...also this weekend

"Blue, what kind of strike zone do you have? Do you give them the river"

Correct answer: "A strike is a strike" (For all those umpires out there - NEVER talk about a strike zone)
The sarcastic answer in my head: "Yes, I like to make up my own rules and create a new strike zone based on personal likes and dislikes of what a strike is. Let me tell you what that is"

I also had a coach upset because they claimed they called for time and that the pitch shouldn't count because they "weren't ready and hadn't had the opportunity to give their batter a sign...'

"Did you see any umpire acknowledge your time request? No... then time wasn't called. The players were ready and the rules don't have anything about waiting for the coaches to be ready for a pitch"

marriard said:

"Blue, what kind of strike zone do you have? Do you give them the river"

Correct answer: "A strike is a strike" (For all those umpires out there - NEVER talk about a strike zone)
The sarcastic answer in my head: "Yes, I like to make up my own rules and create a new strike zone based on personal likes and dislikes of what a strike is. Let me tell you what that is"

I also had a coach upset because they claimed they called for time and that the pitch shouldn't count because they "weren't ready and hadn't had the opportunity to give their batter a sign...'

"Did you see any umpire acknowledge your time request? No... then time wasn't called. The players were ready and the rules don't have anything about waiting for the coaches to be ready for a pitch"

Click to expand...

actually when coaching 10u rec, did have an ump tell us at plate meeting he was giving one ball width on either side of the plate, and it was just below shoulders to just below knees. he wanted to be certain we knew he was calling it so you were going to have to swing the bat.

Seen a few umps that would go with your sarcastic answer......

bmakj said:

actually when coaching 10u rec, did have an ump tell us at plate meeting he was giving one ball width on either side of the plate, and it was just below shoulders to just below knees. he wanted to be certain we knew he was calling it so you were going to have to swing the bat.

Click to expand...

You will note I didn't say some people wouldn't say it - just that you shouldn't and you are an idiot if you do.

That only will get you into trouble. Here is what happens...

"I give one ball on and off"... and then you don't make that call (or it is 2 balls out and they start complaining 'You said you gave off the plate').
"I give a high strike zone" - now every high pitch you HAVE to call a strike or the coaches go nuts.

Don't do it. It is an avoidable situation.

We had two umps and a UIC that said we couldnt have the DP/Flex on the field at the same time. "been umpiring 20 years and you cant do that..." This was at the Gold Cup in Houston, not a rec league or low level tourney.

Finally called the TD and he stated over the phone that n fact, yes, you can do this. We have a female HC and I dont think the 3 males could stand her knowing the rules...

They finally said go ahead and play but its wrong... SMH

4 girl's dad said:

We had two umps and a UIC that said we couldnt have the DP/Flex on the field at the same time. "been umpiring 20 years and you cant do that..." This was at the Gold Cup in Houston, not a rec league or low level tourney.

Finally called the TD and he stated over the phone that n fact, yes, you can do this. We have a female HC and I dont think the 3 males could stand her knowing the rules...

They finally said go ahead and play but its wrong... SMH

Click to expand...

I have had the same issue in two different tournaments. One time the UIC sorted the issue out on his own correctly. The 2nd time both the umpires and UIC disagreed with me until I got out the rule book. Both were USA/ASA tournaments. I bring this rule up if I am using a DP Flex in bracket games now, often times the umpires look at the other coach and ask him if they don't know.

Gambler Bob said:

I have had the same issue in two different tournaments. One time the UIC sorted the issue out on his own correctly. The 2nd time both the umpires and UIC disagreed with me until I got out the rule book. Both were USA/ASA tournaments. I bring this rule up if I am using a DP Flex in bracket games now, often times the umpires look at the other coach and ask him if they don't know.

Click to expand...

This just goes to the complete lack of umpires and training for umpires.

I have told this story before - I was out umpiring a travel tournament including a 12U-A Championship game after a 2 hour clinic. Now I have 35+ years of officiiating various sports and years in softball at the time but most of our umpires get their first game with this level of training. Some with less. There is no test (except for an open book NFHS one which is OPEN book and 99% of questions are you can directly search the rule book for the answer and you only do if you want to umpire HS)

My DD started umpiring this season - myself and a fellow umpire took her out for a couple of scrimmage games and then she was assigned that weekend. In my opinion after 6 weeks she is already in the top half of officials locally because she has access to myself and some of my fellow officials and she has taken it seriously.

There is zero investment by any of the orgs for officiating at the youth level. Most of them do the occasional 'don't abuse our umpires' post on facebook - that is about it. It is already a reasonable investment just to start umpiring - equipment + shirts + officials insurance + a registration fee.

We were technically short 20 officials for HS this year. All game times had to be adjusted so crews who could do a 4pm game had time to drive to the next HS to do the evening game. Even with less travel tournaments this season, we are short close to the same number. It is not sustainable. I did 14 games this weekend with no breaks. That is 4 more games than I am comfortable with - no one should be doing more than 2-3 games in a row with out a break. On Sunday the tournament ran long because umpires were just taking 15-20 minutes breaks between games because they needed some rest before going out there again.

I did the HS championship game in the field - it wa a struggle to get into position. My partner was fighting hard to focus but he was exhasted. But there was no one else - every umpire was in the same position.

marriard said:

"Blue, what kind of strike zone do you have? Do you give them the river"

Correct answer: "A strike is a strike" (For all those umpires out there - NEVER talk about a strike zone)
The sarcastic answer in my head: "Yes, I like to make up my own rules and create a new strike zone based on personal likes and dislikes of what a strike is. Let me tell you what that is"

Click to expand...

You scoff but I know umpires that have made their strike zone from the waist to the knees and they will tell you that. Terrible thing to do but they do it.

4 girl's dad said:

We had two umps and a UIC that said we couldnt have the DP/Flex on the field at the same time. "been umpiring 20 years and you cant do that..." This was at the Gold Cup in Houston, not a rec league or low level tourney.

Finally called the TD and he stated over the phone that n fact, yes, you can do this. We have a female HC and I dont think the 3 males could stand her knowing the rules...

They finally said go ahead and play but its wrong... SMH

Click to expand...

We deal with stuff like this all the time in Houston. We have to have to worst collection of umpires as a whole of any area in the country. I'm always amazed at how much better the umpiring is when we go out of town to play, even if it is in a smaller town.

We had an ump that didn’t not wanted go give us help on a bad call, because we didn’t to call time before asking for help ....