Not if he can't see the rubber.

Or doofus? :D

Steven, that's a painful memory. Having called the coaches to the backstop in my newbie year.:eek:

Brushing off the pitcher's rubber is most often for the umpire to be able to determine when he actually mounts the rubber. Perhaps the MiLB umps I see doing this, on much more pristine fields, are also untaught.

It's a degrading term used by those umpires who wish to make fun of brother sports officials, and by doing so believe it elevates themselves, a shallow word aimed at umpires who do not meet some moving target of "professionalism".

One thing is for certain. It labels the user of the term, usually an experienced umpire who ought to know better than to treat another Blue in such a despicable way, as a full time hypocrite.

There are at least 241 Smittyisms on this board as of this time.

Linkage

Fitty, consider yourself 'degraded', you 'dufus'......Just kidding, don't lose your sense of humor!!!!!

But where does the term come from? Was there some umpire named Smitty?

It's a slang term for anyone foolish or dumb.

greymule,

I am not 100% certain, but I believe the term was coined by Carl Childress in an article he wrote concerning umpires who exhibit traits now commonly associated with "Smitties".

JM

There isn't enuff bandwidth here to include all Smitty stuff.

Some cherce Smittyisms (all first-hand)

"STRIKE ON A SWING"

[Between innings, F2 needs to adjust mask before first pitch] "TIME!" (at Boeing decibel level)

"FOUL TIP!!!!"

"He gets the base he's goin' to, plus one."

"One base to all runners on throws from the infield."

[on obvious INT on batted ball by 1B coach] "No interference; he wuz tryin' to get out da way!"

"Why buy base pants?"

No comment neeeded: Base ump with ball bag including brush, eyeglass case, AND a small can of Off

[U3 goes out into LF for catch; R3 tags up from 3B and scores; defense appeals; U3 calls "SAFE". After the game, I asked U3 how he could possibly call a tag-up when he was fairly deep into the outfield]: "The ball was hit deep; he was gonna score anyway."

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is truly king.

Ace

"I have a challenge for you. Just show one reference (just one) where it says our job is to use a "plate brush" for sweeping off the plate?"
Peace

For #666:

The Boston Globe had a September 28, 2005 interview with MLB umpire crew of Joe West, Brian Gorman, Mike DiMuro and and Mark Carlson. One of the questions asked was "What's the correct position for brushing dirt off home plate?" (Page 1 of the article).

On Page 6 of that same article, Joe replies, "The correct position for brushing the dirt off home plate is facing the catcher, bending your back side to the pitcher, as a matter of courtesy to the fans."

By inference, we should be able to reason that MLB umpires receive those instructions somewhere in their training. Yes?

There are also many amateur umpire associations that have those same instructions actually written into their training manuals and guidelines for their umpires.

Jerry

Coach, I believe you are correct. Mr. Childress also "introduces" the expression in his 51 Ways to Ruin a Baseball Game.

Mr.Childress also condones calling a play at a base the way it looks obvious to everybody else, even if it is the wrong call.

Just because Carl says it doesn't mean it is a good idea. ;)

Which makes me think of the saying:

It takes one to know one! ;)