Obvious mudball
 

How do you handle this one?

In plain view of everybody, pitcher reaches down and puts dirt from the mound on his hand, then rubs the ball.

Take that pitcher to your next game and have him rub up your baseballs!!! HA HA. Seriously, what level of ball is this? It really isnt a big deal. If the balls were pearls, then they are going to be a little slick anyway.

Adult rec.

Unlike Chris:
 

We teach for the PU to move quickly to the mound and ask for the ball and then say:

"Hey sorry we didn't get this open rubbed up enough . . . we'll take care of it from now on . . . if a ball comes out that is not rubbed up enough ask me for another . . . by the way, do not grab dirt and rub the ball down yourself . . .OK?"

Seems to work in my neck of the woods.

Regards,

I follow a similar procedure. You really cannot let pitchers muck up balls, especially in adult leagues.

Fed 6-2-1d Illegal acts include -- discoloring the ball with dirt.

penalty - The ball is dead The umpire may eject the pitcher.


I wouldn't eject. Just kill the play and get him a new ball.

Only issue with this is that the PU will look like the aggressor. Maybe this is desirable in a situation such as the one described.

Watching a D1 game last weekend. Same thing happened. PU called time and walked out and switched baseballs. Rolled the old one to the dugout. Told the pitcher why. Resumed position and the game started again. No problem.

~Sigh~
 

You worry waaaay too much about the way "things look."

Control your game . . . oops, I forgot you work for Baseball Canada where game control is handled by coaches and players (i.e. they have no clue).

Regards,

What causes you to say this? I think that coaches calling the shots for who gets to umpire their games and therefore umpires not controlling games is not something unique to Canada.

well....
 

I can't speak for the whole country, but in my association, if a coach 'blackballed' an umpire, or tried to, he'd probably see that umpire at his next several games. Home OR Away.

Of course, that's only one association in one part of one state. So in theory, your statement that it's not unique to Canada is probably true. At the same time, it's another indication that the inmates run the asylum there.

That is not something that happens on a national level in the US. It would be unique to contries outside of the US.

Unfortunately, it occurs in isolated cases in the US, but it is not common. Even in those cases, usually a coach may black list one or two umpires a season, but he may not dictate which of the others he gets.

Ahem,
 

Does not happen anywhere is the US where I have worked (but that is only four Western States).

Canada from stories I have been told by other Canadian Umpires the amount of control your coaches have is far greater than anywhere else. And it is even more controlling the closer one gets to Quebec.

I feel sorry you actually.

Regards,

You don't need to feel sorry for me. Different places bring different challenges. In Canada we don't have to worry about FED rules.

I had a lot of ejections last year (about 1 every 8 games, over the course of over 100 games). This made many people conclude my game management wasn't very good. Could you elaborate on your statement that the number of ejections has little to no bearing on an umpire's game management abilities?

Time called. Go toward mound and exchange balls with the pitcher, tell him to not do that anymore, toss the ball to the home team dugout. If they are paying attention they will rub it down and I will get it back later.