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Smitty Time!
Today, I worked with a Smitty!
There were times when all I could do was laugh to myself, other times when I wanted to ring his neck out.
Baloon raft. Best part though was the HSM with the balloon. And, a throat guard. It was like Dali meeting Da Vinci. Didn't know what he wanted to be...
Between innings, throat guard slipped into the pants and the HSM dangled on his butt. Raft went to the ground. Way too much weight to carry to the cooler.
Each pitcher got as many warm ups as necessary on a change or between innings. We got one out, runner on first! PLAY BALL!!!!
Pitch was called before it even got to the glove. "0-1 Count!" with hands raised well above the head and out... arms maybe at a 45 degree angle to the ground, completely extended.
Then, things got bad.
R1 R2 3-2 pitch 2 outs. Single to right... R2 scores easily, I'm in the saddle. See that the cut off man is going to want to try to get the B/R out, who rounded first a bit too much. I move over, get a nice angle, somewhat close play. As I start to come up with a good strong out, I notice out of the corner of my eye our good friend coming up the line. I became quiet, trying to avoid the double call. I just knew he was going to call something.
He slowly started to put up his out sign. Yes, there was a thumb involved. I outdid him and yelled out and gave a quick sign.
Another play, R1 and R2. Single to right, R2 coming home. Somehow, PU ended up between the pitchers mound and the plate to call this play. I do think he got it right, and was shockingly in a decent position to see the swipe tag. But he never would have seen the plate.
Last play: bags juiced, 2 outs. Groundball to F6 ranging to his right, who flips to F5, who is not yet on his bag. I wait, wait, wait and wait some more. He never touches the bag, instead straddles it. Tries to tag the runner, who slides into the glove. The glove ends up in the cheap seats, and the runner on the base. Big cloud of dust. I'm still waiting to make my call, just to make sure that the ball did indeed come out. Not so sure why I waited as long as I did, but just wanted to make sure that I saw what I saw.
Here he comes, up the line. Force play, Force Play. "Crap" I say to myself, and come up with an out on the force. I should have stuck my neck out a bit here and came up with my call. But, in order to keep some uniformity between us (at least the allusion of uniformity, he did not have any of the proper patches on his shirt), I took the easy way out. 3rd base coach wasn't pleased, because he was smart enough to know I didn't have that force out with the way I waited.
Today, I worked with a smitty!
Now, what to do next. I take a good amount of games from this assignor. I have never once asked not to work with somebody again in the future. I don't want to make any more trouble for the assignor, and make him think that I am tough to work with (he's actually never even seen me umpire). Just don't want to be that guy
Assignors, would you want to hear about this stuff. Remember, I'm 21, 4th year in the association. Don't really have alot of seniority. Should I just keep the trap shut the way I did when ole Pops up on the hill yelled at me today "THAT ISN'T THE HIGH SCHOOL RULE!" (By the way, it was, and we were playing OBR to boot, but that is a horse of a different color).
Thanks for letting me vent a bit...
Tuss
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