds on it.  By rule, we had to do 1 more inning!  That inning took nearly an HOUR. 

When you put a clock on baseball, there's going to be a grey area. Our league adopted a policy that the first pitch of the following inning must be done while there is still time on the clock. That would prevent the whole "there's 10 seconds left!" when the last out is recorded.

In practice, if there are less than 2 minutes, we don't start a new inning unless there's a tie or the home team needs one more at bat to win.

Maybe it's not a perfect way of doing things, but it works for us.

[ErichKeane]

Sunday:

Starting at 8am this time, 1st 2 are 9U, same division, but the 'playoff' and championship game. 1st game is not bad, with a handful of rumblings, but 1 interesting play.  1st big rumbling is an assistant coach who was grumpy about something that came to me and complained, I explained curtly and ordered him back to the bench.  I talked to the actual coach and told him to make it clear that only HE, as the head coach, was allowed to approach me for stuff like that, and I should have ejected his coach.  He thanked me for not doing so, and made I heard him making it CLEAR to his coaches what I said, so I considered that handled.

However, the interesting play.  Only runner somehow gets caught between 2nd and 1st (I don't recall how, perhaps a 'caught stealing?'), and gets into a pickle.  It goes on a LONG time, perhaps 20+ throws.  However, the runner has a REALLY interesting way of turning.  Each time the ball is thrown, she is taking a fairly wide turn 'inside'.  However, she goes back to straight line to the base, so I have no basepath violations(and surprisingly no obstruction!).  Fans of course are screaming about the baseline.  Because of the short distance between throws (and bases!), by the time the ball gets thrown away, she  is most of the way to the mound!  She gets back to 1B, and the fans are still yelling.  I go again to the same coach from before and tell him to control his sideline, and (perhaps out of line, but I was frustrated by this point) that 'their misunderstanding of the basepath rule is their problem, not mine'.  He once again does so, which I'm grateful for.

Rest of the game goes smoothly, and due to time, but RIGHT after the timer, so we have a break. The team from the above 2 wins, so they are sticking around for the next game.  Troublesome team from Saturday lost on the other field, so I don't need to see them again, though the SD tells me they were really apologetic with how everything went down the day before.

Because of the time between games, the coaches from the troublesome team come over to me and start asking questions.  I end up basically running a rules clinic, with Obstruction, Basepath (they were flabbergasted about the 'skunk in the outfield' rules!), and a few others.  They were all really receptive, and seemed like they all learned quite a bit!

Championship game went fine though, which was nice.

I did 10U no-leadoff division for my 3rd game, and I don't remember really any problems. 

Last 2 were 10U leadoff division, once again, a play-in game, followed by a championship.

I don't recall much about the play-in game, other than one of the teams kept doing 'walk up announcements'/music.  I explained to the operator a few times that I didnt mind it, but I NEEDED it off before the batter was in the box.  She was receptive to it, and for the most part, did a half-decent job, but I did have to remind her of my rule 2 more times during the game.  I only had to hold up the pitcher for it to stop (and did a 'cut it' sign) a handful of times, and just did my warnings between innings.  Their team ended up winning, and going to the championship.

Championship was bear.  1st, I let the coaches talk me into doing 'balk warnings', which I hate, but it lets me be more of a stickler for younger ages, which I think helps out.  One thing I DID say is that I'd enforce particularly egregious ones, particularly if they 'affected the play significantly', and only 1 of each kind to each pitcher, as I wasn't going to repeat myself.  I gave examples like, feinting, or double lifting the leg on a move to a base/etc.  I gave a few warnings on ticky-tack things I probably wouldn't have even picked out in 10U. 

However, at one point, I had a R3, and the pitcher stepped onto the rubber with his hands together in the 'set' before breaking to go to the stretch.  I called time and told him to step off, and explained he cannot do that.  Running-team coach starts yelling at me, "you have to call a balk, you said if it affected the game, you'd call balks!  And this would score a run!  You're costing me a run!".  I tried to explain what I said, and said, 'you agreed to this in the plate meeting!', but he was stuck in a loop, so I just said, "Enough, decision is final." and he clammed up.

