ranting again

[Hillhouse]

small soapbox rant here, disregard if you don't like those! I got a message today from a coach who has several of my students on his team. They are a travel ball team class C, the lowest classification I know of. Basically, one step above rec ball. In fact, an argument could be made they are a rec team that is playing travel ball at the level they are. The team is 14u, all of the pitchers are beginners. At first, I'm not sure they knew which arm to throw with... let that give you an idea of their starting point with pitching. Anyway, they were in a tournament today in the greater Omaha area. I don't want to name the Alphabet soup organization in charge (USSSA, PFG, USA, etc.) because I doubt their UIC endorsed this. And I wanna be careful how I word this because I know there's an issue with an umpire shortage and there's a higher level of awareness of umpire abuse which has helped us get to the shortage. But, the umpire in this game came out to my student who started and informed her she's pitching illegally. Why was she illegal you ask? Its not for a foreign substance like using the wrong Gorilla Gold rag, not for crow-hopping, not for taking too long between pitches. No. She was illegal for not keeping 2 feet on the rubber. All of the pitchers were illegal for not using 2 feet on the rubber, a rule which was abolished by every organization (including the WBSC, world governing body of the Olympics) in 2019. This man in blue would not hear it that there was a rule change, his word was law and that's that. For those who have never thrown a pitch in softball, let me tell you something. To go from pitching with 1 foot on the rubber to needing to keep both feet in contact is equal to asking someone to throw with the opposite hand. It is THAT different. Going from 2 feet on the rubber to 1 also takes an adjustment but a much smaller adjustment than going from 1 to 2 feet. It's night and day. And it's a rule that has not been around for 4 years. I don't know if this umpire was in a coma for 4 years or what but, there is no excuse for this. There will always be umpires with bad or inconsistent strike zones There will always be umps who let runners leave early or don't call slappers out of the box or whatever... but those are judgement calls. This is an umpire who simply doesn't know the rules. Again, I don't know his backstory or history of umpiring. Maybe he's only done baseball in the last 4 years? I don't know. But both teams tried to explain to the umpire he was wrong and he refused to listen. And before anyone suggests it, a protest was attempted but the UIC was conveniently (or in this case inconveniently) unavailable. So the game had to continue. To me, there is in excuse for someone to be umpiring and not know the rules. I realize that most umps genuinely love the game and go through a lot for the kids, including LONG days in the hot sun. But that person is also the only one there getting paid and if you're taking money for your services, you should at the very least know the rules.

 

[Chilixa]

There has to be some resource available for teams to appeal to when something like that happens. If that stuff continues to happen we wouldn’t play in those tourneys.


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[Lobster Birch]

I had a similar experience when I coached my DD’s 10U team. The opposing team was at bat and the batter offered to bunt and did not pull back and the ump called a ball. I thought maybe I had saw wrong, but when it happened again on another batter I called time out and asked why he was not calling a strike when the batter was offering. He was very condescending telling me “That’s not the rule!”. Apparently the rule used to be you could show bunt but it was not a strike unless the batter made an effort to bunt the ball, but that had been a few year back. I was a new head coach and didn’t know to protest. Our club team was running the tournament. I should have just fired him right there!

I can’t remember exactly what I said to him, but I have always wished I said something like “Well, on behalf of my girls, the girls on the other team, all the coaches and all the parents and fans here, let me say how honored we all are to be in the presence of the only umpire in Western Washington who knows the rule!”

 

[DNeeld]

There is one ancient umpire around here that will call illegal pitches for not presenting the ball, so . . .

 

[The Man In Blue]

This is a byproduct of the umpire shortages, but I will point to to bigger driving factors involving money.

Tournaments are not willing to limit entries or cancel games when they cannot find qualified umpires*. So then they look for any umpires. Tournaments try to take in as many entrance fee checks as they can, and then worry about figuring out the logistics later. They then pay an assignor who usually doesn’t even appear at the tournament. The assignor then starts looking for any warm body with catcher’s equipment.

Tournaments also don’t typically pay to have a dedicated UIC on site (they already paid an assignor, what more do you want?!). This goes back to the qualified umpire statement. IF the umpires you are hiring are NOT fluent in the code you are playing, at bare minimum you need to have an on-site UIC running your umpires. That UIC should be having rules meetings before the umpires hit the field AND should be monitoring games and umpires.

