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Youngest daughter in tournament play tonight.........YAY.....Thank God it got dry enough to play..
This is what I call kid ball.......8U........my youngest just squeaked under the age cutoff between this age and 10U. She is a good ballplayer.......but small for her age and I thought it best she not move to 10U just yet.......anyway, I digress.......
In these age groups........our State association has adopted a rule which calls for a dead ball to be called for an overthrow on the first play that reaches the fence. i.e. - ground ball to F6 she overthrows first and ball hits/rolls to/etc. the fence. The award is 1 base from the time of the throw........if BR and all other runners had not reached the base they were running to at the TOT......then they are only getting that base......in the example I gave.......the BR would be held at 1st.
OK.......here is the situation.........the umpire in our game tonight was awarding the BR 2nd in all of these situations.......I think he was forgetting that the award was based on TOT and NOT when the ball became dead.
I am not calling in this tourney because my daughter is playing in it so in situations like this.......I consider myself "Just a Dad"........
After the game.......I mentioned this to one of my long time partners (I used him as a mentor early on) who was calling on an adjacent field after his game had ended.......and he told me that I should have corrected him between innings or after the game........(he was dumbfounded as to how this umpire was messing up this rule because he said they had all discussed this before the first games).
I told him I did not feel comfortable discussing this with him because I was not there in any official capacity and was "just a dad" tonight.........
His point........"well taken".......was that if he kept misapplying this rule........he was sure to be called on it as we got deeper into the tournament.
My question is.........what would you do in this situation.....keep your mouth shut and let nature take its course or make a friendly comment after the game?
I have called a number of games with this umpire over the years and his field and plate mechanics are A-One..........but he does have to seem lapses in rule applications.......(not just this particular rule).
Our UIC once told me that he had darn near given up on him.....because he won't accept corrections........but he is one of those that always wonders why he is not selected for post season assignments.
Anyway........I know a lot of you also have kids who play/have played and wonder how you would have handled this.......BTW.......I said nothing other than mentioning it to the umpire from the other field.
Joel
[Edited by Gulf Coast Blue on Mar 31st, 2001 at 12:17 AM]
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