Working games solo...do you work from the plate? Behind the mound? The air-conditioned comfort of your car? Someplace else?

[SeeingEyeDog]

Greetings brothers,

     My association gives us the choice when we work a game solo whether we want to work from behind the plate or from behind the mound. Most of my local brothers seem to prefer to work solo from behind the plate. I personally prefer working solo from the plate because I can't really see fair/foul too well from any other angle solo than from the plate. My association also stresses that they have informed all of our leagues that it's the umpire's choice what he wants to do when working solo and then leadership tells us we are to tell the coaches how we are working the game solo and not ask them...it's not a negotiation. What do you guys prefer?

~Dawg

[834k3r]

I'm 100% working behind the plate. I've never understood the reasoning for working behind the mound, and I think it's a bad look.

Yes, behind the plate I have to actually move around the field more--but it's a better product if you ask me. I'd much rather have someone get on me for the bang-bang steal of 2B I didn't get the best look at from 100 feet away, than to have parents and coaches consistently complain about balls and strikes I'm calling from 70 feet away.

[NavyBlue]

Single game, behind the plate. 

Double header, first game behind plate, second game behind mound.    This is a fatigue/safety issue for the umpire.  This is the cost of a nationwide shortage of umpires.

[The Man in Blue]

6 hours ago, 834k3r said:

I'm 100% working behind the plate. I've never understood the reasoning for working behind the mound, and I think it's a bad look.

 

Of course it is a bad look, it is only one umpire.

There is only one decision to make when asked to work a game solo: what you are going to do instead.

3 hours ago, NavyBlue said:

Single game, behind the plate. 

Double header, first game behind plate, second game behind mound.    This is a fatigue/safety issue for the umpire.  This is the cost of a nationwide shortage of umpires.

No.  The cost of a nationwide shortage of umpires needs to be canceled games.

[Kevin_K]

9 hours ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

What do you guys prefer?

Working with a partner.

No partner? No Kevin_K.

[Thunderheads]

Did a single JV game last week solo.  It wasn't too bad, but it's a lot of work for sure.  First time it's happened in years.

[ErichKeane]

I always do my solo games behind the plate.  Its a lot of work (as others have said), and I likely miss calls in the field, but I tend to get many/most of them.  I tried behind the mound once, and found that fair/foul was kind of impossible, and the strike zone was much worse as a side effect.

That said, I have only done solo up to 14U.  The only problem I have, is at 9U/10U, the coaches don't tend to understand that missed-calls come with the territory.

[ArchAngel72]

work 99.9% of season games solo and  behind the plate..

 

[MadMax]

What’s the Pyramid of Priority? 

1. Status & Location of the Ball
2. Balls / Strikes (for 1 Umpire)
3. Fair / Foul
4. Catch / No-catch
5. Safe / Out

Then everything else. 

#2 is easiest on plate; I’m not going to lie, there are pitches that even I can see, from B or C, that should be strikes that my PU has… called a Ball? Ugh. 🙄 

#3 is the clincher. Far, far more effective and accurate on plate. 

#4 is accomplished by any umpire if they focus on it, regardless of where they are on the field. 

#5 is made easier for all bases by being out in the middle, except one – the plate. 

Yeah, I did that COVID protocol 💩 for 3 games in April 2020, and was fully willing to have my fingernails pulled out by pliers than have to endure that nonsense any further. 

Earlier in my career, I did 4 plates on a Packers-are-playing Sunday. I had a BU partner on the first 2, but then, donchaknowit the guy for the back 2 never showed up. So I did those last 2, solo, from behind the plate. There were no parents – they simply dropped their 14 & 13 year old kids off and high-tailed it for a sports bar or back to the house to watch. Yeah, that stuck with me for awhile. 

Regardless… Plate. Every time. 

[ErichKeane]

1 minute ago, MadMax said:

There were no parents – they simply dropped their 14 & 13 year old kids off and high-tailed it for a sports bar or back to the house to watch.

That sounds like heaven...

[Mudisfun]

Only time I am going to be calling the game from the mound is if the umpire no showed and we drove to the game in the wife's car and my gear is at home...

Sadly, one aspect of working baseball in Orange County is we have way more games than we do umpires and sadly, the reality is that often you will be solo. When you start working HS ball here, 95% of sub-varsity will be solo, with the exception of some private schools which pay for 2 at the JV level.

