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Originally Posted by PeteBooth
IMO, the Bread and Butter of Umpiring is Game Management or Controlling a game. It is also a catch 22 situation for an official.
What factors do you use.
1. if there is bad blood between rival teams do you stress sportsmanship at the Plate Conference?
2. What do you do in the second game of a double Dip in which there were problems in game number 1.
3. Do you have a quicker "trigger finger" than normal if you hear trash talking chaterring back and forth, etc.?
4. if F1 throws a high pitch around the head area will you warn right there or simply EJ F1 so a riot doesn't break out.
I could go on and on but my question how do you control a game?
Pete Booth
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I agree with you Pete that game management is one of the most impotant things an umpire does.
To answer your questions:
1. No. The coaches don't listen at the plate conference. If I know that the two teams have some bad blood between them, I will hand deliver the ball to both pitchers in the first and tell them that I don't want to play any games. Then, when behind the catcher for warm up pitches I ask for him to help me keep control of his team. I find that this kills 2 birds with one stone, building a good relationship with F2 and helping control the game.
2. Same as above with the addition of warnings to both benches to begin the game.
3. As long as it is just trash talking, I don't have a quicker trigger, unless it gets personal. Two years ago I had a player say "Hey Joe, your sister was great in bed last night." I confronted the kid, and told his coach that if I heard another peep from him all game he was gone. The coach took care of it for me, benching the kid the rest of the game.
4. I either eject or do nothing. If the other team then retaliates, I issue a warning to both benches. I don't see any reason to let one team throw at a batter, and then eject the opposing pitcher for retaliation. Either eject both, or issue warnings after the retaliation.
The way I look at it, it is our job to make the players hold each other responsible, sometimes it just takes some encouragement.