The Biggest Irritant in your history of umpiring
 

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I am usually a patient guy on the field, though I did lose my temper once this year. But today I had a game of total irritation, like sitting on a Brillo pad for eight hours. I would like to find out what your biggest irritant is/was.

A local radio station decided to do a college game I did today, the play-by-play guy had never done a game before at the park. I had the plate. The press box for the field is close to the backstop, under the stands in this really nice park.

Well, the ying yang announcer was so loud that everyone on the field heard him, including my partner, even when he went to B and C. And every pitch he thought was a ball, or every time he thought a player or dugout did not like the call he would say it. Of course, he had no conception of a strike, even if it bit him in the nose.

One pitch was a fastball on the outer third of the plate, thigh high. The fastball broke the pocket of F2's glove, so the ball goes to the ground. "The umpire called it a strike!" He said. His partner replied, "well he dropped the ball, so it should have been a ball." Of course, it took him five minutes to figure out why F2 decided to go to the dugout and get a new glove.

We had to hear this crap for a full game. The best of them all was the time my partner had a wacker at 1B. The announcer said:

"He got him at first, and I think the umpire got that call right!!!!"

Glad to know it.

What's worse, he called me by the wrong name all day long.

I had a great game, great zone, dead on all day, and I heard all day long the baseball equivalent of an auto mechanic commenting on a human heart transplant surgeon's work.

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Well, what is yours?

Usually, it's rants on umpire forums about situations they have no control over. Just have to grin and bear it on occasions.

That's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

I have to agree with you! :cool:

thank you
 

Please note [rant] and [/rant] keystrokes.

Just looking for a funny story or two, to sooth my irritation.

I'll try, used to call one of our 4A schools and the PA announcer would give his opinion of the calls. Kind of funny, but irritating.

Pitch would be outside and he would say "ball low". Pitch would be high and he would say "ball outside". He sat right behind the plate so he should have known better, but funny to say the least.

He would also from time to time give his opinion of the calls made by BU etc.,

Sadly, the home team was a playoff contender year after year, but would not replace the guy ...

Thanks
David

They might if he were consistently ejected and they had to scramble every game to replace him on the spot.

If I were on the game, he'd get a warning for the first comment and be gone after the second. Has he never been to a pro ballpark?

I was going to say something similar as there are really no things on the field that I deal with that I cannot handle or have to constantly deal with.

I guess I hate coaches that yell 50 feet away about silly stuff, but that is why just like here when I do not respect someone, I just ignore them (and I do not need a list to do it). ;)

Peace

Of course not, this is south MS, not the "big city". There was no need to eject him, he was absolutely doing it because he loved it and he wasn't harming a thing, just kind of humorous. (and irritating)

Of course, this was also 15 years ago. Now everyone even in little ole MS has a PA announcer, a computer operator with music before every batter, and between innings. Makes it lots of fun to go to the park and that is even with the small schools.

Of course, me being a musician, I love the music, sometimes the best part of the game. (g)

thanks
David

Local "sportscaster" and I use that term loosely...small town MS...this guy couldn't find his arse with both hands, a map, and a GPS but he thinks he knows sports - never played, but played at officiating for a while (that was quite sad, in his shorts and flip flops), but I digress...He makes comments about the calls and about the umpires..."that must have been a make up call..." "OH! I'm not sure about that call. He looked safe to me." Most of them are harmless but they sure rub me the wrong way. I know he's a bone head but he gets under my skin...I quit watching the games. Not that the telecasts were all that exciting anyway with one camera that never moved, positioned behind home plate!!

Nope can't do anything about it and it doesn't affect my game - but the OP asked about irritants and he irritates me.

I'm not arguing with you. I'm telling you what I would do. IMO, there's every need to eject a fool with a microphone, once he's been warned to limit himself to announcing the next batter.

I understand where you're coming from. I added a little sarcasm with my last two sentences. After Dennis Miller would complete his rant monologue, he would end it with, "That's just opinion. I could be wrong."

I will relate a little story that got under my skin one time. Nothing major really. I was working the last two games on the first day of a three day, 16 team tournament played at two fields. We were already about one hour behind schedule.

I had the plate for the second game. At the time, they were two of the better teams in the area, so the pitching was better than most. There was one heckler in the stands.

On just about every pitch that was called, he had to make the same comment over and over. You could tell which team he was rooting for by his actions.

For the first two innings or so, he would say in a rather loud tone of voice, "Good call, Blue" to show his displeasure. After that he switched it to, "Good Blue call." That went on for the full seven innings. I even asked the catcher for the team he was rooting for, "Is that your Dad?" He burst out laughing and said, "Hell no, but I have to hear it ever freaking game."

After he made that comment, I started thinking I hope don't have anymore games with this team if he does that all the time. At the end of the game as I was going to my vehicle, a fan came up to me and patted me on the back and said, "Good Blue game." We both burst out laughing and that was the end of that. So some good came out of it after all.:D

Play by play over the PA is annoying. I will shut it down if it gets negative.

I have no control over broadcast commentary I happen to overhear. I treat as outside the field - it gets ignored. If I hear it I don't let it get to me...the broadcaster is an entertainer grabbing anything interesting to say in order to keep his audience riveted.

Funny story though - one time (at band camp) - a catcher tried to frame a high one...I called it a ball. I heard the broadcaster say "Fitzpatrick tried to sell a high pitch for strike three but home plate umpire Chris Viverito is not buying it"

Hey - at least he called you by the wrong name - and if anyone was listening - they'll have no idea it was you!:D And you can join in all the fun conversations with "fans" and say, "I wonder who that guy was - never seen or heard of him before". Pretty Cool! :cool: :rolleyes:

Next time he announces or broadcasts a game you're working - buy him a half dozen carmel apples before the game!

How about those who cannot keep the scoreboard strikes, balls, and out's correctly?

After being ask 100 times "how many outs" or "is that the correct count blue" I tell the scorekeeper to turn the scoreboard OFF if you cannot keep the right count...

When I lived in NJ, one of the cable TV channels broadcast the (time-delayed) games of the local high school. The kid announcers were far from the plate, but they still did their play-by-play for the benefit of the enormous TV audience. (One motionless camera, somewhere in foul territory down the LF line. Not a lot of slow-mos and replays.)

Every called strike was announced as, "Right down the middle for strike [x]."

Every swinging strikeout was announced as, "Strike 3! Caught him looking!"

Texas-leaguer that fell in front of F7 announced as, "Ruled a ground rule single."

R3 out at home on a ground ball to F3, while BR safe at 1B announced as, "That will be ruled a ground rule single, but no RBI."

A couple of the local high schools used to let a student do basketball play-by-play through the PA system. Bad enough even with a good announcer, but it was intolerable with a total amateur at the mike screaming, "Dat ball got stole by Jimmy Stigetti, and he goes up fuh TWOOOO!!! Nooooo!! He missed it!!"