But, back to the ejection I was STILL having trouble with the speaker.  In 1 inning, I had to hold up play about 6 times for it, so I went back to the operator, who told me that she wasn't running it anymore.  Another woman said, 'Someone else is running it, but I'll make sure they know and it won't happen again'. I thanked her, and went back.  The next inning, I had 3 more issues with it, so I went to her and asked her to make sure it didn't happen again.  She said, "I'm doing it, I've been doing it all year and I've never had a problem, I'm following your stupid rule, I've never had a problem before with this".  I said, "Well, you have a problem today, this is the last warning".

OF COURSE, next time her players are at bat, 3rd batter is in his position, bat on shoulder, eyes up and the music is STILL going.  I call time, turn to the dugout and say, "The speaker is out of here, its done.".  I got a few 'what does that mean?' from the bench, so I said, "its off for the rest of the game, I will not hear it again.".

Of course the HC comes down from 3BC and starts going, "what is going on?!"  The 2nd woman on the sideline said something like, "I told you he had something up his ass about the music!".  In retrospect, I was distracted, but shoulda tossed on that, but *shrug*.  I explained to the coach that the music kept encroaching on play, and that I'd warned the operator a half-dozen times, and that I'd had enough. 

He said, "Well, thats my wife! If you have a problem with her, you've got a problem with me! You can expect a complaint to the tournament about this!" 

I said, "Oh, please do."

He said, "We're just here to play baseball, not to deal with your made up rules about music!  Lets just play ball!  Lets play baseball!". 

Again, I let that go on longer than I should have 😕  I told him to go back to his position, and we continued the game.

Not much more happened, there was 1 controversial play at HP where his runner got caught on a bang-bang play at the plate, but I explained what I saw, and he was fine. Game ended in a bit with no further problems.
 

On the way off the field I did get a side-comment from the coaches wife of, "I've never met an umpire who hated music before!", but I ignored it and went to my truck and spent the evening with my wife and kid.

I look back now, and realize: Just about every rumbling that happened this weekend was benches/sidelines not understanding rules.  I find I rarely get these situations in higher divisions, but REALLY frequently at lower divisions.  Have  i mentioned I hate 10U!  I am definitely beginning to understand why umps are leaving over this crap.

[ErichKeane]

22 minutes ago, NateWalter said:

When you put a clock on baseball, there's going to be a grey area. Our league adopted a policy that the first pitch of the following inning must be done while there is still time on the clock. That would prevent the whole "there's 10 seconds left!" when the last out is recorded.

In practice, if there are less than 2 minutes, we don't start a new inning unless there's a tie or the home team needs one more at bat to win.

Maybe it's not a perfect way of doing things, but it works for us.

That would be nice!  Rules for the tournament are 'if there is ANY time left on the 'no new inning after' clock when the 3rd out is recorded', we play another inning.  In the past, I've used a stopwatch on my cheap watch, and been able to 'cheat' a little to steal a little time if I needed.  However, this year they gave us timers to put on the fence which beep and everyone knows the rule that I was stepping on time.

[NateWalter]

Just now, ErichKeane said:

Rules for the tournament are 'if there is ANY time left on the 'no new inning after' clock when the 3rd out is recorded', we play another inning. 

This is the standard for probably most tournaments, and it's why I don't like working a lot of them. You get to a point where one of the games ends up going nearly three hours.

Think of it this way: your 9U game went longer than the average MLB game has gone this year. That absolutely should not be happening.

[NateWalter]

33 minutes ago, ErichKeane said:

"I've never met an umpire who hated music before!"

Also, I'll be that guy: I hate music at this level. Walk-up songs, in between innings... all of it. Maybe I'm a grump, but it's almost always a problem.

