ranting again

[CoachJD]

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

I think it's minimizing what was being asked to call it an "adjustment." This is a major change to force pitchers to make on the spot. It's not actually reasonable to force them all to do this.

I think both teams should've agreed to not play the game until the umpire was clear on the rules and agreed to call them properly. Forcing pitchers to do something mechanically different like this is putting them at risk physically.

I don't know why guys like this ump. They're not interested in knowing the rules. They never have good attitudes. They're certainly not getting paid enough to make it worthwhile. It really seems like they only thing they get out of it is the power trip. There have got to be easier ways to ruin everyone's day.

 

[Dabears17]

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!”

I'll need to double check as I'm the Assignor/UIC for a USA tournament in late June, but that is the USA rule, and I don't remember it being changed. Though I was sort of in a coma for two years during Covid.

https://www.nfhs.org/media/1019874/2023-rule-differences_usa-softball_ncaa_nfhs.pdf

 

[GIMNEPIWO]

About 10 years ago I received a phone call from what was then a new start-up softball association (forget their name) in NC that was holding a tournament ... They were seriously short on umpires and were reaching out ... I asked them which rule set they would be using ... The answer was "just any of them will be ok" ... LOL

 

[RADcatcher]

I think it's minimizing what was being asked to call it an "adjustment." This is a major change to force pitchers to make on the spot. It's not actually reasonable to force them all to do this.

Use whatever verbiage you want in place of the word adjustment.

Simply this situation/story is not the only time a pitcher might have an Umpire call an illegal pitch. Plenty of times pitchers have thrown many games in a tournament/league/friendlies only to come to one umpire that wants to call an illegal pitch.
Where then the pitcher has to make an adjustment.

It's not just a situation that umpires may or may not know rules. It is additionally a situation where umpires use different observational judgment.

How a pitcher handles that situation is important on the playing aspect.

For those that continue to want to discuss the level of umpiring abilities...
imo, that topic 'abilities' will always be fluctuating. Never perfect. For that reason pitchers learning to deal with an umpire unique rule/interpretation circumstance is really important!

 

[Tatonka]

Without going into detail let me just say that this is not only a problem in Rec, Travel or HS ball, nor is it confined to regular season play. Conference tournament games (including the Championship games) in NCAA DIII are unduly influenced by some crews.

 

[PharmerBrown]

I'll need to double check as I'm the Assignor/UIC for a USA tournament in late June, but that is the USA rule, and I don't remember it being changed. Though I was sort of in a coma for two years during Covid.

https://www.nfhs.org/media/1019874/2023-rule-differences_usa-softball_ncaa_nfhs.pdf

That says in contact with OR behind.

 

[nightskiier]

I think it's minimizing what was being asked to call it an "adjustment." This is a major change to force pitchers to make on the spot. It's not actually reasonable to force them all to do this.

I think both teams should've agreed to not play the game until the umpire was clear on the rules and agreed to call them properly. Forcing pitchers to do something mechanically different like this is putting them at risk physically.

Not strictly related to umpiring, but we had a weird situation about the two-feet-on/step-back change for pitching in my state a few years ago. The statewide athletics administration in its infinite wisdom did not adopt the change to allow step-back when NFHS did. So at all levels, we saw pitchers who had trained in step back for club ball being called illegal in middle and high school. A lot of usually lights-out club pitchers were so confused/frustrated that games were walk-fests.

This lasted about 3 or 4 games, then either by collaboration or malicious compliance many of the school ball coaches started players that had last pitched in town rec league and never learned the new method. All of a sudden we went from walk-fest to games that never ended because every pitcher was batting practice.

After 3 weeks of this - the state changed the rules mid-season and adopted the NFHS rules in full. The playoffs for states that year were completely screwed up with all the crazy run-scoring and "upset" games.

As a postscript - some of the umps that worked early games in my state would show up in our neighboring states and call the same two-feet-on rule AFTER the state caved and adopted the full NFHS definition. The tournament directors were not pleased.

 

[RADcatcher]

Not strictly related to umpiring, but we had a weird situation about the two-feet-on/step-back change for pitching in my state a few years ago. The statewide athletics administration in its infinite wisdom did not adopt the change to allow step-back when NFHS did. So at all levels, we saw pitchers who had trained in step back for club ball being called illegal in middle and high school. A lot of usually lights-out club pitchers were so confused/frustrated that games were walk-fests.

This lasted about 3 or 4 games, then either by collaboration or malicious compliance many of the school ball coaches started players that had last pitched in town rec league and never learned the new method. All of a sudden we went from walk-fest to games that never ended because every pitcher was batting practice.

After 3 weeks of this - the state changed the rules mid-season and adopted the NFHS rules in full. The playoffs for states that year were completely screwed up with all the crazy run-scoring and "upset" games.

As a postscript - some of the umps that worked early games in my state would show up in our neighboring states and call the same two-feet-on rule AFTER the state caved and adopted the full NFHS definition. The tournament directors were not pleased.

Holy mackerel!

 

[MoJo]

I think it's minimizing what was being asked to call it an "adjustment." This is a major change to force pitchers to make on the spot. It's not actually reasonable to force them all to do this.

I think both teams should've agreed to not play the game until the umpire was clear on the rules and agreed to call them properly. Forcing pitchers to do something mechanically different like this is putting them at risk physically.

I don't know why guys like this ump. They're not interested in knowing the rules. They never have good attitudes. They're certainly not getting paid enough to make it worthwhile. It really seems like they only thing they get out of it is the power trip. There have got to be easier ways to ruin everyone's day.

Am I more shocked or angered when sports officials can't do their job??

Players, families, coaches are putting in countless hours and dollars into playing their sport. There has to be a way to deal with rogue officials. To have one person with the arrogance and power to ruin a game or weekend is just unacceptable.

There have been places and agencies with rules that include "No Protests Allowed".

 

[_MIA_]

Am I more shocked or angered when sports officials can't do their job??

I'm going with angered..