Officially starting my little league umpire journey tomorrow

[The Man in Blue]

Aren't they a little young to be getting on their bae?

We used to use this fix: the coach had the remaining strikes let . . . so if the kid pitcher had two strikes on the batter, the coach only got one pitch (not one strike).  If the kid pitcher had no strikes on the batter, the coach got up to three pitches.

[orangebird]

7 minutes ago, The Man in Blue said:

Aren't they a little young to be getting on their bae?

We used to use this fix: the coach had the remaining strikes let . . . so if the kid pitcher had two strikes on the batter, the coach only got one pitch (not one strike).  If the kid pitcher had no strikes on the batter, the coach got up to three pitches.

Yeah they were doing the kid pitch strikes carry over part...just not the "0 strikes means 3 coach pitches" part lol

[834k3r]

13 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

Aren't they a little young to be getting on their bae?

[Velho]

13 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

Aren't they a little young to be getting on their bae?

Not that you need any but avoiding having this question answered is further reason for you to avoid social media.

[The Man in Blue]

Oh, I see enough in freshmen English; I don't need that crap following me home like a skogsrå that can only be dispatched by getting 13 likes on a My Space video during a full moon.

[Velho]

1 hour ago, The Man in Blue said:

My Space

Well geez, if that's your reference point, there is an attraction of current social media: no blink tags. 

[orangebird]

Okay I wasn't born yesterday and knew how temperatures worked before today...but I just worked a game in the 50s with modest winds and barely any sun while sticking with short sleeves and it was absolutely lovely!

Legs felt much less tired, don't think I broke a sweat and really just felt so much better physically at the end of the game than usual. Don't expect most of baseball season to have this weather, but really was a nice little surprise for me how nice that felt.

[The Man in Blue]

@Velho, what the hell is a blink tag?  

@orangebird . . . This is the way.  

[orangebird]

Fun weekend contrast: Friday night game on a turf field with lights and then a Saturday afternoon game with the backstop fence looking like it had 20 years of rust and working the second game of the day where the batter's box was merely a suggestion at first pitch

[orangebird]

On 9/5/2025 at 11:06 PM, orangebird said:

Anyways while I do think sticking with rec will be good for me this year...I do look forward to hopefully just needing to memorize the NFHS book instead of dealing with local rules that include a very specific definition of when you can advance on an overthrow

Worked a doubleheader for this level yesterday and the walk-off run scored where the other coaches politely tried to claim this rule came into play. Wasn't really much of an argument, it was a runner on third with no outs where they agreed the run was likely scoring either way but really hammered home the "local rules are for local fools" or whatever is that saying I've seen here before

[834k3r]

On 10/26/2025 at 4:56 PM, orangebird said:

hammered home the "local rules are for local fools" or whatever is that saying I've seen here before

[orangebird]

I do think some of them are reasonable for u10 (no balks, no dropped third, no stealing home) but I strongly dislike anything that limits what can happen once the ball gets put in play, you gotta have at least a little action for this level

[Velho]

7 hours ago, orangebird said:

but I strongly dislike anything that limits what can happen once the ball gets put in play, you gotta have at least a little action for this level

I'm with you. I think this is the fertile ground to plant the seeds of proper culture. Don't take the extra base because they other team can't throw and catch at 8 because it's the right thing to do... not because there is a line on the ground the runner had to be past before the pitcher has the ball on the mound.

Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing.

Yes, I can be a perpetual optimist.

[The Man in Blue]

On 10/28/2025 at 5:49 PM, Velho said:

I'm with you. I think this is the fertile ground to plant the seeds of proper culture. Don't take the extra base because they other team can't throw and catch at 8 because it's the right thing to do... not because there is a line on the ground the runner had to be past before the pitcher has the ball on the mound.

Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing.

Yes, I can be a perpetual optimist.

 

Optimist indeed.  While I agree conceptually, "peer pressure" does not work on adults who believe their job as coach is to find every loophole and "odds are we'll get away with it" way to W-I-N.  Shiny plastic is a powerful narcotic.

[Velho]

1 hour ago, The Man in Blue said:

Optimist indeed.  While I agree conceptually, "peer pressure" does not work on adults who believe their job as coach is to find every loophole and "odds are we'll get away with it" way to W-I-N.  Shiny plastic is a powerful narcotic.