I had a game last summer where they'd play music in between innings and some Kanye song (I think it was Kanye, I'm not up to speed on hip hop) came on and it was the uncensored version. I told the coach that if I heard any foul language in the music again, I would restrict him to his dugout for the game.

"It's just a song, relax."

"If I won't let your pitcher say it, I won't let Kanye say it. Clean up the music or get out." They ended up just turning off the speaker and the coach said, "happy now?" I was.

[ErichKeane]

I usually don't mind it too much, though it is usually too loud, which I tend to suck up.  I've not had any profane songs, but I will keep an ear out!  Thats terrible!

[SeeingEyeDog]

One note on time limits...If you can avoid it, do NOT let the time expire in between innings. Try to catch it with less than 2 outs, if you can. For example, top of the inning with the home team ahead and you have hit the time limit. One of the base umpires (who should be the one tracking the time) should come up and say, "Time! Our time limit has expired and we will finish the inning!" That way you're allowing for the visitors to overcome their deficit, forcing a bottom half which you will play out.

When you are in the bottom half of the inning and the home team is behind (because why else are you playing?), you still use the above mechanic. The only wrinkle is try to be a bit more proactive. You might add, "Time! Time has expired and this will be the last batter of the game!" Obviously, he could step in there and make an out on one pitch and maybe there are a few more seconds left. It's not an exact science.

When you can call that from the field in the middle of a half-inning, there is little room for debate. When you wait until the half-inning is over, now the coaches can come over and debate and negotiate, etc. and it just becomes a big, unnecessary hassle. And remember, it's not your job to "get people off the field". You declare when the time limit is expired, you declare when the game is over and walk off the field. If people want to stay and play or whatever...that's their choice, umpires do not have to stick around for anymore than the end of a regulation game.

~Dawg

[ArchAngel72]

I had a night game opening day last year and it was nice and they were playing music . I asked them to lower it which they did. Then one of them says I got something to play for you.  

 

I turned around and said "If you play 3 blind mice I will eject you now before the game has even started"  

 

both of them looked like they saw a ghost and said well er nevermind...

 

/grumble  this is what happens when they let the kids play the music...

sigh

 

[ErichKeane]

8 minutes ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

One note on time limits...If you can avoid it, do NOT let the time expire in between innings. Try to catch it with less than 2 outs, if you can. For example, top of the inning with the home team ahead and you have hit the time limit. One of the base umpires (who should be the one tracking the time) should come up and say, "Time! Our time limit has expired and we will finish the inning!" That way you're allowing for the visitors to overcome their deficit, forcing a bottom half which you will play out.

When you are in the bottom half of the inning and the home team is behind (because why else are you playing?), you still use the above mechanic. The only wrinkle is try to be a bit more proactive. You might add, "Time! Time has expired and this will be the last batter of the game!" Obviously, he could step in there and make an out on one pitch and maybe there are a few more seconds left. It's not an exact science.

When you can call that from the field in the middle of a half-inning, there is little room for debate. When you wait until the half-inning is over, now the coaches can come over and debate and negotiate, etc. and it just becomes a big, unnecessary hassle. And remember, it's not your job to "get people off the field". You declare when the time limit is expired, you declare when the game is over and walk off the field. If people want to stay and play or whatever...that's their choice, umpires do not have to stick around for anymore than the end of a regulation game.

~Dawg

I DEFINITELY always did/do that when I can see that.  It is easy to do when the watch is on my wrist, I can check pretty easily.  BUT walking to the backstop to look at a small timer means instead of checking it every other pitch, I see it ever few plays.  That said, wouldn't have helped here We hit our time-limit shortly after the inning ended! 

I think the timers are BETTER for most of the umps that were counting on doing math on their phone times, but much worse for me, who was doing it on a wrist stop-watch.

>>When you are in the bottom half of the inning and the home team is behind (because why else are you playing?), you still use the above mechanic.

