|
One of my pet peeves is the umpire advising the new pitcher "there are two outs and you have a runner on first and third", or whatever. I would be curious to know: 1) Why exactly the umpire feels it necessary to interject himself here, when the pitcher has a coach to instruct her and, I presume, functioning eyeballs, and; 2) Where are they are getting the idea that this is the correct "mechanic"- if you can call something that's not in the umpire manual "a mechanic".
Had a couple of partners do this last weekend and I'm thinking, "This team has FOUR adult coaches in the dugout. Surely one of them is capable of telling his own pitcher how many outs there are".
I've had guys that make a big show of this, pointing at each runner as he reels of which base they're on. It's bad enough that he has to tell the pitcher which bases are occupied. Does he also have to point out which base is first, second or third?
Had one partner who REFUSED to get back behind the plate and continue the game until I informed the pitcher of the situation. He just stood there looking at me, and I just stood there looking at him. Finally, he motions to me, then the pitcher, and says, "Go tell her". So I took a couple of steps toward the pitcher and mumbled something like, "Are you ready? Okay, here we go" and he then got back behind the plate.
I've worked with a few that make a big production of announcing the number of outs after each one is recorded, too. Had one guy who raised both hands overhead, held up, say, two fingers on each hand and loudly bellowed, "Two outs!", then dropped both arms parallel to the ground, holding out two fingers and holding that position for several seconds.
And then there are those base umpires that make a big deal of flashing the count on every pitch, sometimes with hands high overhead and sometimes contorting their arms and hands into strange and uncomfortable looking positions while doing it.
Personally, I don't do any of these.
|