What a nightmare!

[thumpferee]

Of all the conversations we have had regarding LL umpires, I never really understood where some of you were coming from.

I see now!

Had 3 games yesterday, 13-15 yo, using LL rules. This is a private league and yes, we get paid.

I show up to the field and see the director talking to another guy who had on dark grey slacks, solid blue shirt with collar, black reboks (old and dirty) and a black Nike hat. I ask the director who I would be calling with. Yeh, you guessed it. I even offered him one of my shirts and hat so we could look like a team out there, he declined.

Anyway, first game I give him the plate. He was verbally calling swinging strikes, saying "ball 1-2-3", giving the count backwards, 2strikes, 1ball also showing balls on his right hand. First play of the game I have is a not so close play at 3rd. R2 stealing, safe by a mile with no real tag applied. I come up with that, ya know, nonchalant safe signal when I hear "SAFE". ???
I thought I was hearing things, so I just overlooked it. Two batters later B1 hits to SS who throws BR out by 10 steps, same thing. I come up, close my fist, and I hear "OUT".

I told him if you want to call this game yourself, I can go home and still get paid. No more problems with that, but I think he was timid after that because he wouldn't even call a ball foul.

On the bases, he was calling outs with thumb out, calling "time" with a closed fist, and making calls before there was even a play being made. More on this later.

Now I understand he obviously had not been trained very well, so I offered him some advise early on in the first game, which he did not seem to want. So I let him continue in his ways.

Just when I thought I had seen everything an umpire could possibly do wrong in a game, I see this:

2nd game I have the dish. At coaches meeting, my p comes out wearing a, yeh you guessed it, a BIG ball bag. NOT a normal ball bag, this one looked like a granny pack, velcro and all. After the meeting, I asked him WTF you have in there, lunch?

Well, after a couple plays, I now know what was in there.
Play 1: Ball goes foul down 1st base line. He pulls a ball out, throws it back to the pitcher, and retrieves the ball from F3.

Play 2: R1 stealing 2nd, the throw, the slide, the tag, "SAFE". R2 calls time. P calls "time", with his fist up I might add, when he then reached into his "belt pack", pull out a brush and dusts off the base.

Boy it was a long day!

Sorry for the long post, but had to share.

Good thing about this experience though, I realize now that I am NOT a LL umpire!

Thanks for listening!

[moorg]

Originally posted by thumpferee
Just when I thought I had seen everything an umpire could possibly do wrong in a game, I see this:

2nd game I have the dish. At coaches meeting, my p comes out wearing a, yeh you guessed it, a BIG ball bag. NOT a normal ball bag, this one looked like a granny pack, velcro and all. After the meeting, I asked him WTF you have in there, lunch?

Heh. Thanks for sharing.

[Bob Lyle]

What's so funny? Sounds like a typical Little League umpire to me. No, on second thought, he was better than average.

[mick]

Originally posted by thumpferee
Of all the conversations we have had regarding LL umpires, I never really understood where some of you were coming from.

thumpferee,
I have seen that guy work.
mick

[largeone59]

Gee, when we stereotype LL umpires, this kind of guy is probably the first guy that comes to mind.

[Rich]

Originally posted by Bob Lyle
What's so funny? Sounds like a typical Little League umpire to me. No, on second thought, he was better than average.

You know what? That's a bunch of crap.

[Lawrence_Dorsey]

I must have worked with his cousin here in my neck of the woods on Saturday. I had seen this guy work some and heard all of the stories about his shall we say "antics". Well, they are true. On one occasion, and we are using OBR here, he refused to go to me on check swing request because "I was in the C slot". After I explained to him that he had to go to me with the appeal, he said" Oh well, he definitely didn't go around". Trouble was it was the first check in a while that I was going to reverse.

He indicated the location of every ball he called with his hands (often the right). He literally danced behind the catcher at times like he thought he was going to get clobbered (most weren't even close). On one such occasion he called the pitch a strike. His balls and strikes judgement wasn't that bad, but you could have never made me beleive his plate work gave him a shred of consistency.

I could go on and on. I actually was worried that he would blow me off when I tried to offer him some advice. Instead, he told me that he welcomed constructive criticism. Since he was working the next game with a different partner and I was leaving, I couldn't have kept him around for the hour plus I needed to offer up some advice.

Lawrence

[aevans410]

13-17 year old pony league last year.

My normal partner for some reason had to cancel. The coordinator called me and told me to be ready to take the dish, he had a new umpire ready to work with me. This kid (no more than 16) shows up in a basketball jersey, knee length shorts, and high tops. I'm doing a quick check of the infield (this field is known for a hangout for drinking teens, there could be bits of glass or metal in the field) and this kid comes up to me. I try to show him the IFF signals I use, he's talking to one of the coaches. I knew then and there that I was in for a long night.

R1, nobody on, inside pitch that gets the batter in the hands. I send him to first. My BU comes to me and says (loud enough for everyone to hear him) Sir, thats not right. He then proceeds to tell me the hands are part of the bat, and its a foul ball. Of course, the fans hear this, and they all start the "hands are part of the bat" chatter. I politely told him to go back to his position and to please not state his opinion of my calls.

This league used last years FED rules. R2 and R3, tied game 6th inning. Pitcher (LH) while in the stretch, turns his shoulders towards 3rd. I balk it. My BU tells me that isn't a balk (while yelling from c position, at least he knew where to stand) and his shoulders can move until he comes set. I tell him, in OBR , yes, but we're using Federation rules. He proceeds to tell me that he's been doing this for 2 years now, and he knows the rules. I just shake my head, call time, go out and tell him to keep his mouth shut, make the calls in the field, and I'll handle the rules interpretations.