Does it suck? Yep... 

[834k3r]

18 hours ago, Mudisfun said:

Only time I am going to be calling the game from the mound is if the umpire no showed and we drove to the game in the wife's car and my gear is at home...

Sadly, one aspect of working baseball in Orange County is we have way more games than we do umpires and sadly, the reality is that often you will be solo. When you start working HS ball here, 95% of sub-varsity will be solo, with the exception of some private schools which pay for 2 at the JV level.

Does it suck? Yep... 

[wolfe_man]

19 hours ago, Mudisfun said:

Only time I am going to be calling the game from the mound is if the umpire no showed and we drove to the game in the wife's car and my gear is at home...

Sadly, one aspect of working baseball in Orange County is we have way more games than we do umpires and sadly, the reality is that often you will be solo. When you start working HS ball here, 95% of sub-varsity will be solo, with the exception of some private schools which pay for 2 at the JV level.

Does it suck? Yep... 

To be honest, working solo makes me want to quit more than bad coaches or parents do.  I hate despise detest having to be by myself on a full-sized baseball field knowing that I cannot possibly hope to see everything and make the correct calls.  It's a terrible feeling.

[Mudisfun]

10 minutes ago, wolfe_man said:

To be honest, working solo makes me want to quit more than bad coaches or parents do.  I hate despise detest having to be by myself on a full-sized baseball field knowing that I cannot possibly hope to see everything and make the correct calls.  It's a terrible feeling.

100% this. 

Besides having the extra set of eyes and all of the other benefits, working solo exacerbates bad mechanics. If you start doing something out of tiredness or whatever and that works its way into muscle memory, there is no one there to help get you hack on track. Plus, you do not get to the game thinking about the couple things you want to work on in this game since your attention is everywhere.

Sadly, the number of people quitting grossly exceeds the number of people getting into the system. Love it or hate it (there seems to be arguments on this site for both sides of the fence) but the best recruiting platform that I know of, at least locally, is Little League. Asking parents to go through training and be volunteer umpires working in their league seems to be the avenue that gets people into the craft. Let's face it. Most people do not wake up one bright day and think to themselves: "self, you know what is missing in my life? Someone throwing baseballs at me." Being asked to cover games so that the leagues can function is where most people I know got into officiating. In my HS unit, at least 65-70% of the staff started as LL umpires originally.

It is true that of the total number of 'volunteers', 90+% of these people do the minimum and when their obligations are over, they never officiate again, but that X% (like me and many of my umpire friends) find that they enjoy the craft and decide to start working other organizations, attending advanced training, signing up to umpire HS, etc... This is where I think in the recruiting aspect for new umpires we are failing. Leagues seem to want to move to a strictly paid umpire format, which immediately leads to a lowering of new blood coming into the system. If we do not get people to even try the craft at what should be an inviting level, then they never even have the opportunity for the coaches, players and fans to berate them to the point that they decide to quit.

[SeeingEyeDog]

I try to make a recruiting pitch on every catcher I work with. Not a hard sell, just a, "Hey, do you do any umpiring?" For me, it was the best summer job (besides lawn care) for a teenager. You are working outside, full control of your schedule, game fees that piled up at the end of every week and funded going to the movies, hanging out and eventually my first car. Catchers are already comfortable with being behind the plate and tracking the baseball. Of course, I will never know if I recruited a one of them but, I'm doing what I can to try and bring people in...

~Dawg

[BLarson]

I always thought associations should go to high schools when the kids are trying out and let them know:|
You've probably been playing baseball of some form since your were 5 years old.
You love/like baseball enough to try out for your school.
Not everyone will make the team.
Keep involved in the game by becoming an umpire
It's going to pay better and better hours than most any other spring/summer job you can get.

Our high school will get 100+ freshmen trying out for baseball...only 18-20 might make it.   Some smaller schools will end up taking whoever shows up.

Catching kids that played baseball that won't make a HS team seems the best pool to tap into.

 

[Reconyyc]

Last night I showed up to do bases at a 18U AAA game with my partner.  On the field adjacent they had a second game and no umps, coaches asked if we could split up and do solo on each game (18U AA).  I ended up doing it from the mound.  NEVER AGAIN!!!  Can't tell where breaking balls are crossing and relying on the catchers glove placement.  The game went well without any big issues.  My partner on the other hand did it from the plate and had an argument on most base calls.

