r/Umpire

This was last night in a slowpitch game, but it should apply to baseball too.

Ball hit to outfield for a hit. Runner from 3rd scores, runner from 2nd rounds 3rd to go home as well. The ball is relayed in to SS. SS looks to throw home....we were not going to get the guy at the plate, but the guy that has just scored from 3rd is like dancing around/celebrating in the right hand batters box - SS can't even see the catcher based on where the guy is.

I asked is that wasn't interference or if we couldn't at least get some kind of warning given to the other team, but the ump said we didn't have the guy anyway, which might be true, but you still don't hang around the plate after you score.

Two out, bases loaded. Grounder to 2B, but instead of going to a bag, fielder makes an attempt to tag on runner coming from first. Runner stops and back pedals delaying the out. Runner that was on third crosses home plate. Then runner that was on first ruled out for running out of baseline trying to get around second baseman.

Should run score? Umpire says yes because player attempted to tag runner instead of going to the bag so that makes it not a force out.

Or do they even talk about it at all?

We train mechanics, rules, and positioning, but what about the mental side of the game?

I'm curious on this one. Does anyone know the history behind pitchers being required to throw to a base on a pickoff play? Major league teams have been getting really creative with pickoff plays lately and a lot of them involve the first baseman pushing the limits of how far off he can be, forcing umpires to make some really tough judgment calls.

Most other rules, even other balks, seem to at least have some justification behind them, but this one kind of baffles me. I even tried ChatGPT first and I'm not buying what it's selling. Does anyone know if there's any real history here, or is it just one of those "that's the rules of the game." It doesn't seem like it would materially change the game significantly if pitchers could throw to a first baseman playing a few feet off.

Local rec league (majors). The home team has a speaker, and some mom is doing the travel ball thing, playing music in between innings.

Dad from the visiting team comes to the backstop in between innings and calls me over and says, "Can you make them stop playing that damn ghetto music? It's offensive!"

The song was "All I Do is Win"

If bases are loaded with one out, and the batter grounds to shortstop, then the shortstop tagged second base for the force then tagged the runner who started to advance to third base but then retreated back to the second base bag & was standing back on 2nd when tagged, instead of running to third, is that a double play?

I called this a double play which ended the game and the losing team went off saying I was wrong. What’s the verdict?

Okay, LL Minor Game (Playoffs), I’m working the plate. Scorekeeper is one of the away teams (Dodgers) parents. Home team is the Braves. Top of the 5th (Braves losing 9-1) and if the Braves don’t score the game is over due to mercy. 1 out. Batter gets a hit and is on first. Scorekeeper asks me to call time, calls me over to let me know the Braves are batting out of order and she was having trouble keeping score because of it. (This was the 2nd time, caught it earlier and immediately corrected, and I let her know I don’t call it out and we address if the other team catches it). This time the runner on 1st was out of order. I called the Braves head coach over from 3rd base coach as I didn’t know yet that the runner on first was the out of order batter.

I let him go talk to the scorekeeper and then the Dodger gets involved.

Now that Dodgers coach is included I felt the need to do something. So I tried to replace the current batter with the correct one and resume the current count of 0-1 (Dodgers coach was okay with that). When I realized I couldn’t do that because the correct batter was on 1st I called the runner on 1st out.

Now we’re at 2 outs and the batter grounds out to end the game.

I feel like moving forward I need to make it 1000% clear to the scorekeeper that I don’t need to know about batters out of order. It’s the coaches responsibility to catch it and address it with me.

Or am I wrong and have the scorekeeper let me know but I shouldn’t address it.

Btw this was a continuous batting order.

I was trying to find away to let the kids play

My son recently got his first coaching job for the junior varsity baseball team at a nearby school and I did the official scorebook for him. For the record, my son played 10 years of Little League, four years of high school varsity baseball, was the first athlete EVER to be recruited to play college baseball out of his school and then played five years of semi pro. So we have encountered hundreds of umpires, but these guys had us shaking our heads. Some of their interpretation of the rules were as follows:

1. The official game start time is when the home pitcher throws his first WARMUP pitch and was prepared to die on that hill. When I asked why because warmup tosses are not considered official pitches and don’t count against the pitcher’s pitch count and no other umpire has EVER counted warmup tosses as the official game start time. Is this true in any way, because the MSHAA rules don’t state that warmup tosses should be considered official.