Since I am back to finding new places to work (my old ones have folded while I was gone), I have encountered this too often. The baseball tournament I worked last weekend was being umpired mostly by softball umpires. I’ve been to plenty of softball tournaments being staffed by baseball umpires. That isn’t even getting into the differences in codes within each sport.

This isn’t a matter of umpires not knowing what they are doing … it’s a matter of the people taking your money and giving you an inferior product.

I agree with you that your should expect a qualified and knowledgeable umpire … but it isn’t his fault people keep hiring him for things he is not qualified for.

 

[The Man In Blue]

I had a similar experience when I coached my DD’s 10U team. The opposing team was at bat and the batter offered to bunt and did not pull back and the ump called a ball. I thought maybe I had saw wrong, but when it happened again on another batter I called time out and asked why he was not calling a strike when the batter was offering. He was very condescending telling me “That’s not the rule!”. Apparently the rule used to be you could show bunt but it was not a strike unless the batter made an effort to bunt the ball, but that had been a few year back. I was a new head coach and didn’t know to protest. Our club team was running the tournament. I should have just fired him right there!

I can’t remember exactly what I said to him, but I have always wished I said something like “Well, on behalf of my girls, the girls on the other team, all the coaches and all the parents and fans here, let me say how honored we all are to be in the presence of the only umpire in Western Washington who knows the rule!”

What rule set were you playing under?

Wait, you hired him but didn’t make sure everybody was on the same alphabet page?

 

[RADcatcher]

Mr.B what did your pitchers do? Did they make an adjustment and start with two feet on the rubber?

Little fun here...
Phone rings...Hello, you need an Umpire and you want me to umpire your game? What day and time? Okay I will be there. Oh wait just one thing, I don't have time to update myself on all the new rules that I may be unacquainted with so I'm going to call the game as I know how and if anybody wants to complain they can go sit down. Like I said I'll do my best. Sure, you're welcome. Btw, I'll be there 15 minutes before the game so you can hand me my check.

Like it or lump it, umpires don't always get the rules right. (And they don't always make the right call even when it's with correct rules)
Still, I'm glad they do what they do!

 

[Lobster Birch]

What rule set were you playing under?

Wait, you hired him but didn’t make sure everybody was on the same alphabet page?

It was USSSA. As far as I know there was

What rule set were you playing under?

Wait, you hired him but didn’t make sure everybody was on the same alphabet page?

It was USSSA. They provided the umps.

 

[angispeds]

This is a byproduct of the umpire shortages, but I will point to to bigger driving factors involving money.

Tournaments are not willing to limit entries or cancel games when they cannot find qualified umpires*. So then they look for any umpires. Tournaments try to take in as many entrance fee checks as they can, and then worry about figuring out the logistics later. They then pay an assignor who usually doesn’t even appear at the tournament. The assignor then starts looking for any warm body with catcher’s equipment.

Tournaments also don’t typically pay to have a dedicated UIC on site (they already paid an assignor, what more do you want?!). This goes back to the qualified umpire statement. IF the umpires you are hiring are NOT fluent in the code you are playing, at bare minimum you need to have an on-site UIC running your umpires. That UIC should be having rules meetings before the umpires hit the field AND should be monitoring games and umpires.

Since I am back to finding new places to work (my old ones have folded while I was gone), I have encountered this too often. The baseball tournament I worked last weekend was being umpired mostly by softball umpires. I’ve been to plenty of softball tournaments being staffed by baseball umpires. That isn’t even getting into the differences in codes within each sport.

This isn’t a matter of umpires not knowing what they are doing … it’s a matter of the people taking your money and giving you an inferior product.

I agree with you that your should expect a qualified and knowledgeable umpire … but it isn’t his fault people keep hiring him for things he is not qualified for.

I completely agree with this! I would be more than happy to have half the games with longer time limits to play real softball with decent umpires.


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[The Man In Blue]

It was USSSA. As far as I know there was

It was USSSA. They provided the umps.

Thank you for providing first-hand examples of the issue.

Things like this are why I am on the verge of issuing contracts to people who contract me for my services. 99% of what we do is a verbal agreement passed along via a game of telephone.