Quote:
Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA
You are not going to hear that from me, nor will you find it in the umpire manual. It is a ludicrous restriction since all infields are not cut the same and we cannot control where the defense plays.
What would you do if all the IF were on the grass? Check out the Border Battle III. You may notice, the only umpire on dirt is the PU.
I WOULD agree to such a direction if there was no reason to be on the grass. There are umpires who like to stay deep, way too deep and end up running twice as far as needed and occasionally don't get to where they really need to be. The answer I get when I mention it is, "that's okay, I like to run". Well, guess what, Bubba, you ain't as fast as you think you are.  |
When I called my National 2 years ago, we were given a similar instruction: stay off the grass.
The message I got from it was: find a spot where you're still on the dirt and not so far out of position, and don't be complacent by just following the book's instructions to plant behind F4. It got me thinking about where I
should be when the "by-the-book" spot is so far out of position that you're completely removed from the play.