[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by chapmaja

Had one last night that lasted longer I'm sure, but wasn't as complicated.

Runners at second and third. Ground ball to SS. Runner from third comes home. Runner from second starts going to 3rd and the coach yells at him to go back to 2nd when he is halfway to 3rd. SS is still holding the ball and throws to 2nd baseman who is on the base, but drops the ball. Runner realizes that he has been "forced" at second just stops. The 2nd baseman just stands there with the ball and doesn't attempt to tag the runner. The runner turns around and starts slowly walking toward the 3b dugout which has it's entry directly in line with second and third bases. Finally, the coach of the defense realizes no out has been called and has his 2nd baseman throw to third, which is overthrown bounces off the fence and the 3rd baseman has to go get it. He walks over and tags the still clueless runner (and the runners coaches are just as clueless) who still hasn't even gotten to 3rd base yet, at which point I call and out.

This was a boys 4th grade game. The "rundown" took about a minute to complete. The runner is this game was nicknamed the sloth by my partner because he caught two innings and moved about as fast as a sloth, allowing my partner to get drilled in the arm, facemask, toes (he didn't wear plate shoes), and several other places including just east of the lower region (no cup either he later told me).

The problem first started when we had two umpires show for a girls 6th grade softball game and the teams were boys 4th grade baseball teams. Our supervisor said to just umpire the game with 2 umps rather than the normal one who would work the game.

Ah the joys of youth rec (wreck) league baseball where the majority of players are new and the coaches are just as new and clueless.

My partner almost ejected the guy who was the 3rd base coach on the rundown later. He kept making snide under his breathe comments about the strike zone and finally said one a little to loud. My partner and I both heard it and he was basically told he could sit in the dugout and be quiet or leave. He tried getting another word in and gave up, then in pure sportsmanlike manner refused to go to the handshake line with the team at the end of the game. He went over and was complaining about the terrible umpiring all game long to the teams fans.

Did Steven King help you write this one?