[IRISHMAFIA]

One instance when I used it was when the pitcher started throwing bullets against the backstop. I gave him an excessive speed warning. The next pitch was a slow arc, but high enough to easily clear the 12' backstop. I gave the ball out of my bag to the catcher and told him to make sure it didn't happen again. Being one of these smart catchers, he shouted to his pitcher that the blue said don't do it again.

Pitcher laughs and says, "what's he gonna do, forfeit the game?" Then tossed the next pitch higher and much farther. Game was over.

Another time was when one team was trying to get the game legal while the other was trying to stall. We were on a field which loses it's light real early in August, and we were going to an "if". I checked with the league president warning him about the problem we were going to face with available light, but he wanted us to try and get it in. Church league championship game and the decided underdog was up by 16 runs in the 3rd and it was getting dark. If the team would just hit a small roller, the defense would let it roll through their legs.

We had about 15 minutes of light left when some kid (maybe 16) came to bat. With me less than 6 feet away, this kids older brother tells him to just step on the plate and hit the ball and I would have no choice but to rule him out. Well, I had enough and leaned forward while the batter's brother was still there and told both of them not to do it. The kid looked at his brother who just nodded. As the first pitch was coming, the kid looked down and put his foot in the middle of the plate and swung at a pitch 2 feet over his head, and just tipping it foul.

My ruling: I called dead ball and halt the game due to darkness. Well, these good young Christian men went ballistic. A young gentleman who was a Delaware State Trooper came over and got in my face, called me everything he could think of and told my I ruined his dream of winning a championship because he wasn't available on the pre-determined make-up date. The president of the league realized things were getting out of hand and thanked me for putting an end to it. He than had and one of the pastors escorted my partner and myself to the parking lot and stayed with us until we were ready to go.

Two different scenarios that could have gone either way and I handled them in two different manners. There are other umpires out there which might have just as successfully handled the same situations in a different manner. Neither one of us would be right or wrong.

This is the type of situation that anyone HTBT to understand any action taken. I think the powers that be are trusting the umpire to be intelligent enough to know how to handle situations without giving them guidelines which may point them toward an inevitable result which may have possibly been handled in a different and maybe better manner had he relied on his experience than a book. Damn, that was a long sentence.

JMHO,