In a game this past weekend....Our batter is trying to call time. She is still in the box. Umpire does not allow her the timeout. Our batter stays in the box. Pitcher comes forward off the rubber but does not pitch ball. Illegal pitch, right? Umpire calls nothing. Our coach questions him. He says batter caused pitcher to illegal pitch so he was not calling it. Never seen or heard that before......
Strangest thing an Umpire has said to you?
- Thread starter Cannonball
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Cannonball
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- Feb 25, 2009
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This wasn't said to me but was said this weekend for all to hear when a coach was complaining about the strike zone. "The strike zone is defined in the rule book. I'm calling that." This guy did 1 of our games on the road this year and 2 games during the tournament. He is the single best umpire that I have seen during college ball.
And the umpire was correct in his statement. If the batter calls time and causes the pitcher to react it is a no pitch situation. Both the batter and pitcher have committed infractions.
Not arguing, but how is asking for time an infraction?
- Jun 7, 2013
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The strangest thing that I have heard from an umpire was after a controversial men's slow pitch game. After the game the tough looking, but short, umpire went to use the facilities. A couple of rather tall guys from the losing team came into the restroom and started joking about hitting the umpire on the back of the head. Without even looking at them the umpire said, "If you're looking for trouble you've come to the right place." The two men then walked out without a word.
That sounds more like the baseball rule, which is when the batter leaves their box. What's your basis for softball since their rules generally require intention to cause an IP (e.g. "for the obvious purpose of trying to make the pitcher commit an illegal pitch")?
There was a case this past weekend in the VT-NC game where the NC batter was moving around in the box trying to get time and an IP was called because the pitcher brought her hands together while starting her windup, saw the batter moving and stopped by just dropping her arms back down to her sides. The NC batter pointed it out to the PU and he called an IP, which brought in the go-ahead run.
Note: Announcers were totally lost on the IP because a pitch wasn't thrown. They kept replaying the previous pitch, ball 2, even though the IP resulted in ball 3.
- Apr 27, 2015
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I've coached for 7 years now in Travel ball. A few weeks ago I saw my first Umpire tossed from the game. Long story but he was pressing my daughters team to start 20 minutes earlier then scheduled. The coach asked for a little more time and the opposing coach was fine with it. As the discussion drew on and the tournament director came over saying they could have more time, the Umpire dropped the big F bomb in front of the entire fan base. Director told him to get off the field and go home.
Had an umpire arrested for OUI in the parking lot after a game a few years ago. Either he was hammered when he showed up, or he had a little extra something in his water bottle.
We had a TB game where the coaches for both teams agreed midgame to eject the umpire and call the game themselves. They let him keep the money and only asked for the game balls. First indication of trouble was him wearing heavily tinted glasses even though the sun was setting behind HP. He made some bad calls against our team, made a horrible call against the other team and then made a nonsensical call that triggered his removal.
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