God was merciful and so were the coaches and fans! My first attempt at umpiring was a success! What a team sport! You wouldn't have believed all the help I got! It was the first officiating job that I completely felt like the fans and coaches were behind me! Well I guess they were since I had the plate. 4-14 half way through the bottom of the 5th and I was actually home before midnight. I could get use to this!
Needless to say, I need a lot of work taking in all the things that are happening when you have a batted ball. But a couple of the questions I left with were:
A. Some of the pitchers take quite a while to pitch that ball. A number of times I hit 8 & 9 in my 10 second count
. Is it improper to be moving as the pitcher starts her wind-up? As she started her wind-up, I'd slowly desend to my looking position and usually be there as the ball left her hand.
B. How often should you give a visual count and when is a good time to give it?
C. Whoever designed these face masks didn't give much thought for easy insertion of a whistle into your mouth. Anyone else have this problem?
D. Who picked black shoes? My shoes look worse after an hour and a half of softball than after 5 seasons of basketball.
E. And lastly.. Is there a historical reason as to why the hand clickers show Strikes - Balls and all other verbage tends to point to Balls - Strikes?
Well that's it for this sessions. Thanks for everyone's help and encouragement!
Chuck Lewis