You might still be playing the bottom of the inning with the home-team losing before the time limit has ended, since if the 3rd out happens before the clock expiration, the away-team gets another crack at bat.

As far as "its the umps call!", the timer on the fence removes that authority, at least effectively. 

[The Man in Blue]

If it is no new inning after 1:45 ... that is why you set the timer to 1:43.  😉

It sounds as if you were working solo.  My soap box is itching to come out ... 

 

While I don't think any of the things your bristled at were out of line, I would say your technique sounds a bit confrontational.  We want to be authoritative (especially in the lower levels, which you are correct are where more problems happen), but we don't want to feed the beast.  That said, I can understand why your headspace may have been out of place with that first game throwing off the whole thing.

That said, "their misunderstanding of the base path rule is their problem, not mine" just might be the line of the week for me!  🤣

 

 

 

[ErichKeane]

2 minutes ago, The Man in Blue said:

If it is no new inning after 1:45 ... that is why you set the timer to 1:43.  😉

It sounds as if you were working solo.  My soap box is itching to come out ... 

 

While I don't think any of the things your bristled at were out of line, I would say your technique sounds a bit confrontational.  We want to be authoritative (especially in the lower levels, which you are correct are where more problems happen), but we don't want to feed the beast.  That said, I can understand why your headspace may have been out of place with that first game throwing off the whole thing.

That said, "their misunderstanding of the base path rule is their problem, not mine" just might be the line of the week for me!  🤣

 

 

 

Thanks for the feedback!   I definitely got brisker as the weekend went on.  I was a bit on 'tilt' as the constant complaining/chirping, and I have often found polite requests don't do me any favors.  I'm usually a pretty non-confrontational/friendly guy, and stay that way through games when I get it back, but I DO fear I over-compensate when it is getting taken advantage of.  I also tend to 'stay nice'/let things go far longer than I probably should...

This is one of the reasons I appreciate a partner (even a junior one!), just having someone to vent/discuss this stuff with between innings helps put me in the right headspace I think.

Fortunately/unfortunately, I don't get much practice with these sorts of teams, of the ~130 games I've done this year and last, this weekend's games are a majority of the times I've run into this.  So I doubled my experience

 

[The Man in Blue]

48 minutes ago, ErichKeane said:

Thanks for the feedback!   I definitely got brisker as the weekend went on. 

This is one of the reasons I appreciate a partner (even a junior one!), just having someone to vent/discuss this stuff with between innings helps put me in the right headspace I think.

 

I've been there, so I understand.  You can try to pull yourself back, but everything seems to just go sideways no matter how hard you try.

That was why I asked if you were solo.  I wasn't even going to get on my soapbox about not working solo, but wondered for this exact reason.  When you get in your own head like that, you NEED somebody to help get you out of it.

[ErichKeane]

5 minutes ago, The Man in Blue said:

 

I've been there, so I understand.  You can try to pull yourself back, but everything seems to just go sideways no matter how hard you try.

That was why I asked if you were solo.  I wasn't even going to get on my soapbox about not working solo, but wondered for this exact reason.  When you get in your own head like that, you NEED somebody to help get you out of it.

You're 100% right here.  I hate working tourney games solo... Local league games, no matter how competitive, 95% of coaches/parents are just glad to see their kid play, and realize you are going to call what you can see.  At the end, the kids have fun, and their parents are thrilled their kid had a good time.  

Tourney ball is the opposite, particularly as they are younger.  Seemingly paying $50/kid for the weekend makes them feel entitled to get on every single call.  It reminds me actually of two of the plays/situations in the first game which made me grumpy, perhaps what started the weekend off bad.  I barely remembered it until just this moment, because of how awful the rest went.

