When is an umpire a duck?

[left turn]

At a tourney last weekend, the plate umpire ducked towards the 3rd base dugout as the ball was coming to home plate – on every pitch. I estimate he lost sight of the ball at least 10 feet before the plate. Or even if he did not completely lose sight of the ball, his head was moving away making it very difficult to accurately track the flight of the ball.

I suppose he was trying to not get hit, but he was turning and exposing his side which was not covered by protective equipment. But he got hit on the right arm and side of the head several times because of his ducking. One time the ball hit his mask on the side and knocked it off of his head.

When the catcher caught the pitch, the umpire’s face mask was pointing to a point somewhere between third base and the third base dugout. Erroneous ball/strike calls were most evident on chin high pitches called as strikes. It made it difficult, frustrating & confusing for the hitters.

I talked to the tournament director after the game. He had heard the umpire was making poor ball strike calls from the other team’s manager. They didn’t bring him back on Sunday.

If a tournament director is made aware of an obvious umpire problem during a game, is there anything he/she should do?

 

[CPEM]

If you hadn't listed your location as NJ, I could have sworn you and I were at the same tournament this past weekend. Umpire on Saturday did everything just as you described. He even missed a few strikes because he was too busy bailing out to see that the batter swung and missed. Did I mention this was during rec C-level 8u games? And he was wearing a full set of gear. So glad I didn't see him on Sunday.

Only way I see a TD actually paying attention to complaint like this (can you imagine how many people complain about the umps?) is if both managers from the game went and complained at the same time. Happened to me during the regular season where both I (visiting manager) and the other (hosting manager) went to the UIC for the league to advise him that it would probably be in their league's best interests to not allow that specific umpire to officiate any more games there until he improves. I know my complaints alone would have not gotten very far, but when their manager came with me to admit that the umpire had issues, my argument was viewed with a bit more credibility.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

We had a TB baseball umpire that was so bad at 14U the teams agreed to eject him and ump the game themselves. The guy had to be high/drunk.

 

[left turn]

As soon as I posted this I saw another string about umpires bailing on pitches.

I hope the umpires out there in DiscussFastpitch-Land understand this is news because it is so rare. We have had outstanding umps until now.

I don't think he was high or drunk. He was certainly bruised....

 

[BretMan]

I pride myself in staying still on pitches. It's what we're taught to do and how we're supposed to do it.

But.....I will admit to sometimes getting jumpy behind the plate. I'll stand still and take some shots, up until the point when the catchers prove to me that they aren't very good at stopping pitches. Sure, you're going to get hit on weird bounces or balls fouled back, and those aren't really the catcher's fault. The ones that get me jumping around are the ones that make little or no effort to stop off-target pitches, or just plain don't have the skills to catch the ball at all.

Then I might go into self-preservation mode. I'm not going to stand there and be a human backstop. Even then...if I do find myself getting a little jumpy, I bear down and make an even stronger effort to not budge.

I've worked tournaments with skilled players and not had a ball touch me all weekend, and I've worked rec league games where I got nailed a dozen times.it comes with the territory. If an umpire wants to have a consistent strike zone, he needs to overcome the urge to flinch.

By the way, the umpire's mask flying off might not mean anything at all. Generally, umpires are taught to wear their masks as loose as possible. That way, it a ball does hit it the mask has a tendency to spin off. If it's worn tight, all of the energy of the ball is transferred directly to the head and face. If it's loose, the energy is dissipated by knocking the mask off.

 

[chinamigarden]

I had an ump doing that. It was not an issue in the outcome of the game but it was a danger to her. I spoke to her partner and he told me it was her first game behind the plate. I told him what she was doing. And he told me that was im possible as she wS a college catcher. Next week at a tourney he came to me and apologized for not listening. She got whacked in the side of the neck the next weekend.

 

[eddieq]

I posted this once before, but I learned the hard way not to get too jumpy. Trying to avoid getting hit once, all I did was move into a worse position and took the hit to the side of my head rather than directly in the face mask (twisted instead of slid).

Working 12U community last night, I got nailed no fewer than half a dozen times in the first inning alone. I will admit to getting jumpy but the coach put a different pitcher/catcher pair in for subsequent innings and I may have gotten one or two more after that.

Like Bret, when I get repeatedly hit by pitches that should be caught, I get a little antsy back there and it's counter-intuitive to stay put and let the hit come. You just have to be deliberate about staying down and front. Call the pitch as it comes and take the hit on the gear and let the gear do its job.

 

[BretMan]

Last night was the worst. It was an adult men's fastpitch double header.

One guy is a great pitcher, mid-to-upper 60's with lots of good movement and control. But his regular catcher- a grizzled old vet who's been catching forever- wasn't there, so they stuck some guy behind the plate who's only caught a few times before.

The other team had a less experienced pitcher who only threw about 60 and was wild all over the place- and an inexperienced catcher.

I was getting nailed all night and, yes, they had me bobbing and weaving a bit. When I catch myself moving, it ticks me off and I focus even harder on standing still. Everytime I'd force myself to stand still again, they'd nail me again! Got hit about a dozen times last night, whereas I had only been hit once or twice in the first five games I umpired in this league.

 

[Comp]

Probably one of the best lines I have ever heard an umpire say. Was waiting for my daughters game to start several years ago and a 12U game was going on. Umpire getting hit pretty regularly by pitches the catcher should have caught, she just wasnt really putting any effort into playing the position. Between innings the umpire walked over to the coach and asked her if she could do him a favor. She said sure, he then asks her to "please explain to your catcher I am not her personal backstop." The next inning the catcher was making a much better effort to stop the ball.

 

[Sparky Guy]

I know as a coach, if one of my catchers looks like she is being lazy and not getting the ball blocked I will give them an earful. I let them know it's not the umpires job to be a backstop. I want the umpire concentrating making the correct call, not worrying about being hit by a ball. It's a tough job behind the plate and I've seen plenty of umps take some serious shots on foul tips.

On more than one occasion I've seen a HP ump take a really hard shot to the mask that wobbled them. They wanted to get right back in there and I've had to stop them, checking them making sure they are OK. Fortunately, over all the years of ball I have not seen an umpire get seriously injured.

When my DD was playing 14U she was pitching in a game with a runner on 3rd. She threw a really bad pitch that ended up short of plate on the 1st base side. The catcher reached out for it and the ball took a strange hop when it hit. The ball rolled up the catcher's arm and hit the umpire hard. The runner from 3rd scored and the ump stood in there and made the call on the play. Immediately after making the call he crumpled on to the grass in the fetal position. The base umpire came up to him and laughed at him. The only thing he said to him was "I told you so." then stepped back waiting for his partner to to recover. The HP ump just groaned at him. The two of them were younger guys who were friends and worked together a lot. So the BU was not giving the HP ump any sympathy.