2). If there is a runner on third base and the pitcher chooses to go out of the windup or the stretch it means that he cannot throw over to third base. Not talking about an obvious balk or the 45 degree angle that they have, just that they cannot throw over to third at all.

3. Called at least two balks every inning on pitches and pitching motions and demanded to talk to the pitchers between innings to “educate” them. My son finally told him that HE was a pitcher who played varsity, college and semi pro and didn’t need coaching assistance from the umpires.

4). I hesitate to mention this one, because I understand that the strike zone is umpire discretion, but after my son told him to leave his pitchers alone, balls that bounced on the chalk on the outside of the batters box BEHIND the batters started being called strikes against our batters.

My son just requested that our AD NEVER hire these two guys again, but do these rule interpretations have any validity?

THANK TO ALL UMPIRES FOR BEING THERE FOR OUR KIDS!!! We (mostly 😝) appreciate you!

ETA: sorry for the letter mixup in the title. It should say MHSAA for Michigan High School Athletic Association. Oops

Scenario:
Runner on 3rd only bases not loaded
Ball four gets past the catcher “passed ball”
Runner breaks for home tagged out on attempt

Coach A: Ball is dead on the walk reference VI (D) tag out irrelevant runner goes back to 3rd.

Coach B: Ball is live because it was a passed ball reference V1 (B) advance on passed ball not considered stealing. Tag out stands.

VI - BASE RUNNING:
 (A) – Base runners may steal any base, including home.
 (B) – Base runners may steal only one (1) base at a time. NOTE: Advancing on passed balls, wild pitches, and overthrows is not considered as “stealing” a base and base runners run at the risk of being put out. and may advance as many bases as they can safely reach.

D) On a base-on-balls, the batter/base runner MUST stop at first (1st) base. All other base runners may advance one (1) base only if they are forced to because of the base-on-balls. NOTE: If a base runner was in the process of stealing a base when the batter was issued a base-on-balls, the base runner must return to the last base she legally occupied unless forced to advance.

What's the call Blue!?

Hello all! Recently I have been noticing very mixed reactions from players in my games on ball and strike calls. Obviously, this is normal, but it’s in a way that after a couple of years of umping just feels weird, anyway. I typically ump 12u-14u games, with the highest level basically being house varsity. I would say my strike zone is the mlb strike zone with a half a ball added to all sides, except the top which I add probably 2. I think this is reasonable for the age I am umping, but I also just don’t feel right “making the zone bigger” because of certain age groups. Now to the story, I have had a lot of pitchers get increasingly mad at calls that I believe are pretty obvious balls. But, I have also had multiple players come up to me to say that I am their favorite ump because I actually make good calls on balls and strikes. Along with this, my brother plays in both the leagues I ump and say that a lot of other umpires have a much bigger strike zone. So, is my zone to small? Or am I just overthinking it. Thank you for reading!

High school game. Runner on 1B, 1 out.

Batter pops the ball up just behind 1B. R1 immediately retreats back to the bag. In doing so, he collides with the first baseman who is backing up (back pedaling) to catch the ball. Because of this, the ball ends up dropping. R1 makes it to 2B, batter thrown out at first.

Time called, umpires confer with each other. They determine runner interference and rule a double play to end the inning.

I think everyone pretty much agreed that interference was the right call. But there was definitely some disagreement on the double play determination. Parents/fans/coaches lobbying that interference creates a dead ball. Runner should be out, batter should get first base.

13u all day, bracket play leading to championship game. I've been keeping them on time, but only with some luck.

So I've got the home team needing 1 fucking run to mercy the other team in the 4th inning. I calculated the the home team scoring 1 run here will give me a break of 1 hour and 10 minutes. Fucking sweet.

Leadoff hitter bashes the shit out of the ball over the left fielder's head. I can taste the beef jerky sitting in my car. He rounds second, he's going to coast in for a stand up triple with no outs. I can taste the cold Diet Dr. Pepper in my cooler. We are easily going to plate this run, by hook or by crook.

