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Originally Posted by Simply The Best
At some point you will need to associate yourself with one or more officials organizations. Find out who they are and they will be able to point you not only to the rulesets but to the modifications that are made by various baseball leagues inc WA HS Association.
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Sure. I haven't looked yet, and just have been kicking the idea around. It's been on my mind for a few years, but I think I want to understand things much better before really taking the plunge.
One of the most difficult things for me to absorb is the high degree of personal judgment and nearly God-like powers that umpires have. These complicated scenarios that are discussed seem to rely more heavily on the umpires judgment than in football. For example, in the obstruction scenario #1 I posted, the "umpire decides 'how far' to protect the runner." In football, the only judgment is whether a foul occurred, not how it should be applied. In baseball, it seems to be both. Also, the awarding of bases or returning runners to bases, seems to put a lot on the umpire.
And perhaps because of this, and my lack of knowledge, I'm reluctant to jump in. As I understand it, it is common for managers to argue calls. In football, we give an explanation. After the explanation, they can either go back to the bench, or be an arse and we flag them. But in baseball, it seems the response to a manager who just won't go away is ejection. And that seems drastic to me. And I'm not sure how I'd handle ejecting a manager. I've only done this once in my career to a head coach in football, and it was for shoving me. And I've flagged plenty of head coaches for being jerks.
Shrug. Perhaps my experience in football would help me manage such situations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simply The Best
If you call several age groups don't be surprised if you find OBR (heavily modified) and NFHS ("Fed" also modified). When I mean heavily modified I mean pages on pages of modifications by each age group.
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And this is the other complication. Things are pretty uniform in football. Fouls are fouls, at almost all levels. Holding is holding, pass interference is pass interference, etc. The only thing that might change is the conditions for the call (not at the point of attack, uncatchable ball, etc). But what I've read so far on here makes my head spin. The sheer number of differences, not just in what constitutes an infraction, but the conditions, enforcement and mechanics change as well. Phew.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simply The Best
It gets absurd. Really.  |
Indeed! I'm thinking of doing just one level of ball until I get my feet under me. Keeping track of the differences between the age groups would just be too much.