Has Anybody Read.....

[Tim C]

To correctly measure a mound you need engineering tools. Slope of field and other oddities can cause a "mound" to look taller than it is. You may consider yourself an "expert" since you once coached I would suggest otherwise.

In the Portland area we had a school that "everyone" complained about the mound height. The OSAA and the league the team played in hired an engineer and the mound was found in compliance with the rules.

As an umpire it is not your responsibility to decide if a mound is legal or not.

Simply tell the offended team to file a complaint with the league.

You have enough real issues to deal with.

Regards,

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Tim C

To correctly measure a mound you need engineering tools. Slope of field and other oddities can cause a "mound" to look taller than it is. You may consider yourself an "expert" since you once coached I would suggest otherwise.

In the Portland area we had a school that "everyone" complained about the mound height. The OSAA and the league the team played in hired an engineer and the mound was found in compliance with the rules.

As an umpire it is not your responsibility to decide if a mound is legal or not.

Simply tell the offended team to file a complaint with the league.

You have enough real issues to deal with.

Regards,

Yup, some mounds just appear to be higher cause the hill itself is smaller than at other fields. I've never given this a second thought.

I have walked a field before an important game at an unfamiliar field before. Playoffs, unfamiliar crew, we'll do it as part of our pregame, sometimes before we change into uniform.

Funny, in football, we walk the field 30-45 minutes before every varsity game as a matter of course. I walk with the umpire in one direction, and the line judge and linesman walk the other. Of course, we have other duties to perform along the way, but I couldn't imagine not doing this before a game.

[MajorDave]

I'm not looking for trouble. As most of us know, it finds us wherever we are. I also did not wish to imply that I am some kind of expert but there is a level of experience I have reached in field maintenance having built, from scratch, and re-built pitching mounds on several fields. But, if you guys could see some of these mounds.... nobody complains about them so I don't really care. If they did complain, I would do what you suggest... tell them to complain to the KHSAA(appropriate local rules body) since it is high school ball I am speaking of.

I also coach HS football and as related in that post, I see the referees walk the field off as a part of their pre-game activities and wondered why we never do it in baseball.

Jim's article made me think about that question again, so I asked.

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

Funny, in football, we walk the field 30-45 minutes before every varsity game as a matter of course. I walk with the umpire in one direction, and the line judge and linesman walk the other. Of course, we have other duties to perform along the way, but I couldn't imagine not doing this before a game.

Good point, of course it isn't too unusual to find the yard markers right on the sideline and the pylons in the field of play so this is mostly a CYA measure for us. I'm sure its not too different there.