Calling pitches from the mound--MLB style!
 

With thanks to a friend of mine for passing this along...

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...news&fext=.jsp

They should have waited till the other base umpire got his gear on. There is no way an umpire in the Major Leagues should be calling balls and strikes from behind the mound. I had to deal with that in one of my games I was playing, and let's just say it is very distracting to have an umpire behind the pitcher's mound, plus it just isn't the way it's supposed to be done.

CU6,

In a regular season game, they would have waited. In a spring training game they wanted to keep it moving. It is like a scrimmage, there are no records or championships that they are batteling for.

Why do you find it distracting? I played a great deal of baseball, and had many occasions to have the ump behind the mound. I just ignored him. Why is it any different than having a base umpire in the infield? Nobody complains about that, do they?

I've been pressed into service behind the mound, and have found the only real challenge to be calling fair/foul on line shots over 1st and 3rd. The strike zone is easy to call. Just pretend you're watching the game on TV, and call 'em like you do from your armchair:) .

As far as I know you have never worked in the Major Leagues. Also who cares what they did, it was a pre-season game.

Peace

Steve,

As a pitcher I would probably find it most distracting, but also as a catcher as well just cause you expect the umpire to be behind the plate. I've read that the only calls one might have a problem from doing the game alone from behind the plate is the call at second base.

don't the rules simply recommend that the PU positions behind the catcher...or something along those lines...i know a guy who was getting beat up so bad by the catchers that he moved to behind the mound...i guess i don't believe him...

WRRRRRRONG!!!

The problematic calls in one man crews is too long a list to itemize.
Certainly the attempted steal at 2nd is a common one but there are many many more especially when you get multiple runners. If it's a lower level game it gets even worse because it's harder to anticipate.
Associations should discourage one man games as much as possible.
Not a bad place for a Newbie to start though, lots of practice working on game management skills.

I was on the bases of a middle school game, we had one inning left and had about 20 minutes of daylight left, plate umpire gets nailed in a sensitive area on a pitch the catcher completely wiffed on and had to leave the game. Since we were running out of daylight, I told the coaches there wasn't enough time for me to get into gear so they agreed on me calling the game from behind the pitcher. Didn't have any close line calls to make in the one inning I did.

If the catcher is whiffing at balls because it's too dark...we're done playing for the night in my games. It's not worth it. YMMV

A three year resurrection is better than a 10+ I suppose.

Not by much.