I hear you. That's one of the reasons I just joined the Board. It's a good league currently but needs attention to remain that way.

[orangebird]

Alright, to the best of my knowledge fall ball has ended for all rec ball in my county and because I kept a pretty detailed spreadsheet, gonna do a little stats breakdown for year one!

Total games worked: 33, with 1 show-up fee for a field that got double-booked by travel and 1-show up fee where the game wasn't called for rain but the field was unplayable, but the coaches agreed to claim we got a pitch in lol so 35 "games" I got paid for

Games worked solo: 21/33, 63.6%

Games as a base umpire: 7/33, 21.2%

Travel games worked: 10/33, 30.3%

90-foot diamond games worked: 7/33, 21.2% (this is the same as the base umpire stat but not the same exact 7 games)

Softball games worked: 7/33 (a lot of sevens here!)

Games worked on a high school field: 4/33 (the private Catholic school with turf was nicer than the public schools, shocker)

Spoilers but for next year I'd like to very much increase the 90-foot diamond number and certainly would like the base umpire number to feel closer to 50%

[BLWizzRanger]

2 hours ago, orangebird said:

Alright, to the best of my knowledge fall ball has ended for all rec ball in my county and because I kept a pretty detailed spreadsheet, gonna do a little stats breakdown for year one!

Total games worked: 33, with 1 show-up fee for a field that got double-booked by travel and 1-show up fee where the game wasn't called for rain but the field was unplayable, but the coaches agreed to claim we got a pitch in lol so 35 "games" I got paid for

Games worked solo: 21/33, 63.6%

Games as a base umpire: 7/33, 21.2%

Travel games worked: 10/33, 30.3%

90-foot diamond games worked: 7/33, 21.2% (this is the same as the base umpire stat but not the same exact 7 games)

Softball games worked: 7/33 (a lot of sevens here!)

Games worked on a high school field: 4/33 (the private Catholic school with turf was nicer than the public schools, shocker)

Spoilers but for next year I'd like to very much increase the 90-foot diamond number and certainly would like the base umpire number to feel closer to 50%

Good job on keeping a log book.  It's the only way that I can keep track of the games that I have done and make sure that I get paid for them.  You might not have evolved yet on what notes you keep, but I keep, in addition to what you mention, my partner names, 2/3/4 man, mileage for tax purposes, and age/division/conference notations.  I know one umpire that keeps a diary of interesting plays per game in theirs.  What else would be interesting to keep?

And don't forget to log purchases (equipment, mileage, food) you made for umpiring.  

[834k3r]

16 hours ago, BLWizzRanger said:

mileage for tax purposes

I just started doing that this year, with a note on how mileage was calculated (actual odometer readings or Google Maps).

[orangebird]

Okay, I've had a few days, time for my big picture thoughts on everything

Training

• So as I mentioned back at the start, rec ball in my county is covered by two umpiring orgs and I signed up for both. Org 1 was more 50/50 mechanics and rules while org 2 was purely focused on rules and then taught us the mechanics once we passed the test. I definitely think org 1's approach was better, knowing the rules obviously matter but a bunch of 14-year-olds who haven't done this definitely need to know the slot, position A/B/C more than they need to know what happens if a lineup bats out of order. No one is swapping lineup cards for u10 rec ball!
  • This meant org 2's test was way more difficult for quite frankly no good reason, lineup infractions are worth knowing for higher levels of play but I'm still kind of annoyed I was sweating over stuff like that while working a level where it simply wasn't ever going to come into play
• Org 2 seemingly had some sort of scrimmage on-field training, but it got rained out/pushed back/etc where I never actually attended it. Regardless, org 1 had no such thing and I think it definitely would've been nice to see 10-15 pitches from a u10 pitcher to a u10 catcher. Would've made my first plate game much easier if I already knew what the pitches would look like and also knowing that any sort of low strike was probably not going to be caught by your average u10 catcher. 

