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Originally Posted by mcrowder
No. Telling the catcher to move up so you can get a better view is like you telling the center to stop posting up because he's getting in your way.
The players play. We umpire. The first time you tell a catcher to move up for your convenience, and he has a passed ball because he's not where he is used to being, you've negatively affected the game. I have no problem with (if asked) telling a coach that bad positioning by the catcher is causing your position behind the catcher to be not ideal, so it's possible you're missing some strikes. But telling the CATCHER to move is wrong.
Early in my career, in a game I was observing, an old smitty PU told a catcher to move up twice, and on the very next pitch, the batter hit the catcher's glove hard. Catcher had to be replaced, by a kid who had no idea what he was doing back there. Coach had to be replaced, as his (justified, in my mind) tirade at PU was rather protracted. And when all the facts came to the board, the umpire was reprimanded.
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Well, I must disagree. As I said, I don't tell high school catchers, or American Legion catchers, or college catchers, or adult league catchers where to position themselves. They already know what they are doing. I am talking about
lower level kids that have no clue of how to actually catch a baseball, and that expect me to catch it for them on EVERY OTHER PITCH!!! I have asked (never demanded) or suggested to (never insisted on) catchers to move up a little (not to where they would stick their stupid gloves into the bat path) for going on 21 years now.
I will tell a catcher, "hey, you are costing your pitcher some strikes by being so far back, and if you can manage it, you should get in closer, buddy." That is more or less how I handle it. Or, I just move up a foot while he's throwing it back to the pitcher, and then he will just have to adjust now, won't he?
I've never gotten a kid injured, nor have a rash of passed balls developed from it (any more than were already occurring every other pitch), an in fact improved the quality of most of their catching, and gave their pitchers a target that they could actually see without binoculars, thus less passed balls, not more.
Like I said before, I have had many young catchers thank me profusely for "wising them up" as Ward Cleaver would say. They have, on many occasions when thanking me, told me that their coach never took the time to show them anything.
I never have just worked HS ball and that's all, like some guys do. I worked and still do work at every level of amateur baseball where they use an umpire. The younger players (12 and younger) occasionally need a little mechanical help, which often, sadly enough, does not come from their coaches.