3rd base coach sends him.

He is thrown out by forty goddamned feet. One out. They fail to score a run. Game goes the full 7 because a shit for brains coach fucking sent a sure winning run in the fiery pits of hell.

I know most umpires doing travel ball make pretty decent pay every weekend. How come some don’t purchase a uniform? Some of you look like you were picked from a homeless shelter. 100 bucks will get you a nice hat, shirt and pants. Looking like a professional umpire will go a long way!!

Hello all! For context, this is my 13th season I started at 9 and umping had been the pleasure of every summer. Historically speaking I get really good reviews for parents coaches and kids alike. That said, there are still some games (maybe 1 in every 20-25) where I just feel like I can’t get in a rhythm the way I like and every call retrospectively feels a little off from what it maybe should. This is likely due to going from as low as 9u little league up to maybe high school varsity from one day to the next. Anyone have advice on how to cool down, collect, and reset effectively so that I can finish those games that feel rough (even if they maybe aren’t that bad) more consistent and confident?

HS game, NFHS rules

Batter is way up in the box and tight on a not good pitcher. Another slow lob comes in and the batter crouches over and ball hits him in helmet. I call dead ball and a strike accounting for the trajectory of the pitch. (100% over the plate, a bit high but dropping) And it was an honest attempt to avoid getting hit.

Coach gets upset and said it can't be a strike since ball never made it over the plate for it to be called. Batter walked anyway and we all moved on. In between innings of course the other coach said it was a good call but felt better.

But is he right? Is there a loophole that a batter could crowd in front of the plate and choke off a pitch by getting hit before it even makes it to the plate?

I get to travel to 4 different suburban footy grounds every weekend and notice these things.
\*Parents/spectators are never the same.
\*Wealthier suburbs have food/ coffee trucks rather than canteens but entitled disrespectful parents.
Perhaps once you’ve ordered step out of the queue and tell all the other parents about your new Porsche Cayenne somewhere else.
\*Less affluent outer suburbs have simple canteens but delightful salt of the earth parents & volunteers.
\*Middle class suburbs have passionate supporters willing to tell the umpire what to do by yelling loudly from the fence.
\*Bad coaches complain about umpires decisions and create a culture of blame in the team. Good coaches tell players to only worry about the things they can control, and don’t even notice the umpires.
\*No one wants to umpire an u19 game, especially an old private school team, they always compensate a lack of talent by coming for a fight.
\*Female umpires are becoming normalised but spectators still seem to see more of their bad decisions than the male ones.
\*People with dogs on a leash are happy to stop and let the dog sniff your crotch because, what’s wrong with you if you don’t love my dog?
People still let their small children kick balls at your head because, what’s wrong with you if you don’t find my child adorable?
\*Finding a car park is the only win that matters on the day. (Parking so close to the car next to you that they can’t open their door is essential. )
Yelling abuse at a 14 year old is ok if they are wearing hi-vis yellow and making bad decisions.

Let me know what you think needs to be added to this list and as a cricket parent I’ll be releasing a similar list later in the year.

I was watching my buddy’s kid’s game this evening (Little League minors), and the following occurred:

1 out, bases loaded

Ball in play. Runner from third comes home and misses home, then heads to the dugout. Runner from second comes around and scores.

Other runners safe at first and second.

After the second runner scores, a kid on defense picks up the ball and tags the first runner to cross home.

After a long discussion between home and field umpire, the call was: the runner from second passed the runner from third when he tagged home because the runner from third missed home, resulting in the runner from second being out and not scoring. The runner from third was out when tagged. As a result, two outs, inning over, no runs scored.

It seems to me (from my vague recollection of high school rules from too long ago, which may not apply) that once the runner from third crosses home and heads to the dugout, he’s taken the base and is only out on appeal by stepping on home with the ball. And in any scenario, the runner from second scores (and did not under any scenario pass the runner from third).

Thoughts? In the end it didn’t matter because the fielding team won by a mercy rule, but was an interesting scenario!