[quote=IRISHMAFIA;611050]The ONLY words that should come out of an umpire's mouth when a ball is put into play is "foul" or "dead ball". Anything else and you may place the BR in jeopardy. As a player, I have often been in tournaments where there would be some umpire who would say "good ball" or "that's in there" only to have the BR stop dead in his tracks because he heard the umpire verbalize something. There is a reason we do not verbalize "fair".
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The need to keep our comments short is at a premium.
I have worked a National where an umpire called "Fair Ball."
The confusion that resulted almost caused a riot. (bet you would have never guessed that it was a Men's D).
If the ball is fair and it is real close to the line, POINT! but say nothing.
If a pitch in SP is too high or not high enough say "Illegal" but nothing else.
When you start talking, someone is gonna screw up and you are going to be the one that gets blamed because you opened your trap.
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! No it wasn't me in the National but I was on the field and had to eject two players because they wanted to beat the PU's a$$. Of course I wanted to do the same thing but he was my partner.
The Tourny UIC was Henry Pollard and he ended up having to get the cops out there to calm the teams down.
Like Mike says, anything you say CAN put the runner in jeopardy and it is your fault.
We all know how much we suck, just ask a fan or a player who isn't playing well.
If you want to advace your game, don't be a homer and add commentary to plays or to non-verbal calls.
Use your signals and verbals when you are supposed to.
That way you can't be misunderstood.