[MadMax]

2 hours ago, Reconyyc said:

Last night I showed up to do bases at a 18U AAA game with my partner.  On the field adjacent they had a second game and no umps, coaches asked if we could split up and do solo on each game (18U AA).

AAA & AA? What organization is that? 

It sounds like an Association or Assigner’s problem, not yours. My guess is that this is USSSA. If it is, I’m of the opinion that you are under no obligation to bail them out. Now, if this was self-assigned, or this is an association wherein I’m a trainer / instructor / lead in it, then I’d probably have a discussion with my partner, and we’d likely split to do dueling solos, and, given that all umpires in both AZ and WI, and just about everywhere else I’ve worked, have been directed to arrive on site with all their gear, we’d do dueling plates. 

The reward? I’d notify my assigner and really pitch for us to get paid the full game fee for 2 umpires per game, unless the organization had a partial refund policy (some self-assigning orgs I know do). 

[The Man in Blue]

I’m just mean.  Sorry.  If they want to stay and play the second game of a double header, we can do it.  Otherwise, they’ll need to reschedule.

DO NOT WORK SOLO.

Last weekend I had to finish a game solo because my partner decided to cross behind the catcher while a new pitcher was warming up.  Ball skipped off the ground and went straight to his temple.  Knocked him out, took him away in an ambulance.  (He has a major concussion and is slowly recovering.)  THIS IS WHY WE DON’T WORK SOLO.

When it’s time to resume, I’m geared up and behind the plate.  R2 and R3, batter lays down a bunt.  I go out to make the call at first and then I’m out of position for the comeback play at the plate.  I couldn’t see a tag, safe.  The bitching wasn’t too bad.  I pointed out that THIS IS WHY WE DON’T WORK SOLO.

The game almost ends in a fight when the home team scores the winning run with the catcher obstructing.  The runner braced for an impact, but did not maliciously crash into the catcher.  Nonetheless, the catcher hops up and starts to go after the runner.  The dugouts start to empty.  THIS IS WHY WE DON’T WORK SOLO.

After the game, the site director comes down and says, “I guess you’re going to have to do the next one solo.”  I said, “We don’t work solo.  You just saw three reasons why.  It puts us in bad positions, literally and figuratively.  You’ll have to find somebody.”  
 

By game time, they came up with somebody.

 

[MadMax]

9 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

DO NOT WORK SOLO.

I hear ya. I really do. If that venue has a “site director”, then that lack-of-umpires is a “they” problem, not a “you” (or “U”, baddum-bum!) problem. If, in the OP, that really is USSSA, I’m not bailing them out… 

17 hours ago, Reconyyc said:

at a 18U AAA game with my partner.  On the field adjacent… on each game 18U AA. 

Why the differential??! 🤨At 18 years old, why is there separate levels??!!?!?

This is why I can guarantee you, baseball sucks in America, and it’s getting worse! They don’t have six different levels in Mexico, or Venezuela, or the Dominican Republic!! The kids there play baseball in a god-forsaken lot, with all ages thrown together, and the talent and skill levels either are forced to improve, or fold. But we’ve ruined two, if perhaps three, generations of kids with our stupid, foo-foo “everyone gets a trophy” / “everyone gets a chance” crap 💩 that infests our culture. 

Why are there 4 teams (and lemme guess, rosters of 11-12 kids each, tops) at that site, at two different levels?? Why aren’t there 2 teams, with much more robust rosters?? 

 
Damm! I needed that! 

[StatsUmp]

On 5/1/2023 at 11:56 AM, 834k3r said:

I'm 100% working behind the plate. I've never understood the reasoning for working behind the mound, and I think it's a bad look.

For newer umpires, there's also the concern that calling balls and strikes behind the mound will result in them having to re-calibrate their zone behind the plate in the next game. I wouldn't go behind the mound to call  balls and strikes unless I had no choice.

In short, I always work the plate for the benefit of calling as good a zone as possible, seeing down the lines, and having as much play as possible happen in front of me.

 

On 5/1/2023 at 3:12 PM, NavyBlue said:

This is a fatigue/safety issue for the umpire.

