[Elaine "Lady Blue"]

Sorry, Steve, but I was trained by 2 ISF umpires and attended several schools taught by the ASA National Staff.
Gaining an advantage was repeated over and over. If I see that a pitcher is performing any illegal motion with any part of her body during warm up, then I pay REAL close attention to the first couple of batters. If she does it then, (unless this is a qualifier) I will call time from my BU position and ask the coach to come out to the rubber with me. I then either talk and/or demonstrate the proper pitching regulations. If it's a qualifier, regional, national, etc., then I reley on my training to support me, and I call it if it is illegal. Some umpires will never call an illegal pitch, some call it too quickly, there is where 'advantage' comes into play. However, if she leaps (both feet in air)--illegal pitch, crow hop and land more than a couple of inches in front of the rubber--illegal pitch, etc.
Personally, I think it takes training by the best for one to be able to understand what's illegal and should be called, and what is not.
My pet peeve is the umpire that will NEVER call an illegal
pitch. Because he's afraid, doesn't have a clue or doesn't
care? No, I think because he didn't have proper training for most blues. But, for those of us that have had proper
training, call the dam thing!!!


[Edited by Elaine "Lady Blue" on May 8th, 2002 at 12:57 PM]