I was asked to ump a game.
I said yes.
A very friendly game between two teams in our travel org. No one bothered to hire an ump for the game as we usually do, so they asked me since I used to coach these teams and know all the girls and parents well. 12U game.
Man, was that stressful.
First, I called it alone and from behind the pitcher. Now that made it pretty easy to tell if pitches were inside or outside, but high and low was tough. I think I did pretty well but have heard that I called two strikes that were too high and one that was too low. Five inning game, so that's not too bad.
I totally missed a call at first. I was so focused on seeing if the ball beat the runner on a close play that I didn't notice that the first baseman pulled her foot until after I made the call. I should have changed my call but kinda froze and just let the out stand.
Two close plays at home, both of which I called out. Coaches agreed with those calls.
So even when almost every player and parent in attendance was a friend, it was still amazingly stressful. And hard. I almost lost track of the count so many times. A few girls put the ball in play and saved my butt as I wasn't sure if it was 1-2 or 2-1 (as an example). With everything you're monitoring and saying the count to yourself you still lose track of the count. I thought I was getting old and senile at times.
Anyway, no desire to do that again any time soon.
You umpires have always had my respect. This certainly added to it.
I said yes.
A very friendly game between two teams in our travel org. No one bothered to hire an ump for the game as we usually do, so they asked me since I used to coach these teams and know all the girls and parents well. 12U game.
Man, was that stressful.
First, I called it alone and from behind the pitcher. Now that made it pretty easy to tell if pitches were inside or outside, but high and low was tough. I think I did pretty well but have heard that I called two strikes that were too high and one that was too low. Five inning game, so that's not too bad.
I totally missed a call at first. I was so focused on seeing if the ball beat the runner on a close play that I didn't notice that the first baseman pulled her foot until after I made the call. I should have changed my call but kinda froze and just let the out stand.
Two close plays at home, both of which I called out. Coaches agreed with those calls.
So even when almost every player and parent in attendance was a friend, it was still amazingly stressful. And hard. I almost lost track of the count so many times. A few girls put the ball in play and saved my butt as I wasn't sure if it was 1-2 or 2-1 (as an example). With everything you're monitoring and saying the count to yourself you still lose track of the count. I thought I was getting old and senile at times.
Anyway, no desire to do that again any time soon.
You umpires have always had my respect. This certainly added to it.