1st one was bases loaded, grounder to F5 playing in.  I stepped up the line a little, since these kids are a little unpredictable, but making sure I still have tag/force at the plate,but can also see 1B, 2B, and 3B). F5 picks the ball up, turns around, and lunges for a tag behind them, so I'm completely screened by the player.  R2 doesn't take a step out of straight away, and his jersey doesn't seem to move, and there is no reaction to the tag.  From what I can see and intuit based on where they are positioned, I'm about 90% sure the tag was missed.  It would have been a HECK of a reach to make the tag.  SO, I call safe.  Of course, the whole dugout/fans give me the whole, "How could you miss that, he clearly tagged the runner!"

Not long after, R2, 2 outs (I think?).  1B side dugout at the plate.  Grounder to F5, and R2 is off on contact, so they are coming together pretty quick.  I'm 95% sure I'm going to have a tag play, and having been burned before, move up the 3BL to try to get SOME angle on that, without ruining my play at 1B.  OF COURSE, F5 pops right up and fires to 1B. I have a banger, call it out.  1BC is furious I missed the 'pulled foot', as is, of course, the dugout and the entire sideline.  There wasn't even much of a stretch by F3 on the play, so I'm almost positive there was no pulled foot because of the throw, but who knows, ya know?  From my angle, the feet were where they were supposed to be.

On both of those plays, it was just demoralizing.  Either I botched them with no real ability to do better (I was in a position that made sense at the time with both) and fans/coaches weren't understanding, or teams/coaches were trying to scam me.  Either way, it just makes me kind of hate the job/game sometimes.  I guess just a bad weekend,eh?

[BLWizzRanger]

I am sure most of us know this, but in case someone new reads this....

NEVER NEVER give the exact time the clock started on yours or your partners watch. That gives you the leeway to say the clock expired with 10, 20, 120, etc seconds to go depending on how the game is going. Also, it stops the argument that when the coaches try to sync up their watches to yours, they cant use their time to argue there is still time left to play.

IMHO, use a countdown timer that can be adjusted discretly or set a few minutes less for these types of situations. Most times you can get away with it... but who is to say if the timer expired? Only you or your partner.

And do I have to say it? Like an indicator, only one countdown timer should be on the field at any time.

Sent from my SM-F721U1 using Tapatalk

[BLarson]

I don't see the reason why to manipulate the clock.

At the plate meeting we announce the start time and the time limit.

I don't need a timer for everyone to look at...everyone knows when the time limit expires.
I believe transparency is the best.
Yes...some inninigs will get started with a minute or seconds left.  (On weeknight/non-tourney games I ask if they want to continue to play...tournament games we play until the time limit expires)

I coached for a long time and I would want the opportunity to come back if I was the away team in a tournament and there's a minute or less of the time limit.   I think it's unfair to deny a team that chance just because the umpires want to be done or to keep on schedule when we clearly haven't played the full time limit.

In the long run I believe that all the games that run long are negated by all the games that are over early from mercy/run rules.

[ErichKeane]

35 minutes ago, BLarson said:

I don't see the reason why to manipulate the clock.

At the plate meeting we announce the start time and the time limit.

I don't need a timer for everyone to look at...everyone knows when the time limit expires.
I believe transparency is the best.
Yes...some inninigs will get started with a minute or seconds left.  (On weeknight/non-tourney games I ask if they want to continue to play...tournament games we play until the time limit expires)

I coached for a long time and I would want the opportunity to come back if I was the away team in a tournament and there's a minute or less of the time limit.   I think it's unfair to deny a team that chance just because the umpires want to be done or to keep on schedule when we clearly haven't played the full time limit.

In the long run I believe that all the games that run long are negated by all the games that are over early from mercy/run rules.

I tend to agree.  I started using a distinct timer (on my watch), when I had an argument over the end time in a game.  We all 'knew' the end time and had said the 'start' time at the beginning, but I had both coaches in my face with their phones showing a minute off(Seemingly ATT & Verizon are 45 seconds apart!) trying to fight for/fight against playing another inning.  In the end I went with the time given by the home-book (since I didn't have a phone/watch with me), and we played another inning.  There ended up being a big poop-storm of complains up and down about how I cheated the visiting/winning team out of pitch-count (they would win either way, but now they had to burn a pitcher for an inning).