Mechanics

• Okay let me begin this with a confession: I kept my indicator in my right hand the whole time. I know you want it in your left hand because you make the signals with your right, but I hold a fork, pencil, etc with my right hand so I just put it in my right hand too. Pelt me with tomatoes if you must.
• For one-man mechanics I read enough stuff that said basically "do not cross the pitcher's mound" and I largely followed that, if there was a play at second with no one else on-base I got closer to second but otherwise that seemed to work.
• I have no idea how good my mechanics were for being a base umpire. I followed A/B/C and tried to use the working area but I'm sure if someone with a higher level of training watched how I handled something like making the call on a possible triple from position A would have several pretty valid nitpicks. I also don't know where precisely you're meant to stand for A/B/C, I get the gist of it but for all I know I was standing 5 feet too close to the mound and 5 feet too close to 3B in C the whole time.
• I did have one particularly dumb-looking mistake early in the season that I didn't mention at the time that I can now admit to: runner on third, don't remember how many outs, ball hit back to the pitcher. I pop out from behind the plate and get in position for what I'm thinking will be a force at first...only to see the pitcher throw home. I duck, don't really have a good view of the play due to suddenly needing to duck while not facing home. Apologized to the fielding team's HC and he thankfully took it in stride lol.

Level of play/local rules/etc

• So I definitely got used to what a u10 zone should be, but man, some of the pitch trajectories really are tricky even with plenty of reps. The amount of pitches that were clearly over the plate but with a big looping arc where it's hard to tell if it caught the top of the zone was definitely annoying. I leaned towards calling them a strike because you want to keep the kids swinging, but I'd love to see ABS or some other fancy pitch tracking for that kind of pitch.
  • The people who suggested an octagon/rhombus/etc for the zone definitely helped me get comfortable expanding it while still feeling like I wasn't demanding kids to swing literally everything
  • Like I said above, I quickly realized your average low strike was not going to be consistently caught by the normal u10 catcher, so that was another fun wrinkle to get used to!
• If we count softball, I worked six different types of rules for a u10 rec ball game! There were some consistent rules across all of them (no balk, no dropped third, no infield fly) but some had coach pitch after (X) amount of walks, some had no stealing while others allowed stealing home, one had every at-bat start at 1-1, etc. I had index cards and everything but still, 6 different local rules for one age group in one year of umpiring feels like a lot lol.
  • Really don't love stealing home for u10 just from a batter interference perspective. Puts kids who don't have great baseball IQ in danger of getting run into and it feels harsh to call the runner out because his teammate couldn't get out of the way.
• I did assume obstruction/interference would happen constantly for u10 and it really didn't, will tip my cap to the kids and coaches for that 
• I will say that u12 becomes remarkably cleaner for just being 2 years older. I'm curious how much of it is the kids getting bigger/stronger vs some kids just quitting and the talent pool just getting better, but the couple times I worked u12 it felt so much more like a normal baseball game. Way more grounders turned into outs, the pitches felt much faster and straighter. Dropped third, stealing home, etc were all also allowed by then.
• Across u10/u12/u15 rec, all of them seem like they struggle with catching the ball more than throwing it once it gets put in play. Even the u15 kids had some plays at 1B that seemed routine but weren't handled cleanly. Rec ball definitely helps hammer home the idea of don't anticipate the call.
• Regardless of the assorted quirks, I found the assorted local rules at least doable to work with...besides the Memorial Day weekend u8 machine pitch tournament, which had a needlessly elaborate rule about calling time once a fielder had the ball inside the basepath and if the runner went halfway or not
  • I talked about this when it happened but it's been a few months and I still think it was trying way too hard too solve a problem for an age level where I think it's wild to already be playing travel anyways

Parent/coach behavior

• Basically nothing negative to report from rec ball 
  • One coach who complained about my zone a bunch for my second plate game that I shrugged off as probably being a valid complaint due to my inexperience but I had him again much later in the year and he was still pretty vocal about the zone and I warned him early and he was fine after that
  • Only parent comment I can remember is when my base umpire no-showed a u12 game and there was something that could've been obstruction or interference, but it wasn't really in my line of sight so I just called nothing and the fielding team definitely thought it was interference and I definitely clearly caught a parent saying "he knows he missed it" or something like that, which feels reasonably tame for a call I did indeed not really have a good look at...but it should've been something the base umpire who was supposed to be there could help with lol
• Travel wasn't as bad as I've heard...but also notably worse than rec
  • Worked a softball doubleheader that had one coach constantly talking about my zone...and the other team's coach popped out of the dugout to argue a call on a weird bobble/possible force at second at one point
  • No one cursed and no one called me an idiot or used a 10-letter word that starts with c that Terry Collins used in the Tom Hallion video at least!

