Two situations this last weekend. 12U USA Softball Tourn
First situation on Saturday. We are visitor. Runner on 3rd with two outs. Batter has 2 strikes. She asks the umpire for the count. He says 1 BALL 1 STRIKE, holds up his hands for everyone to see turns to both dugouts with his hands. I'm not going to argue if he has the count wrong.....but my batter did have 2 strikes (being completely honest). Batter swings and misses....it's an uncaught 3rd strike that goes to the backstop. Runner on 3 slides home safe. Batter stays at home. Umpire calls time after the score.
Home team explodes that it was strike three. We tell our batter to run to 1st she does and they throw ball to base ahead of her and field umpire calls her out.
Home team is irate because it was strike three. Ensuing discussions with umpires. Umpires call the batter out. My point/argument to the umpire was she asked you for the count...you gave her 1-1. If you'd given her the correct count she would have had the opportunity to respond correctly....but the opportunity was taken away by your action...and that's unfair to the batter. My argument was run should count and the batter now have 1-2. He consulted the home book who said the count was 0-2 at the start of the play. The field umpire did not have the count... Umpires talked....run counted, batter out. Inning over. Umpires told me, emphatically, that even if they are wrong...HOMEBOOK RULES...even over the umpire.
Does homebook rule over everything? What is the correct call in this situation? I'm trying to coach my girls what to do if this happens again.
(Good news we still won the game)
Fast forward to Sunday. We are home team and on defense. One out, runner on 1st. First pitch is swing and miss, Second pitch is a ball, third pitch is a foul out of play. Count would be 1-2. Umpire does not call out the count and pitcher delivers the fourth pitch that is a strike looking...Strike three. Visiting team goes nuts...says it's only 2 strikes. Umpire goes to visiting book and comes back and says the count is now 1-2. I call time and talk to Home Plate Blue....she says well "they have"....I remind her we are the home book. She talks to our official scorekeeper as well as our person using Game Changer...who both had the count as 1-2 and then the strike three looking. She talks with field ump...who didn't have the count...they decide that because there's confusion they'll go with a 1-2 count and batter is not out.
Same tournament...one umpire emphatically tells me home book rules...next day...umpire decides that she'll go with visiting book....because the visiting book didn't agree with the home book.
What's the right call?
And the girl ends up getting a hit and they eventually score the runner from 1st. Fortunately we won that game as well.
The conversations between myself and the umpires were very cordial and polite. The boisterous obnoxious ones were the opposing teams.
First situation on Saturday. We are visitor. Runner on 3rd with two outs. Batter has 2 strikes. She asks the umpire for the count. He says 1 BALL 1 STRIKE, holds up his hands for everyone to see turns to both dugouts with his hands. I'm not going to argue if he has the count wrong.....but my batter did have 2 strikes (being completely honest). Batter swings and misses....it's an uncaught 3rd strike that goes to the backstop. Runner on 3 slides home safe. Batter stays at home. Umpire calls time after the score.
Home team explodes that it was strike three. We tell our batter to run to 1st she does and they throw ball to base ahead of her and field umpire calls her out.
Home team is irate because it was strike three. Ensuing discussions with umpires. Umpires call the batter out. My point/argument to the umpire was she asked you for the count...you gave her 1-1. If you'd given her the correct count she would have had the opportunity to respond correctly....but the opportunity was taken away by your action...and that's unfair to the batter. My argument was run should count and the batter now have 1-2. He consulted the home book who said the count was 0-2 at the start of the play. The field umpire did not have the count... Umpires talked....run counted, batter out. Inning over. Umpires told me, emphatically, that even if they are wrong...HOMEBOOK RULES...even over the umpire.
Does homebook rule over everything? What is the correct call in this situation? I'm trying to coach my girls what to do if this happens again.
(Good news we still won the game)
Fast forward to Sunday. We are home team and on defense. One out, runner on 1st. First pitch is swing and miss, Second pitch is a ball, third pitch is a foul out of play. Count would be 1-2. Umpire does not call out the count and pitcher delivers the fourth pitch that is a strike looking...Strike three. Visiting team goes nuts...says it's only 2 strikes. Umpire goes to visiting book and comes back and says the count is now 1-2. I call time and talk to Home Plate Blue....she says well "they have"....I remind her we are the home book. She talks to our official scorekeeper as well as our person using Game Changer...who both had the count as 1-2 and then the strike three looking. She talks with field ump...who didn't have the count...they decide that because there's confusion they'll go with a 1-2 count and batter is not out.
Same tournament...one umpire emphatically tells me home book rules...next day...umpire decides that she'll go with visiting book....because the visiting book didn't agree with the home book.
What's the right call?
And the girl ends up getting a hit and they eventually score the runner from 1st. Fortunately we won that game as well.
The conversations between myself and the umpires were very cordial and polite. The boisterous obnoxious ones were the opposing teams.