No questions here, just a rant.

What a day. I'm working 12-year-old state tournament (Cal Ripken), hour-and-a-half drive away. Games start at 5, so that kinda ruins my Saturday (even though I did squeeze in 18 holes this morning).

I get to the field, and the tournament director calls all of us umpires over and says that due to the threat from Hurricane Dennis, they're moving two of Sunday's games to tonight. So we have 3 games. OK, no problem. I've had late nights all year.

I've got the dish for the first two games. Top of the first, first game, ball gets by the catcher, pitcher covering the plate, throw back to the pitcher just a little late, runner in under the tag. Next thing I know, pitcher is on the ground screaming in agony. I'm talking a blood-curdling scream: "It's broken, it's broken, Oh God..." etc., etc. Of course, coaches swarm around the kid, he's got a badly broken ankle, plus the runner's cleats dug into his leg and he's bleeding pretty bad. Long story short, it's 20 minutes before EMS gets there but we've got ice on his leg. EMS says that since he's 12, the local hospital can't do much for him and due to legal concerns, they have to take him to the nearest big city. So they call the helicopter, which takes another 20 minutes to get there. In all, the game was delayed about an hour, but still finished on time (10-run rule after 4 is a beautiful thing).

Second game was a classic, visitors win 1-0 on two hits in the sixth inning (I think it was the only hits they had all night). Loser of that game has to hang around and play the third game that has been tacked on to the schedule. So they're already in a bad mood.

Third inning of that game, play at the plate (I'm BU in this game). Catcher has the ball and is blocking the plate. Runner doesn't slide but tries to run around the catcher. There's a collision, but nothing major. My partner calls runner out, third out of the inning (I never saw runner touch the plate, looked like a good call to me). Offensive coach charges onto the field, starts to go ballistic on my partner. I tossed him real quick, which diffused what could have been a really nasty situation. He cusses me good while he walks off the field. I go back to my position to start the next inning. Next thing I know, I see a hat come flying out of the stands in my direction. I look and see some punk teenager standing there looking like he's ready to fight me. So I dumped him (I know, don't deal with fans, but when they throw something on the field at me, that's crossing the line). Here comes his brother, looks like he wants a piece of me, too. Dumped him. The coaches are pleading with the fans for order, and they finally settle down. Other team wins 5-1. Coach that I dumped follows us to the dressing room and apologizes to my partner, but still calls me something that I can't repeat.

I won't be going back over there. I'm pissed off that the local police didn't escort those fans and the manager from the ballpark. But hey, I got my money and I don't have to make that hour-and-a-half drive any more.

Oh, and this particular town whose team's coach I dumped -- they have a history of particularly bad behavior at sporting events. Dang near had a riot during a basketball district tournament earlier this year when their star player got ejected and another one tried to go Ron Artest on some fans. It didn't bother me one bit sticking it to them.

(end of rant)

Sooo, you're saying that bad sportsmanship is kind-of a tradition for them?

Talk about long games.... The final score of one of my games yesterday was 17-16. It took FORRRRRREEVVVVVVVVEERRRRRRRRR!

Largeone: I had a Single A Legion game early this summer between the bottom two teams in the league. Both pitchers had three pitches: Head high and outside for a ball, inside and in the dirt for a ball, and down the freaking middle for a double.

26-23 in seven innings. 3 hours 15 minutes.

Ouch Garth.....

You mean you had enough daylight for 3hr 15 min? When did the game start?

GarthB,
Sad game. :(
But pretty funny too! :)
mick

On a Saturday at 1:00pm

The only HS game I watched this year, as a spectator, lasted 3 hours 30 minutes. The home team was leading 6-0 going into the 7th, visitors scored 6 to tie, 4 of the runs scoring on bases loaded walks. The final was 7-6 in the 10th, home team wins.

On the other hand, I worked a 10 inning game a couple weeks ago that lasted 2 hours 10 minutes. The starting pitcher for the winning team worked all 10 innings.

Yeah, kinda. I went over to watch our local team in the 8-year-old (pitching machine) tournament and ran into our district commissioner, who had given me the games at the 12U state. Turns out I had dumped that same guy two years ago in a 13-year-old district tournament; I had kinda thought it was the same guy but I wasn't sure. So in about 6-7 years of umpiring, I've ejected a coach a grand total of three times -- and he was two of them.

But the district commissioner is also a basketball referee -- the same one that dumped their star player in the district tournament back in February. The next week's newspaper said something along the lines of, "How can you have such low-caliber officials for a tournament game?" And then they wanted to blame it on the other team's fans. Then at the state tournament three weeks later, they had to eject the same kid and about two more, plus their fans nearly started a riot in the stands -- in the state championship game.

Bigwes68...where in the world did you go todo a game? One of the states wonderful backwater places. Let me know. Hope all else is well. Are you getting ready for football?

