Stories about the worst umpire calls. Sometimes you just have to laugh.

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May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
I would like to hear about some of the worst umpiring calls you have witnessed in a game.

All this happened in the same game.

We are up hitting and the #2 batter on our team hits a pop up over the first baseman's head. The ball lands about 10 feet to the left of the right field line and about 20 feet past 1st base. The runner is safe at first but she calls it a foul ball. She said if the ball ends up in foul territory before anyone touches the ball it is always a foul ball and that it does not matter if that ball lands fair past the 1st base. All the coaches get together and we explain the rule to her, her idea was that we should just have a redo, LOL. Coaches decided to just let the hitter stay at first base.

Next, we are on defense. The batter hits our catcher's glove on the swing. The opposing coach points out what happened. The umpire calls the batter out for hitting the catcher's glove. Once again the coaches have to get together and explain the rule to her. She says I never heard of that ruling I have always called the batter out. Batter ends up going to first base.

Next, the opposing team is up to bat. Their batter hits a ball towards our 2nd baseman, the ball goes off the second baseman's glove and hits the runner that was on first. Umpire calls the runner out for getting hit by the ball. Coaches get together again and explain the rule and she refuses to believe any of us that the runner is only out if they get hit directly by a batted ball. This time she gets out her phone and looks up the rule. I have seen this interpreted wrong before, so I would not call this one of the worst.

I think my 9 year old daughter knows the rules better than this 30+ year old umpire knew the rules.

For the most part we have had some pretty good umpires this year. So I don't want people to think I dislike all umpires. For every 1 really bad umpire there are 10 that know the rules pretty well.
 
Last edited:
Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
Had a brand new umpire at the plate over the weekend. Luckily, she was working with an experienced ump. Pool game plate meeting. FU tells her to do a double-flip for home team. She looks at him and asks "What's that?" Had to explain it to her again during a later game. Fortunately, she was not working any bracket games.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
At least he checked on the calls. I never understood how you could decide to umpire and not know the basis rules, but at least he checked.
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
Pool play in an 18U tourney. Tied game after 6 innings, plenty of time left. Umps call the game a tie. I am behind the fence and I ask my wife "is this a 6 inning tourney?" The plate ump heads right over to me. "you have a question? you know in pool play games can end in a tie? Maybe you should know the rules before you start mouthing off."

I said back, I was asking my wife a question I wasn't talking to you, but since you want to know what I said, I asked if this was a 6 inning game or a 7 inning game.

7 innings which can end in a tie in pool play.

Did we run out of time?

No why,

Because you just called the game after 6 innings.

Umps confirm with both benches that its only been 6, game back on. We won in that 7th inning too.

Damned thing was, I really didn't ask the question loud or to anyone other then my wife who was keeping score on gamechanger. So I knew she had the innings correct. The Ump made an rear out of himself. Since it was game 1 of the whole tourney both coaches were busy looking at the tourney rules wondering why the game was over when it all happened.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
This was a while ago.

DD is pitching, the ball is going over the heart of the plate. Ball.

Other team's P is throwing it over our batter's head. Strike.

We called time to pull DD out of game. When I went over to inform the umpire the TD and them were having a conversation along the lines of why they were not calling strikes for my DD.

I intruppend them and said in an aggressive voice that that was the reason I came over, you could see a little panic in TD'S eyes. Then I told them is was kidding and that we were going to put in a different pitcher. No idea why they did not like my DD'S pitching but I am sure it was not intentional.
 
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
Umpire last night was the uncle of the opposing pitcher..... ugh. Use your imagination as to how big her zone was.
Normally, I'd just remind my players to adjust to what he's calling (assuming its high/low/in/out etc....) But when you're getting rung up 3K looking at a pitch in the opposite batters box, there's not much you can do with that.
 

TMD

Feb 18, 2016
433
43
Umpire last night was the uncle of the opposing pitcher..... ugh. Use your imagination as to how big her zone was.
Normally, I'd just remind my players to adjust to what he's calling (assuming its high/low/in/out etc....) But when you're getting rung up 3K looking at a pitch in the opposite batters box, there's not much you can do with that.

Last year in the championship game of an ASA National Qualifier, one of the umps was the mother of a girl on one of the teams. Super, eh?
 
Feb 17, 2015
39
8
normal IL
Top 1 #2 hitter up, little duck fart over 3B head hits chalk line past 3B bag
"FOUL" you can see where the ball hit the chalk -----perfect circle
UMPIRE " I was looking at foul pole and the line was crooked
Head Coach " then why do they bother to put lines on the field if you are going to do what ever you want"
 
Jul 25, 2015
148
0
Lol, I have just about seen it all and I have seen some really good one's and some really bad one's....

Give you one where a coach got it from an ump... Playing in a large tournament with a lot of long distance teams, player on the opposing team hits an outside pitch down the line ump calls "foul ball"... HC screams "I saw chalk fly"... Couple innings later, batter hits outside pitch down the line ump calls "foul ball"... HC coach goes ballistic starts screaming "you need to have your eyes checked, I saw chalk fly AGAIN!"... Plate ump calls time and starts to walk up the line, calls the HC of the opposing team over from 3B and as the HC is walking across the field, the "ump says, coach, I think you are the one that needs your eyes checked if you keep seeing chalk fly..." he points down the right field line and says "you see those white lines? those are painted 4x4's that are buried to ground level".... Anyone that had ever played at that complex knew if a ball hit the line it took a funny bounce and the ump knew it as well...

The absolute worst ump that I ever saw was calling the field... He made a whole host of bad calls both ways that day... including: acknowledging that a pitcher was leaping, not just a crow hop, but leaping and his justification for allowing it to continue "in my opinion it is not giving her any advantage"... he called a slapper out for being out of the box when she made contact with the ball, from the field mind you and the home plate umpire said "I didn't see it so it is his call"... field ump called an "infield fly" on a very high, very deep popup that the SS managed to get under and still dropped about 30 feet off the LF fence (this one went my way and I still couldn't believe it)... ultimately, he called "time" on the game when there was at least 30 minutes left... I asked the TD if he rolled a couple of drunks out of the YMCA that morning because it was terrible...
 

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