The league response was, "we don't do protests in this league, take it up with your umpires at the games".

After that, in order to avoid ever having a problem again, I visibly show a stop-watch being started and tell them my watch is official, no ifs/ands/butts, and an inning starts the instant the 3rd out happens. 

Seemingly in the tournaments in games i didn't work, others had similar problems, so the TD is giving us timers, since some umps were against keeping time themselves (and were just trusting 'home book').

[Catch18]

I tend to agree.  I started using a distinct timer (on my watch), when I had an argument over the end time in a game.  We all 'knew' the end time and had said the 'start' time at the beginning, but I had both coaches in my face with their phones showing a minute off(Seemingly ATT & Verizon are 45 seconds apart!) trying to fight for/fight against playing another inning.  In the end I went with the time given by the home-book (since I didn't have a phone/watch with me), and we played another inning.  There ended up being a big poop-storm of complains up and down about how I cheated the visiting/winning team out of pitch-count (they would win either way, but now they had to burn a pitcher for an inning).
The league response was, "we don't do protests in this league, take it up with your umpires at the games".
After that, in order to avoid ever having a problem again, I visibly show a stop-watch being started and tell them my watch is official, no ifs/ands/butts, and an inning starts the instant the 3rd out happens. 
Seemingly in the tournaments in games i didn't work, others had similar problems, so the TD is giving us timers, since some umps were against keeping time themselves (and were just trusting 'home book').

I keep a stopwatch on the field. I ask my base guy to do they same. I don’t do phones.

Coach: “what’s the start time?”

Me: “I don’t track that, but I’ll start the stopwatch, and when we hit zeroes, time limit is reached.”

This avoids dueling scorekeepers - because I don’t care what time your phone, iPad or gamechager says it is.

Haven’t had a single issue since adopting that years ago. I tell them “just ask me throughout the game, I’ll let ya know what we have left.” It stemmed from a coach charging me on the field, basically shoving his phone in my face, blasting me “there was one minute left.”

Also, I wear an apple watch, which you may give a peak to in order to know the time. I once accidentally must have hit the stopwatch button and not sure how long it wasn’t running. Had to mental math that one and get us back on track.

[SeeingEyeDog]

On 4/24/2023 at 4:26 PM, ArchAngel72 said:

I had a night game opening day last year and it was nice and they were playing music . I asked them to lower it which they did. Then one of them says I got something to play for you.  

 

I turned around and said "If you play 3 blind mice I will eject you now before the game has even started"  

 

both of them looked like they saw a ghost and said well er nevermind...

 

/grumble  this is what happens when they let the kids play the music...

sigh

 

It's appalling what passes for proper music at youth baseball games. I seriously heard a song on a varsity field the other night in which part of the refrain consisted of the intimate loading of bullets in a mag, the mag getting locked and loaded, the gun charged...and discharged. This repeated 4 or 5 times throughout the song. Like...that happened...at a school...

~Dawg 

[NateWalter]

5 hours ago, BLarson said:

I don't see the reason why to manipulate the clock.

At the plate meeting we announce the start time and the time limit.

I don't need a timer for everyone to look at...everyone knows when the time limit expires.
I believe transparency is the best.
Yes...some inninigs will get started with a minute or seconds left.  (On weeknight/non-tourney games I ask if they want to continue to play...tournament games we play until the time limit expires)

I coached for a long time and I would want the opportunity to come back if I was the away team in a tournament and there's a minute or less of the time limit.   I think it's unfair to deny a team that chance just because the umpires want to be done or to keep on schedule when we clearly haven't played the full time limit.

In the long run I believe that all the games that run long are negated by all the games that are over early from mercy/run rules.

