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Originally Posted by canadaump6
I'm not big on adjusting my rules interpretations to the age and skill level I'm officiating. I believe in consistency. If you call things one way for 12 year olds and another way for 18 year olds, you risk confusing them as well as yourself.
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Rules interps, yes, if you have a choice between enforcing rules strictly or fudging them for the younguns, enforce. Unless instructed otherwise by your Big Dawgs, your plate conference should inclusde a rundown of the rules something like this:
"Coaches, I am CanadaUmp we are playing x age group (look to make sure they agree) and under the folowing rule set.
Official Basenall Rules
Modified by (FED, PONY, etc)
Any questions with the rulessets Coaches?
Here is where that may want to sub in a change that is "accepted" orusual. Here's where you nip this crap in the bud
"Big Dawg hasn't authorized that change, Coach, we will play by the rules as I quoted."
Now, if you have a question about a local interp, ask for clarification/agreement.
Otherwise, it's "Coach I have 10:00 on the offical clock, enjoy yourselves, let's play."
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Now I will say that one should call according to the catcher differently at different levels. In addition, many leagues want umpires to be lenient on calling balks at the city league level.
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Your Big Dawg needs to explain to you this leniency so yoy can blame him when your and the Coaches ideas of leniency don't co-parallel. Balls and strikes, I call the plate and the batter regardless.