Peter, Peter, Peter....

[His High Holiness]

Originally posted by Striker991
Peter:
You should know better. If you are anticipating, you are either 1.) not calling what you are seeing, or 2.) out of position for what is really happening. My training has given me the tools to be ready to move in accordance with the plays being made, not what we think will happen. I understand that higher level ball means that the expected play will more than likely be the play, but there is still a significant chance that it won't be. In youth ball, we all know that the expected play has a 50% chance or less (more likely less) of actually occurring. Be careful when you talk about anticipation. Some poor rookie ump is going to take this advice and will be pulling a baseball out of his ear. Hope your insurance is paid up.

Just my two 1/2 cents.

What you say is true of youth ball, however all mechanics is anticipation of the the next play. The reason we don't stay in position A with runners on base is because we are anticipating a play at another base besides first.

I am 53. The players who I umpire have average age of about 20 and most of them are prime athletic speedsters.

Unlike the LL or Babe Ruth player, I have no hope of keeping up with them. At my level, I cannot afford the luxury of calling all of my plays from the working area. I need credibility on my calls and that means being somewhere in the vacinity of the play.

As a base umpire, I am fooled by the players about once every three games. That's a testament to the quality of the play as much as it is to my instincts. If the players screw up, a good coach will yell at them, not at me.

Example: Two weeks ago in a two man game we had R1, R2, and two out. The batter hit a routine grounder to short. This play normally calls for throw to first or perhaps a flip to second. From C, I moved over halfway between first and second and the shortstop threw to THIRD for a wacker of a play. I called him safe from 70 feet away. The coach yelled something like the following out of the dugout at his SS.

"If you want the umpire to make a good call, you have to play college baseball instead of Little League baseball."

I could have stayed in the working area and waited for the play to develop. I would get two or three steps after the release (college players fire the ball to first at 85 mph) not four or five steps like you can get in high school. All of my calls would be long distance.

Instead, I anticipate the play. As a result, I am 20-25 feet from the play and in a position to sell the call, see a pulled foot, swipe tag, or any other wierd stuff. That's the difference between a college umpire and a cookie cutter umpire. I talk about cookie cutter umpires in Part VIII of my series which the "On Deck" portion of this site says will be published on 4/28.

When my college evaluator sees umpires who constantly hang out in the working area, he knows that the has a high school umpire on his hands. He is looking for more than pro school knowledge in his umpires. He wants game awareness and game feel. One of the ways to get perfect game awareness is to know the exact score and exact inning.

Peter



[Edited by His High Holiness on Apr 19th, 2004 at 02:07 PM]