If the games weren't 1:45 for 9U, I'd probably agree. But that's an obscene length of game for kids who haven't made it out of 4th grade. Those games should be limited, at most, to 1:30, with a hard stop at 1:45 or 2:00.

We discuss player safety all the time and part of our job is to help ensure the safety of these kids. But then we let games go on for ever. I have no qualms with moving the clock back by a minute or two if it helps prevent a situation where a 9U game goes for 2:45. A game at that level going that long also means kids are throwing a crazy amount of pitches, unless these teams are 15-18 kids deep.

Simply put, that shouldn't happen, so working around a clock to prevent it from happening isn't that out of pocket.

[The Man in Blue]

Just remember, for every comeback that happens in a game where they played "one more inning with 10 seconds left" ... there are twenty-two million games that run over for NO GOOD REASON.

Sorry coach.  You may feel I cheated you out of that Cinderella comeback ... but I feel you cheated me out of 120 minutes of my life that I won't get back.  If you dropped twenty and scored two in the first hundred and three minutes, you aren't going to come back in the next two minutes.

Two things that NEED to be implemented in youth tournaments with time limits ... a true TIME LIMIT.  I am a fan of "drop dead."  If you want to do "no new inning after ..." that is fine, but you also need to have a finite cap.

Second thing, once time expires, if ANYBODY is up by the run-rule, game over then and there.  If the visiting team is up by 20, I don't care if the home team gets another at bat or not.  They had at least 3 chances and didn't do anything with them.  I cannot stand wasting another hour watching them drop another 18 runs and waiting for them to get three outs just so they can bat and go 3-up-and-3-down again.

[Vegas_Ump]

The umpire's reign of territory is between the fences to include the dugouts.  He has no jurisdiction on what happens behind the fences (unless stipulated in league rules).

In one season here (Little League Majors), on two occasions fans got out of hand [in games on other fields than mine].  The umpire cleared the field and had a league official call the sheriff.  The worked!  In both cases, the league knew where these impudent toads spent the night and what they had for breakfast!  The league sent notices to all the teams that deportment was required--especially if you want to give the payers a good example.

In my last year of umpiring, I was accosted by a hostile parent on the losing team. Being of tall stature intimidated this clown enough that he decided to back off and look up the meaning of "kerfuffle".

That's why that WAS my last year of umpiring!

ADDED:  Suddenly seeing a lot of news clips on YouTube about youth sports officials leaving is droves because of poor deportment and outright assaults on the officials.  IMO, that's why you see more questionable calls at higher levels--even the pros!  That's because there is a vacuum at the top and well-seasoned officials are not available to fill in the void.  Lacking experience, it messes up judgement.

Mike

Las Vegas

[NateWalter]

14 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

Second thing, once time expires, if ANYBODY is up by the run-rule, game over then and there.

I'm starting a petition for the Walk-Off Mercy Rule.

[BigBlue4u]

Times have changed.  Many years ago, when I was umpiring games with a time limit, I would tell both coaches at the pregame meeting, the time limit and would then tell them what time I had.  When that time limit arrived, the game was over.  I absolutely would not get into a pissing contest with a coach over time.

[BigBlue4u]

On 4/25/2023 at 1:56 PM, SeeingEyeDog said:

had a night game opening day last year and it was nice and they were playing music . I asked them to lower it which they did.

 

On 4/25/2023 at 1:56 PM, SeeingEyeDog said:

had a night game opening day last year and it was nice and they were playing music . I asked them to lower it which they did. Then one of them says I got something to play for you.  

I turned around and said "If you play 3 blind mice I will eject you now before the game has even started"  

both of them looked like they saw a ghost and said well er nevermind...

/grumble  this is what happens when they let the kids play the music...

sigh

Sigh?  Telling them not to play, "Three Blind Mice," was a GREAT response.  And, judging from their reaction, that's exactly what they planned to do.  Nice move on your part.