This Saturday/Sunday I had a couple of long games. First one started 7:30pm Sat. Went well until the 7th, about 1 1/2 hours for the first 6 score is 7-1 for the home team. Visiting team scores 14 in the top half as my partners strike zone goes MIA. No problem at all as the home team come back and scores 8 in the bottom to win 16-15. The last inning taking 1 hour and 45 minutes. Best thing yet there is a another game coming as the tournament was delayed by rain earlier in the day. The start time for that game ended up being 11pm Sat and ending up at 1am Sun.

The yin and yang of umpiring
 

And tonight, i had the shortest game of my career.

It was a tournament game that was resumed from the night before. 1 inning- 10 minutes. Home team turns DP in the top half, then hits a walkoff homer with their first batter in the bottom.

$30 for 10 min = $3 per minute. Not a bad deal.

I'm home for the summer, so it was clear on the other end of the state. And speaking of backwater, one of the coaches from Franklin (rich suburb of Nashville) basically gave the tournament director a dog-cussin' about how crappy this little town was, how it was no place for a state tournament, how he couldn't see how anyone lived there, etc...Yeah, she threw him out of the tournament.

As for football -- it's almost time. Our first meeting is July 25 and they'll start scrimmages the first week of August. Classes don't start back until Aug. 24, but the H.S. jamboree is the 12th so I'm going to head back early. I never miss a chance to be on the field at Neyland Stadium. Don't know if I'm going to fool with IM football this year, that's usually more of a hassle than it's worth and it takes up a LOT of my time. I think I'll just stick to high school and local rec.

Re: The yin and yang of umpiring
 

LOL...excellent! I had a decent game yesterday - score 2 to 1, 1:40 on time, two separate half-innings were 3 pitches/3 outs :)

So you do these games as some sort of mandatory community service sentence? Otherwise, one wonders why this conversation didn't take place:

Tournament Guy: Hey Big, wanna drive 90 minutes to work some 12 year old games?

You: No

And thus, your Saturday is SAVED!

Hey bigwes, what team/coach was it from Franklin? I call games there.

It was their 12-year-old Cal Ripken all-star team; I think their name was the Red Hawks or something like that. Not exactly sure, I didn't have any of their games.

Well, Mike, when the assignor calls and asks you to do a game and you tell him no because it's too long of a drive and you're above working 12-year-olds, he probably won't be calling you again for the good games that are closer to home. And last time I checked, some work is better than none.

As a general rule: Keeping the assignor happy = more games = more money in my pocket.

Interesting. Back in the early 90's when I was a Babe Ruth District Commissioner, State Bambino games (name changed to Cal Ripken now), were highly coveted, and these games were not handed out to just anyone. Someone who had not worked a lot of this age group would not get these games to do, and anyone who was selected would gladly travel 90 minutes, or for that matter, travel half a day and stay in motels for 4-5 days, for what will be some really good small diamond ball. I can't imagine someone who works small diamond turning down these games because of 90 minute travel time, at least not around here anyway.

These games were not assigned by a local assignor, but by a state umpire in chief assigned by the state commissioner.

[Edited by DG on Jul 13th, 2005 at 12:29 AM]

I guess a lot has changed, and not for the better. Considering they have a state tournament for every single age group (T-ball through 16-18 inclusive) and it's tough to get umpires around here to work after HS season is over anyway, they pretty much take what they can get for Ripken games here. It was the first small-diamond ball I'd worked all year long. And the other three guys there were little more than ol' Smitty's.

Cases in Point:
-I was the only one that actually wore shin guards and a cup (and both came in VERY handy).
-One of my partners tried to say a balk was also a ball. (In Ripken, ball is dead, runners return and pitcher is warned; F1 can be removed from mound after repeated violations)
-One guy wore his ball bag in the field.
-One guy yelled "Foul Tip!" on every foul ball back to the screen...and also on actual foul tips into the glove.
-On the other field in one game, the BU signaled a ball fair ...2 or 3 seconds later, PU called it foul.

With travel ball becoming more popular, most umpires around here seem to be doing that full-time and not messing with Ripken or Babe Ruth (and making a boatload more money). Dixie is also very popular here; they were having the Dixie district tournament at the same complex as the 8-year-old Ripken state tournament, and they had good, solid umpires that knew what they were doing while the Ripken guys were in blue jeans and t-shirts.

I don't think I'll ever get more than a State in Ripken/Babe Ruth. This is the third State I've worked, but I've never gotten a call for a Regional. I believe the state commissioner basically has his same group of good ol' boys that he sends to regionals and World Series every year. Our district commissioner last year (different guy) had promised me and my regular partner a regional in Florida, but the state commissioner ended up overruling him and sending two of his buddies. It's stuff like that makes tournament directors have to twist people's arms to get them to work Ripken/Babe Ruth ball.

I'll stick to my high school and above stuff first then work down if there is a plain lack of games. It is the end of season around here so I am actually signed up to call a 9U Super Series but also trying to get hooked up for a 15U as well. The level of umpiring does go down on those games so that gets more frustrating than the play of the kids.
Least the local MSBL league is fixing to start up this week. I may have to go to Arizona one of these years for the WS out there.

Do you work for Doris?