Strangest thing an Umpire has said to you?

[puddyfan]

Had a fun one this weekend. 10U TB, game 3 of the day, new umpire behind the plate. Had more than a few strikes called balls in our opinion but nothing crazy. Then it happens.

Batter comes up and swings at first pitch. Second pitch ball, third pitch ball, fourth pitch ball...Umpire says "Ball 4 take your base!" The batter looked at him like "what?". Everyone went silent for a minute. Batter drops her bat and runs to 1st. Coach talks to ump but ump stood firm "my count shows ball 4". Wasn't a game changing moment so coach moves on but parents in the stands are giving the ump heck. He was a grump the entire game - no one could question anything.

We win the game and move immediately to game 4; change fields - ump comes with us. During this game field ump calls our runner safe on 1st because first baseman pulls her foot off the bag (slightly) to catch the ball. Opposing coach challenges the call. Plate ump and field ump conference - plate ump starts to walk back to the plate and says "she's safe" and shows the safe sign. He then turns around, walks back to field ump, says something then turns back to walk to the plate and says "she's out - foot never left the bag". You can guess our stands went nuts! Still no clue what changed his mind in that split second. He would not discuss it with our coach.

 

[inumpire]

Happened in men's softball. I was the coach.

We are up. Batter hits a weak pop up which is caught. There is no debate. For whatever reason, batter thinks he is safe and stays on first. First base coach does nothing, and none of us on the bench noticed. Next batter smacks one to the fence. Runner from first tries to score There is a throw home. He is safe The other team then tries to figure out why the guy who was out was running the bases.

The umpire (there is only one) is dumbfounded. He finally calls "DO OVER"

As the coach, I had no idea what the rule was I knew it was not "DO OVER", but since my guy was an idiot for being on the base, it seemed fair enough. Guy who just hit the double them popped up.

I know what the rule is now. The umpire should have given the guy a double (since he would have had a double regardless if they had thrown home or not)

Who told you this? no such rule in any level of softball. The runner who stayed at first an drew a throw home is interference by a retired runner, and runner closes to home is out, IE the batter runner, who you think should have got a double.

 

[radness]

lots of funny comments in this thread and a few of them kind of peculiar and a couple of creepy ones.

Alliance Nationals last year an umpire said to a catching student at the beginning of the game~
"Catcher it's been a long day. I'm ready to go home. You're going to see a lot of strikes."

... there's some feedback to bring to your team in the dugout.

 

[tim_s]

we had a 10u rec ump answer the phone multiple times during a game, mid stream, and after the 3rd he said his foot was bothering him and he left.......word on the street is he has a "night" job that involves sales, and this was all related

we had a ton of other issues with him.......he does not work our league any longer

 

[Lance Steckler]

worst one was one hop grounder up 3b line, and ump ruled it a fair ball " cause the fielder's feet were in fair territory". ball was clearly foul by 2-3 feet.

 

[radness]

worst one was one hop grounder up 3b line, and ump ruled it a fair ball " cause the fielder's feet were in fair territory". ball was clearly foul by 2-3 feet.

Lol like a football receiver
oops wrong sport

 

[Lance Steckler]

Lol like a football receiver
oops wrong sport

closest i've come to getting tossed. changed the entire game and we lost 6-4 I believe. batter that was thrown out at 1b had already hit 2 doubles off the pitcher for 3 RBI in the game and with runner at 1B, we easily could have been 6-5 with 1 out (or tie the game since both doubles were line shots into the fence) versus 6-4 runner at 2b, 2 outs.

 

[murphdog]

I was sitting with 2 other moms watching our DDs game. After a particularly nice strike out the infield went to throw the ball around the horn. Our normally very athletic and graceful shortstop tripped over her own feet and face planted and was laying there laughing so hard she couldn’t get up. Game continues and shortstop is still laughing which is causing us and a bunch of players to laugh. Ump calls time and leaves the field without a word. 5 minutes later here comes the TD on his golf cart. He stops near us and says “ladies, if you don’t stop laughing at the other team when they strike out I’m going to have to ask you to leave”. We explain the situation, he leaves, game continues and all is well.
2 years later and DDs team is getting ready to play. Ump walks over to the field, sees me and the coaches wife and turns around and leaves. TD comes over, tells coaches that he’s getting us a new ump because our assigned ump won’t work the game where the “mean moms” are.

 

[L.J]

I once got warned if I said another word I would be thrown out. All I said to the home plate blue was “ That’s not a dinner plate there’s corners on it”

 

[murphdog]

I once got warned if I said another word I would be thrown out. All I said to the home plate blue was “ That’s not a dinner plate there’s corners on it”

When DD was 14u they were playing states. The team we were playing was not great and the coach question every call. The icing on the cake was the 3rd time he thought his runner was safe on a steal and he walked out to talk to the field ump who said “One more step and you’re out of here”. He took one more step, ump ejected him and as he walked away he turned and said “That’s the only right call you’ve made all day”.