Since we all like to complain about umpires now and then, I thought I'd share a story about a local Blue whose actions I appreciated the other night.
I was out watching a HS JV game where a friend of mine's daughter was pitching. At one point, the batter hit the ball to the outfield. As she ran to first I could see the first baseman (who is inexperienced) stood in the way of where the batter/runner would normally round the bag. I had seen this once earlier in the game, so this time I looked at the umpire immediately and observed he saw what I saw. His arm was out signalling delayed dead ball. The runner came around first, hesitated and then went back. Even though it was against my friend's daughter's team, the coach in me was thinking "go go go, this is a freebie."
When the play was over, the umpire awarded second base to the batter/runner even though she'd gone back to first. My friend, of course, questioned it, and I wasn't sure of the answer either. We discussed it among ourselves a bit since normally I believe the runner has to make an attempt at the next base, and is awarded it if she is thrown out on a close play. I finally suggested maybe NFHS rules are different.
A little later between innings, the umpire came to where we were sitting behind home and said, "I heard you guys discussing that play. In NFHS rules she doesn't have to make an attempt to be awarded the base."
Now, I don't have an NFHS rulebook so I don't know if that's true or not. But I thought it was nice of the Blue to go out of his way to resolve the discussion and educate us if it is true. He was very professional about it. I think he also appreciated that we weren't yelling about it, we were just trying to figure out why the call was different than we would expect.
In any case, I thought it was a classy move, and we both thanked him for the clarification - which he was under no obligation to give us.
I was out watching a HS JV game where a friend of mine's daughter was pitching. At one point, the batter hit the ball to the outfield. As she ran to first I could see the first baseman (who is inexperienced) stood in the way of where the batter/runner would normally round the bag. I had seen this once earlier in the game, so this time I looked at the umpire immediately and observed he saw what I saw. His arm was out signalling delayed dead ball. The runner came around first, hesitated and then went back. Even though it was against my friend's daughter's team, the coach in me was thinking "go go go, this is a freebie."
When the play was over, the umpire awarded second base to the batter/runner even though she'd gone back to first. My friend, of course, questioned it, and I wasn't sure of the answer either. We discussed it among ourselves a bit since normally I believe the runner has to make an attempt at the next base, and is awarded it if she is thrown out on a close play. I finally suggested maybe NFHS rules are different.
A little later between innings, the umpire came to where we were sitting behind home and said, "I heard you guys discussing that play. In NFHS rules she doesn't have to make an attempt to be awarded the base."
Now, I don't have an NFHS rulebook so I don't know if that's true or not. But I thought it was nice of the Blue to go out of his way to resolve the discussion and educate us if it is true. He was very professional about it. I think he also appreciated that we weren't yelling about it, we were just trying to figure out why the call was different than we would expect.
In any case, I thought it was a classy move, and we both thanked him for the clarification - which he was under no obligation to give us.
