In Rollie's latest, he tells the story of when he allowed the #3 coach (Not the manager, not second in command, but the third) to come out onto the field mutiple times and argue calls with him. Eventually Rollie warned him that if he came out again that Rollie would put him "six feet under."
Of course the guy comes out again, and Rollie doesn't eject him, he tells him to leave the field and go sit by some guy on a golf cart. Rollie calls this a "gray area situation", where the umpire has a hard choice of what to do.
Good one Rollie.
Later he wrties this:
Quote:
Nowadays, when an umpire works a game in which expanded run rules apply, the most welcomed game-ending rule is the USSSA one, which reads: "15 after 3, 10 after 4, and 8 after 5." When that's the mercy rule, an umpire knows at once that the tournament director wants the games kept on schedule. Such a fine young man!
It was a hot afternoon when the visitors scored 14 in the third. There was a runner on third base, one out. The inexperienced pitcher got all shook up when R3 faked a squeeze play. To counter R3's ambition, he speeded up in his delivery, rolling right through a discernable stop. "Balk!" Run number 15 scored. The home plate umpire promptly saw a strikeout, with the third out following on a dribbler back to the mound. Game over.
Either umpire could have slowed the pace of the game. Or, they could have graciously counseled the pitcher to make a discernible stop and ignored the balk. A gray area decision? You decide.
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Some more quality advice from Rollie.