Umpires..

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Aug 10, 2016
686
63
Georgia
Played a tournament today. It was our last tournament of a not so great season. Only won 4 games in 6 tournaments :/ But our team is a rec turned TB and we have a lot of 12U girls playing up in 14U. Played mostly USSSA against tougher teams.

Our team is notorious for having a lot of good innings and then having one really bad inning that essentially loses it for us. So today we lost our first pool game. Then we were losing our second game 0-1 in the 4th. Somehow even with 2 outs we managed to score 11 runs. Time was already up for the pool game but not by much. We were visitors so the other team still needed to bat.

Runner on third. Ump at 3rd asked our HC if he would have our runner step off to end the inning. Our HC said no..we’ve only won 3 games all season and he wanted them to be able to continue and like I said above, we could have an inning get completely away from us. Instead the ump just called her out when she didn’t even step off. Luckily we only allowed 2 runs and won 11-3 but our HC was pretty mad at the ump.

Should an ump be allowed to do that. I get that you want to get games moving along but that just seems super wrong...

Also, curious about a call on a HBP. If the ball is rolling in the dirt towards home on a bad pitch, should the batter be allowed to just stick her foot out and get hit? Girl did it and the ump awarded her first. Seems a little shady..
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
You see all kinds of weird things with umpires at the lower age groups of TB. Kid on my DDs 10U team always instinctively lowers herself when the the pitch is high. She is 8, so I doubt she is doing it with the intention of trying
to deceive the umpire, and even if she was, that isn't against the rules. Well apparently ( I wasn't there) the ump in the game today stopped the game and went over to the HC and told
him that his players couldn't do that anymore...ok. Could it be perceived as "Bush League", sure, but it isn't the umpires job to police that

With regards to your last question, if the umpire doesn't think a kid makes a reasonable effort to get out of the way of a pitch they don't have to award them first base.
 
Last edited:
Apr 20, 2015
961
93
You see all kinds of weird things with umpires at the lower age groups of TB. Kid on my DDs 10U team always instinctively lowers herself when the the pitch is high. She is 8, so I doubt she is doing it with the intention of trying
to deceive the umpire, and even if she was, that isn't against the rules. Well apparently ( I wasn't there) the ump in the game today stopped the game and went over to the HC and told
him that his players couldn't do that anymore...ok. Could it be perceived as "Bush League", sure, but it isn't the umpires job to police that

With regards to your last question, if the umpire doesn't think a kid makes a reasonable effort to get out of the way of a pitch they don't have to award them first base.
Actually she doesn't have to make any effort to get out of the way in most sanctions but she can't purposely move into the pitch either

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
Jun 14, 2018
172
28
DD had an umpire call strike 3 on a ball that was over her head. The UIC was standing right behind the backstop watching and did nothing! It was the first out of the last inning and the calls just got worse after that. The UIC told us (the parents) after the coach said something that it's just 10U and the umps have to learn as well. He then walked off.

You will come along some crappy umps along the way who are on a power trip and then you will come across the ones who call the games right (both ways!).
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
That's BS IMO. Maybe the umpire disagreed with your coach's decision but this is 14U, not 8U. I realize he wants his break but suck it up, buddy. That's infuriating.

We have a player with a GREAT eye for balls and strikes, and she's little. She is a good hitter, but picky about pitches and gets walked a good bit. I can't even count how many times she's been called out on a full count with a pitch at her helmet, or so far outside the catcher has to dive for it. We had a two out rally going on what could've been a great comeback recently and this happened. I understand with 2 strikes you better be aggressive. But they're taught not to swing at pitches at their helmets and they shouldn't! I think the strike zone should be set in stone, but if umpires feel the need to change the outcome of a game with awful calls there should be some accountability. If it's close, fine. But come on!

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MTR

Jun 22, 2008
3,438
48
Runner on third. Ump at 3rd asked our HC if he would have our runner step off to end the inning. Our HC said no..we’ve only won 3 games all season and he wanted them to be able to continue and like I said above, we could have an inning get completely away from us. Instead the ump just called her out when she didn’t even step off. Luckily we only allowed 2 runs and won 11-3 but our HC was pretty mad at the ump.

If that is what happened, it is terrible. You are more likely to see coaches tell the umpire his/her runner is going to step off the base to be called out.

I doubt she is doing it with the intention of trying
to deceive the umpire, and even if she was, that isn't against the rules. Well apparently ( I wasn't there) the ump in the game today stopped the game and went over to the HC and told
him that his players couldn't do that anymore...ok. Could it be perceived as "Bush League", sure, but it isn't the umpires job to police that.

Umpire was out of line

DD had an umpire call strike 3 on a ball that was over her head. The UIC was standing right behind the backstop watching and did nothing!

And just what did you expect the UIC to do?
 
Mar 14, 2017
453
43
Michigan
DD had an umpire call strike 3 on a ball that was over her head. The UIC was standing right behind the backstop watching and did nothing!

What do you think he should have done? Overruled a judgement call? I'd be pissed if the UIC started overruling ball & strikes calls even if I was getting the benefit of the doubt. There is no place in the game for that.
 
Last edited:
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
There's this one umpire here that everyone hates. He makes terrible calls and doesn't know the rules. He tried to call an infield fly on a foul ball at our last tournament. Instead he called out, "Fair ball!" um. What? Not only did he not say the right thing, can you even call an infield fly on a foul ball??? It was well foul - my DD caught it several feet over the foul line on the 3B side. He's also just a jerk, flat out, with a major ego problem. I always want to complain to the director about this guy. It's not just us. But I just don't want to be "that team," the one that whines about the umpires.
 

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