Correcting Umpires

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Feb 3, 2015
2
0
Milan, MI
I think any of us who have coached for a while have a host of pet peeve calls or situations. One of mine is the tag play at the plate when the catcher is still in the catcher's box. As soon as my sliding baserunner touches the edge of the plate, they should be deemed safe, yet time and again I've seen opposing catchers stay in the catcher's box, catch a throw (usually a high throw), plop the tag straight down over the middle of the plate and still get the call from blue--often looking at the play from behind (or through?) the catcher.

I was coaching 14U baseball the last time this situation arose, and the out call ended the inning. I walked up to the two umps to discuss the play, and initially both umps tried to escort me off the field. That league had a bad rep of coaches working over umps over any little thing and neither of these umps wanted to take a chance that I would treat them any differently. I asked them both to come over to the plate where I showed them where the catcher was positioned and explained where I teach my catcher to position themselves: in front of the plate and just a bit up the 3rd base line. I stayed very calm and apparently as long as I was low key, they indulged me.

I thought for sure they would think I was showing them up, but I wanted to show that I had more of an issue than just a call not going my way. Shockingly, in that same game we ended up getting two more close plays at the plate on offense, and in both cases our runners were called safe. I'd like to think that the home plate ump stopped judging whether the throw beat the runner and instead looked at the edge of home plate like a finish line, but just as likely the ump's mental coin flip just ended up in our favor both of those times. :)
 
Mar 28, 2013
769
18
Watched a great episode on ESPN last weekend, It followed the WS umpiring crew thought he series, with them miked up and also interviews thru all sevenr games. The one thing they said that does explain allot to me is "the less confident an umpire is the more confrontational he will be". Something I will keep in mind.
 

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