- May 10, 2021
- 149
- 43
If the pitcher is not starting on the rubber separated and then bringing the hands together and the umpire is not calling illegal you have a competency problem.
I will say as an umpire it is difficult in a 1-man system, and in reality most experienced and high level umpires will not work games alone any longer unless its a friendly round robin etc....this should easily be seen and called in a 1-man system. Although I see many lower level games where no illegal pitches are ever called. How many high level tournaments have a 1 man system? I have not see any.
As far as missing plays 1 umpire can only see so much based on the mechanics. IDK what they were paying but I agree with all the posters it is a better environment with 2 umpires.
I used to umpire H/S Frosh and J/V by myself and on the bang bang calls 50 feet away with multiple runners on base I would tell the coach to ask his AD for the 2nd umpire because that was his call not mine....lol. That usually ended the conversation.
I appreciate the way the poster handled it with the team. I wish I could replicate that tone and sportsmanship with just about all travel coaches I have met.
My recommendation for approaching the umpire on something like this would be in between innings standing side by side and quietly making your case. Probably nothing will change BUT.....I would bet the umpire will take it back to talk about with the other umpires and maybe educate themselves.
Maybe it gets corrected in the future. That is a conversation worth having and quality umpires will check themselves.
If this happens at the plate meeting I know a ton of guys who are going to put up the wall with you right now and communication is going to be very limited. Just my experience FWIW.
I will say as an umpire it is difficult in a 1-man system, and in reality most experienced and high level umpires will not work games alone any longer unless its a friendly round robin etc....this should easily be seen and called in a 1-man system. Although I see many lower level games where no illegal pitches are ever called. How many high level tournaments have a 1 man system? I have not see any.
As far as missing plays 1 umpire can only see so much based on the mechanics. IDK what they were paying but I agree with all the posters it is a better environment with 2 umpires.
I used to umpire H/S Frosh and J/V by myself and on the bang bang calls 50 feet away with multiple runners on base I would tell the coach to ask his AD for the 2nd umpire because that was his call not mine....lol. That usually ended the conversation.
I appreciate the way the poster handled it with the team. I wish I could replicate that tone and sportsmanship with just about all travel coaches I have met.
My recommendation for approaching the umpire on something like this would be in between innings standing side by side and quietly making your case. Probably nothing will change BUT.....I would bet the umpire will take it back to talk about with the other umpires and maybe educate themselves.
Maybe it gets corrected in the future. That is a conversation worth having and quality umpires will check themselves.
If this happens at the plate meeting I know a ton of guys who are going to put up the wall with you right now and communication is going to be very limited. Just my experience FWIW.