Strangest thing an Umpire has said to you?

[Vertigo]

Strangest thing: “Whatcha doing after the game?”

 

[gator5]

Happened in men's softball. I was the coach.

We are up. Batter hits a weak pop up which is caught. There is no debate. For whatever reason, batter thinks he is safe and stays on first. First base coach does nothing, and none of us on the bench noticed. Next batter smacks one to the fence. Runner from first tries to score There is a throw home. He is safe The other team then tries to figure out why the guy who was out was running the bases.

The umpire (there is only one) is dumbfounded. He finally calls "DO OVER"

As the coach, I had no idea what the rule was I knew it was not "DO OVER", but since my guy was an idiot for being on the base, it seemed fair enough. Guy who just hit the double them popped up.

I know what the rule is now. The umpire should have given the guy a double (since he would have had a double regardless if they had thrown home or not)

 

[Gambler Bob]

Runner on 3rd no outs. Batters is walked and the umpire turns around and starts talking to the fans. The ball is still live so I send the runner to directly to 2nd base. After the play is over the umpire makes the walked batter return to 1st base. He told us that he busy talking to the fans and was not paying attention so the runner has to go back to first base.

It was a round robin so I was not going to argue too much with him.

 

[Northball]

This thread is new to me, too.

DDs travel team, our group of coaches and parents always appreciated an ump with a sense of humor.

Low key game. After a questionable fair/foul call and some minor grumbling, one of the parents says "Let's go to the videotape." Without missing a beat the ump dryly replies "You can go to the videotape all you want, I'm still right."

Also trying to remember where I heard about the ump that breaks up a mound conference by saying "let's go girls, I've got an eye doctor appointment after this."

 

[The Man In Blue]

“New” thread for me, too. Thanks for bumping it!

“She’s not out for not sliding, but she’s out because she didn’t slide.” — Me

”Dumb@$$.” — Me (not my proudest moment)

Stories available upon request.

 

[Lemond]

Mes's SP many yrs ago. One ump, both teams friendly with each other and the blue who was a regular.

Questionable call, don't remember specifics, but think it was a close foul/fair ball call.

Opposing team: You obviously can't see the ball very well (or something similar with the attitude you would give to a drinking buddy that just hit on a manikin in a drunken stupor).

PU: (Something to the effect of) I can see the white balls against the green grass just fine.

League had switched to the yellow balls about a decade prior. The razzing did not stop for the remainder of the game.

 

[OzOl]

I had to umpire a game at our league as the umps didn’t show, I had no team to coach at that timeslot So I thought why not.
The parents behind the fence were grumbling at just about every call (I’m starting to think it’s a hobby of theirs) so in between innings I leant against the fence and reminded them that the leggings and chest plate were adjustable and that i was happy for them to take my place.
Nice quiet game after that.
To add to my fun, after the game when I grabbed my keys and phone from the dugout I called over to them “hey, my phone says I missed a few calls too”. Some laughed, some grumbled a bit more...... my job was done.
Note it was rec league so nothing too serious.

 

[justanotherguy]

Note it was rec league so nothing too serious.

After coaching a rec league this past spring, I've learned rec league parents can be every bit as bad (or worse) than travel parents!

 

[NBECoach]

As we were about to take pre-game infield at our HS, one umpire comes to me and asks if he's at our HS? He's supposed to work the game there.

What's so odd about that? I am wearing my school softball coaches shirt, and he had an unobstructed view of the sign on the school which I politely pointed to.

He was awful. Gave the safe sign on a steal while verbally calling the runner out.

Have not had him work our games since.

 

[chinamigarden]

As we were about to take pre-game infield at our HS, one umpire comes to me and asks if he's at our HS? He's supposed to work the game there.

What's so odd about that? I am wearing my school softball coaches shirt, and he had an unobstructed view of the sign on the school which I politely pointed to.

He was awful. Gave the safe sign on a steal while verbally calling the runner out.

Have not had him work our games since.

In his defense you could be st softball fields across the street from our school. In full view of the HS sign. Every person there would be wearing HS gear. And you could be in the wrong place. On the other hand our varsity fields have no view of the school sign.