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Since I still have time remaining on the paid subscription I was forced to take last fall when I wanted to read the final versions of my articles, I decided to read the article Peter talked about here. And then, imagine this, I'm mentioned in the teaser of the article.
Well, I'll have nothing to do formally with the paid half of the site, so I'll just have to offer a rebuttal here, free of charge.
I'll quote a sentence or two, but if you want to read the original article you'll have to pay to become a member, I suppose.
The teaser was free, so I'll include that in its entirety:
Recently in the Forum, several lively discussions took place regarding umpire knowledge of score and innings. Two recognized big dogs, T. Alan Christensen and Rich Fronheiser, insist that the umpires have no need to know the score or the inning number. "Nonsense!" says Peter. Unfortunately, the threads were so "lively" that they were deleted. The reader won't have that worry here.
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First of all, I'm honored that Peter considers me a big dog. I'm not sure if that's the case. I don't exactly live in a hotbed of college baseball, so half of my games are high school level and the rest are D-III and JuCo games. The closest D-I school to me is too far away for me to worry about. I don't have the time to drive more than 2 hours to get to a game, so I'll stick to my little pond.
Now, Peter starts by giving me a little dig:
"Rich Fronheiser agreed with him, and even bragged how recently, as the BU, he ran to his position in right field between innings after the game had already ended. He was completely unaware of the innings, he claimed, and so did not know the game was over. He was proud of himself."
Nope, I knew the innings. I was unaware of this conference using a 10 run rule. Every college and 95% of the high school fields around here keep very detailed scoreboards. I knew the score and I knew the time of the game. And nobody noticed that I turned right after the third out instead of coming in. This is much ado about nothing.
"I love showing up big dogs. In all of my discussions for the rest of this article, I am assuming NCAA nine inning baseball with only two umpires. Some of these things will not apply to youth baseball. If you umpire seven-inning baseball, where I say eighth or ninth inning, think sixth or seventh inning to apply it to what you do."
Nope, you love stretching the truth where it suits you. You aren't showing anyone up, Peter.
You know for a fact that this discussion started in a thread that involved umpires writing scores down on lineup cards or some other game card. We argued, quite correctly in my opinion, that this is completely unnecessary. You agree with that and then stretch your version of the truth to assume that we have no clue whatsoever of the score, innings, etc.
HOW MANY COLLEGE UMPIRES do you think are unaware of situations?
I *know* that the score is close or not close. I don't need to know the actual score in order to know how a game is progressing or what situations are likely to happen. I know when a pitch is coming for the head and I know when teams are likely to bunt, steal, etc.
Something you posted in this article exposes you as something less than the big dog you make yourself out to be, though:
"A high probability of a steal may require us to move up, either to get the angle on the pick off at first (from B), or get the angle on the steal of third (from C). Good umpires always know when the leadoff batter gets on base. In good baseball, he is generally the fastest player on the team (combined with a decent batting average). Rarely will a rabbit be batting in the bottom third of the batting order."
I'm not aware of the CCA manual advising umpires to move up and back in situations.
I'm also aware that these starting positions are just that -- starting positions. Umpires have brains and legs and if they are able to anticipate situations as you say, those umpires should be able to take those quick steps forward on the pickoff at first base without sacrificing the proper position on the field. They should also be able to use proper mechanics and peek over the right shoulder on each pitch with R2 from the C position to see if a runner is breaking for third.
I called 2 runners out stealing third on Friday, had a swipe tag when starting from C, and had many pickoff attempts at first base, yet I could've put 2 marks on the field (in the book B and C positions) and you can be certain I started each play from those positions when in the middle.
You sound like an umpire who can't get in position, can't adjust, and has to compensate for his weaknesses as an umpire. Like many of the poseur, wannabe big dogs I know.
--Rich
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