I had to do at least two JV baseball doubleheaders and a freshman doubleheader solo this spring that immediately come to mind. Doing that second baseball game behind the plate is a lot more physically and mentally draining - even if it's a freshman baseball doubleheader that's only five innings each game. I just feel it becomes a real struggle to stay mentally focused on the zone, hustle, and have a good game as a whole with each subsequent inning of game two.

In one such doubleheader. the batter hit a ball fair down the line. I thought I signaled fair, but I apparently didn't according to the DHC who complained that his players froze over the no call and lack of signal. My take was that even with the lack of signal, the lack of a verbal foul call should have been indication enough that the ball was fair.

 

On 5/4/2023 at 12:57 PM, wolfe_man said:

To be honest, working solo makes me want to quit more than bad coaches or parents do.  I hate despise detest having to be by myself on a full-sized baseball field knowing that I cannot possibly hope to see everything and make the correct calls.

By the time I did my last solo HS baseball doubleheader last month, I found myself questioning if it will be worth it moving forward if this is going to be more frequent in future seasons. While I agree with and understand why umpires in my association don't want to work HS baseball because there's at least one league in the area has neither time limits nor inning run caps for JV and freshman games, overworking the remaining umpires doesn't seem like a good long-term solution, either, because burned out umpires are more likely to walk away and never come back.

 

13 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

When it’s time to resume, I’m geared up and behind the plate.  R2 and R3, batter lays down a bunt.  I go out to make the call at first and then I’m out of position for the comeback play at the plate.  I couldn’t see a tag, safe.  The bitching wasn’t too bad.  I pointed out that THIS IS WHY WE DON’T WORK SOLO.

My biggest peeve this spring was the coaches who know there's only one umpire and want to complain about the safe/out call on a steal of second base. Sure, solo umpires generally do their best to hustle and get the best possible look and angle. However, they can't MSU and guess on an out call from 127 feet away.

[dumbdumb]

2 hours ago, MadMax said:

I hear ya. I really do. If that venue has a “site director”, then that lack-of-umpires is a “they” problem, not a “you” (or “U”, baddum-bum!) problem. If, in the OP, that really is USSSA, I’m not bailing them out… 

Why the differential??! 🤨At 18 years old, why is there separate levels??!!?!?

This is why I can guarantee you, baseball sucks in America, and it’s getting worse! They don’t have six different levels in Mexico, or Venezuela, or the Dominican Republic!! The kids there play baseball in a god-forsaken lot, with all ages thrown together, and the talent and skill levels either are forced to improve, or fold. But we’ve ruined two, if perhaps three, generations of kids with our stupid, foo-foo “everyone gets a trophy” / “everyone gets a chance” crap 💩 that infests our culture. 

Why are there 4 teams (and lemme guess, rosters of 11-12 kids each, tops) at that site, at two different levels?? Why aren’t there 2 teams, with much more robust rosters?? 

 
Damm! I needed that! 

Oh yea, basically with the volume of games today, in the same proportion, they would have had the same problem back in the day of years gone by that is being faced today. Preach on.

[Thatsnotyou]

I get the whole “don’t work solo” thing, but it depends on the level. I really don’t need much help on a 10U game. Two umpires is overkill. You don’t even need to rotate since the field is so small. 
 

Anything 60/90, absolutely. 54/80? Probably there too.  Smaller than that, I’ve never felt that I couldn’t handle 98% of it. Frankly, that’s good enough. Furthermore, that’s an age level where I’ve never seen anything close to a fight between players. 
 

 

[The Man in Blue]

17 hours ago, Thatsnotyou said:

I get the whole “don’t work solo” thing, but it depends on the level. I really don’t need much help on a 10U game. Two umpires is overkill. You don’t even need to rotate since the field is so small. 
 

Anything 60/90, absolutely. 54/80? Probably there too.  Smaller than that, I’ve never felt that I couldn’t handle 98% of it. Frankly, that’s good enough. Furthermore, that’s an age level where I’ve never seen anything close to a fight between players. 
 

Umpires are like computer back-ups ... two is one and one is none.

If you "don't need" a second umpire, you don't need a first umpire.  There are plenty of age and skill groups that don't need an umpire.

[Thatsnotyou]

25 minutes ago, The Man in Blue said:

Umpires are like computer back-ups ... two is one and one is none.

If you "don't need" a second umpire, you don't need a first umpire.  There are plenty of age and skill groups that don't need an umpire.

A 10/11U travel game needs an umpire. It doesn’t need two.