For next year

• #1 priority is going through the training process to work HS and has been for quite a bit. I'm glad I started with rec to get my feet wet but I'm ready for a higher level of training meant for adult professionals and not 14-year-olds 
• However, HS baseball is only spring weekdays to the best of my knowledge. So that means how I want to spend spring weekends, the whole summer and the whole fall is still a bit more of a grab bag.
  • I do know that I want to spend this summer watching the World Cup which starts on June 11 so we're definitely looking at another pretty small slate of summer jobs, which I'm fine with.
  • The logical thought process would be to spend spring weekends/summer/fall working travel over rec since that'll be a higher level of play...but I'm honestly fine with continuing to work rec as long as it's not u10. I'd obviously prefer to work u15 stuff to stay on 90-foot diamonds but u12 games would still be fine to me. 
  • I really only have two things I care about for non-HS games: I really don't want to work u10 rec and really don't want to work any game solo. Those largely overlap but it does seem like travel also uses one ump for 60-foot diamonds and I'm not a huge fan of that based on my experiences this year

I'm sure I'll realize I forgot five things I wanted to add as soon as I hit send, but this feels like a good overview for now. I appreciate anyone who read and commented on this thread at any point, it was cool to share this with people much more experienced than me!

[The Man in Blue]

@orangebird First, it is awesome that you have fallen in love with the avocation!  More important is that you want to learn and train to get better, and that you have goals!

Some random thoughts:

33 games is pretty good for an inaugural season. Working 21 of them solo is UNACCEPTABLE.  That means that you really only had 12 opportunities to learn and get good feedback. Some people will say solo games are OK because you get repetitions, but those repetitions are no good if you are ingraining bad habits.

At first glance, I was going to say your base % is also unacceptable, but then the reality is that is 7 out of 12 ... which is on par. You should be 50/50, and you pretty well were. Early in my career I grabbed plates constantly, because that is where I thought I needed work (and "those" guys are always happy to give that to you).  After awhile, I realized by bases were sloppy as a result.  

The wide variety of games that you worked is a blessing, as it allowed you to see so many more things than if you had only worked 10u baseball all summer.  Yes, the constantly shifting rulesets is a challenge, but it seems as if you met that head on and used that to help you learn.  

Move up as fast as you are comfortable with. It's sometimes hard to leave things behind, but when you outgrow something like a local rec program, leave it behind. Do not continue to work something that is going to develop bad habits and hinder your game. If you want to give back to the program, offer to come train and work with new umpires.

Good observations on the trainings that were available to you. Keep in mind, that is more than many new umpires get!

HS ball may seem like it is only weekdays, but in my neck of the woods there are always double-headers and triangulars going on on Saturdays. They are a little harder to find, but once you get in, you're in. I love working triangulars (3 teams, AvB, BvC, CvA) because they are usually the rare opportunity to work 3-man mechanics.

Younger levels still play travel ball during the HS season. This often puts a strain on the umpire pool (around here).

 

 

[orangebird]

On 11/9/2025 at 3:20 PM, The Man in Blue said:

Move up as fast as you are comfortable with. It's sometimes hard to leave things behind, but when you outgrow something like a local rec program, leave it behind. Do not continue to work something that is going to develop bad habits and hinder your game. If you want to give back to the program, offer to come train and work with new umpires.

(Few days late here lol) Yeah I think I'd need to see how intense/demanding HS ball is and figure it out from there, definitely want well-played games but if I'm feeling overwhelmed or otherwise not great about the vibes of HS games then a u12 rec game be a welcome change of pace for me.

Development vs having a nice time at the diamond is definitely something where I'll see how I feel as I continue to progress in this, learning from a higher level of play can only go so far if the vibes don't feel great during the games

[The Man in Blue]

On 11/13/2025 at 7:43 PM, orangebird said:

(Few days late here lol) Yeah I think I'd need to see how intense/demanding HS ball is and figure it out from there, definitely want well-played games but if I'm feeling overwhelmed or otherwise not great about the vibes of HS games then a u12 rec game be a welcome change of pace for me.

Development vs having a nice time at the diamond is definitely something where I'll see how I feel as I continue to progress in this, learning from a higher level of play can only go so far if the vibes don't feel great during the games

 

Most of the time, I strongly encourage new umpires to follow their comfort level on things like this.  The rest of the time I have to stop allowing them to sell themselves short.  Sometimes we are ready even if we think we aren't.