[Edited by aevans410 on May 16th, 2005 at 12:54 PM]

[bellsjc]

All these stories are mind boggling to me. Our association supplies umpires to all levels of baseball in our area (Central NY State). I am certified to do varsity ball but also do little league. Our umpires are not permitted to work any games that are not assigned by our assigners. We are not permitted to work with anyone who is not an active member of our association. We are required to be assigned to a minimum of 22 summer league games to be eligible for varsity baseball the following season. Little league is considered summer ball. I also need to know why you umpires are working with someone for little league. Our assigner doesn't find the need to assign two umpires for little league. There is no need for two umpires in a normal little league game.

[DownTownTonyBrown]

Originally posted by aevans410
...inside pitch that gets the batter in the hands. I send him to first. My BU comes to me and says (loud enough for everyone to hear him) Sir, thats not right. He then proceeds to tell me the hands are part of the bat, and its a foul ball. Of course, the fans hear this, and they all start the "hands are part of the bat" chatter....

Sounds like a great opportunity to educate this young 16-year old wanna-be and several of the fans.

Throw a bat out on the ground and say, "Show me the hands on that one." Loud enough so that everyone else can also hear, of course.

"That's right. The hands are part of the body, not the bat. And if the ball hits any part of the body, including the hands, we have a dead ball. And, if the batter wasn't judged to have swung at the pitch, he gets 1st."

"Now if you will let me call my stuff - anything to do with the batter and the pitcher, I'll try not to interrupt your calls on the bases."

[mick]

Originally posted by DownTownTonyBrown

Originally posted by aevans410
My BU comes to me and says (loud enough for everyone to hear him) Sir, thats not right. [/QUOTE]


Throw a bat out on the ground and say, "Show me the hands on that one." Loud enough so that everyone else can also hear, of course.

[/QUOTE]

That's a delicious thought, DownTownTonyBrown.
But I won't be showing up my partner, or anyone else's partner in a public forum.
mick

[kylejt]

"Had 3 games yesterday, 13-15 yo, using LL rules. This is a private league and yes, we get paid. "

Guess what? That wasn't Little League.

LL gets a huge crossection of umpires. By definition, it's the parents obligation to umpire these games. And yes, you get a lot of yahoos. I work LL, and all sorts of youth leagues. LL is far better, as far as education and resources go. The best crew I've ever worked with, outside of D1 umpires, is with a LL district out of LA. These guys were so polished you'd swear they working a game in front of 50,000 fans.

LL is just an easy punching bag for some. Me, I'd never say that most Fed umpires look like hobos. Nope, you'll not catch me saying the only guys who can work 3pm high school games are the jobless, ex-felons and the under employed. That's not right. But boy, since my son has been in high school, I've seen a lot these guys working games lately. But I won't stereotype them, not me.

Now, if you want to talk about softball umpires.......

[orioles35]

I don't know why some people feel the need to bash based on what age level people call. Personally, I have called anywhere from machine pitch to 18u state tournaments. I'd rather stick to 15 and under...mainly because of the attitude of the kids once they get older than that. Our park has one 18 year old team, only because last year they had two and nearly forfeited every game because the kids don't care one way or another. So this year they forced them to carry a full roster of 18 players so they'd have a better chance of playing.

As long as an umpire cares about what kind of job he does and always looks to improve his performance, it shouldn't matter if it's eight year old minors or college ball.

[cmckenna]

Do you think any of the kids playing that game gave a rats a55 the he dusted the bases or overstepped his bounds on a couple of calls. They could care less. Did they have fun? If they did, that is all that matters. If any of this persons actions impacted your precious ego then that is your issue. It appears the only one on the field who was offended was you!!!

I am a director in a town who's little league program is 130 kids if we are lucky. We have even less volunteers. About 10 regulars who do everything, concessions, field maintenance, coach, administer and yes, umpire. You have to take what you can get when you can't afford to pay for "commercial" umpires.

Heres an idea... How about volunteering to run clinics for these folks instead of b1tching all the time!!! You are more than welcome to come to my town and put one on.

We try to train our volunteers as best we can but I would need an 8th day of the week to schedule something.

I would rather take someone who keeps the game fair and shows up in jeans and a t-shirt any day than have to cancel a game the kids are looking forward to because we have no one to umpire.

Keep in in friggin perspective folks. Not everyone is perfect like you guys!!!

[Edited by cmckenna on May 16th, 2005 at 09:15 PM]

[GarthB]

Originally posted by Rich Fronheiser

You know what? That's a bunch of crap.

You're too sensitive, Rich. There is a world of difference between umpires such as you, who work upper levels of ball and then some Little League and the average Little League umpire. This guy would fit right in with the Little League umpires here. Unlike some areas I read about on this site, here they had no training, and when offered training, they didn't show up. The UIC is a dad appointed by the board who had never umpired a game in his life.

They wear their hats backwards, chest protectors over their t-shirts and shinguards with their shorts. They move on every pitch and call pitches when they almost reach the front of the plate. With runners on third, they follow the batter all the way to first. They, too, signal out using the thumb. They never put the ball in play they pull out their rule books to check how many bases to award on a throw into deadball territory. I know, I watch my friends kids play frequently and I have see the above in nearly every LL game I watch.

These guys not only exist Rich, in many areas they are the norm.

You, sir are an exception to many of us. You may not be in Madison, but you would be in Spokane.