Sick To My Stomach

[MOofficial]

Synopsis:

Last Friday night I had the final of a district (Missouri plays districts (6-8 teams), then they move onto sectionals, quarterfinals, state (4 teams)). We had two games that night. The first game was a game being resumed from Wednesday night in the bottom of 2nd, the winner plays again at 9 that night for the district championship. Championship game starts at 9, I'm on 3rd in the 3-man system. Fog is starting to cover the outfield so bad that you can really only see the silhouette of the outfielders at some point. Game management wanted to keep playing because the next round is Monday and we couldn't continue on Saturday because it will mess up the pitching rotation.

Top of 7th, Home team is up 4-2, 2 outs, no runners on. Fly ball headed towards center field, center fielder runs with his back towards me, straight to the fence, I can see the ball above the fog but when it gets in it I lose it. I go off the center fielders reaction, he stops running and in one fluid motion bends over a little bit, turns around and fires the ball back in to second as fast as he can. Going off his reaction I say no catch, runner at second. I get back to third base and nothing is being said until the coach comes out and says "Corey that's a catch, he should be out." In short I tell the coach I did not see the ball being caught and going by his reaction I don't think he caught it and that's all I had to off of because the outfielder didn't show me the ball if he did catch it. He then states "Did you see the ball hit the ground?" I said "No, did you see him catch the ball?" And I tell him that is exactly why I had to go off his reaction and that reaction told me no catch. The visiting team after that play scored 5 runs with 2 outs to go up 7-4. The next play was a fly ball that they of coursed missed for the third out. At this point I'm starting to get that feeling that I've messed it up and am feeling "sick to my stomach" If this kid caught the ball, it was the greatest catch I've ever seen with the fog, the willy mays style, and also in that type of game. No cheering reaction from him, any teammates, coaches, or fans.
My fiance was at the game sitting on the home team side and said all the fans didn't know if he caught it either and still had no idea.

Bottom of 7th before the inning starts the coach wants to talk some more and we exchange words again and he goes I just hope that play doesn't cost these kids a district championship, my smart mouth gets the best of me at this point and we go back and forth for a few more words and its done. Home team ties it up we go into the 8th. Home team has 4 errors in one inning and they loes by 3.

Fast forward to Monday where I have the winning team again in the sectional round of state. I talk to the coach who was in that district game and told him I still don't know if that kid caught that ball and he says they had their district meeting today for all district team and that kid finally admitted that he didn't catch it. However, Friday he was really adamant that he caught the ball and whined about it the rest of the night and kept telling everyone he did catch it.

So I talk to my assigner on Saturday morning about the play and he said I handled it right and then he was working with me on Monday and I told him that the kid confessed. He said there should be something I should be able to say to the coach in an email or a phone call about the play and how I felt sick to my stomach for the weekend and then it all comes down to a kid lying about the catch. So my question is, should I email or call the coach and talk about that play, or just leave it be?

[MD Longhorn]

My first response was going to be... "I can't remember what happened last week, I've slept since then..."

But in seriousness, ask yourself this: Will it help anybody if you write that email?

[Durham]

Leave it be. You did the best you could at the time of the call. When I do that I sleep just fine, and you should too.

[GA Umpire]

Leave it alone. He won't stop from trying it again if the chance arises. The coach won't care especially if the kid pulled it off and tricked you. Then, he and/or the plater would be happy about his lie.

Forget it and move on. Once the game is over, all calls made that game are over except if a learning experience was made. The email will be a waste of your time and the coach's reading it. The kid may not ever hear about it or care. He'll try it next week. He isn't the first to try it and won't be the last.

[BK47]

MO, you got to let that one go. You should have let it go once you left the field. I have learned over my few short years it aint worth the headache to keep plays like that in. The coach had his say and you had your response. The kid lied, thats nothing new. Players lie all the time, hell they do it in the MLB too.

You got out there, made your call and judging by what you saw the player did not catch the ball, otherwise he would have come up and shown it to you.

As for contacting the coach, I would leave it. HE should actually contact you and appoligize, but we all know that aint happening. Just keep it in mind for next year when you see that team.

[bob jenkins]

You should:

1) Write an email to the coach.
2) Save it as a draft over night.
3) Read it again the next morning.
4) Edit it.
5) Delete it.

[Altor]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

You should:

1) Write an email to the coach.
2) Save it as a draft over night.
3) Read it again the next morning.
4) Edit it.
5) Delete it.

And just for safe measure...At no point in this process should you actually put the coach's address in the To: line.

[jdmara]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

You should:

1) Write an email to the coach.
2) Save it as a draft over night.
3) Read it again the next morning.
4) Edit it.
5) Delete it.

1+

-Josh

[PeteBooth]

[QUOTE=MOofficial;678463]Synopsis:

Fog is starting to cover the outfield so bad that you can really only see the silhouette of the outfielders at some point. Game management wanted to keep playing because the next round is Monday and we couldn't continue on Saturday because it will mess up the pitching rotation.

Here-in lies the problem.

If there was NO game management around and this were simply a regular season game would you and your partners have stopped the game once the FOG covered the outfield?

So what if you play Saturday and it messes up the pitching rotation. That's called LIFE. If you work for a living and have deadlines to meet and something un-expected happens guess what! you work throught the night or come in on Saturday / Sunday to meet the deadline.

You could NOT see the catch / no catch because of the FOG so IMO that tells you all you need to know meaning the conditions were not safe. You said many errors followed most likely because the players couldn't see the ball properly.

Also, did they play the game that was supposed to start at 9PM?

Forget about an E-mail it's baseball NOT life / death.

Pete Booth

[jicecone]

They chose to let the game continue, you did the best you could under the circumstances. Forget about it.

I once did a 15-16 yr old Sr League Division Final between Nassau and Suffolk counties in LI New York. In the 6th inning the home team hit a HR with R1, R2and 1 out. Home team is down by 3 runs. HR hitter misses 3b by a good distance. Visiting team appeals and I call hitter out. Visting team wins by 1.

My partner and I were escorted away from the park by the police. The local news showed a video from the 1b stands that did not clearly show whether the kid touched 3rd or not. I, was never in doubt.

Coach said he touched, player said he touched, I was accused of having a relative in the game (not true) and everyother story about how I took the game away from the kids. Even had a fellow umpire state he would never take a HR away like that.

Three years latter, I am sitting in the parking lot talking to a team from that area and one discussion leads to another and sure enough players from that same team remember that game and tell me how the player finaly admitted missing the bag. My answer to them was "I knew that because I made the cal." Yes I admit, there is always that doubt but, you were there because you earned it and you did your job the best you could.

Move on and never stop trying to be the best you can.

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by MOofficial

Synopsis:

So my question is, should I email or call the coach and talk about that play, or just leave it be?

You'd be assuming that what you had to say would be of importance or interest to the coach and you'd be wrong.

Let it go.

[MD Longhorn]

You know, I meant to make a comment regarding that but forgot. Pete hits it on the head. By rule, "Game Management" is in charge BEFORE the game starts. Once it's underway it's completely the umpire's decision as to whether play continues. I recognize the political problem associated with doing the right thing here, but honestly - did you have a "fair" contest in conditions like that? If YOU couldn't see things, I'm sure others couldn't too. Probably, EVERYONE would have been better off had you guys stopped the game.

Had one game once where it had been raining all morning, field was a mess, rain was on the way, and still coming down. "Game Management" was there, and since this was an "important" game (what, the rest weren't?) that would determine standings, they refused to call the game. League UIC was on site.

So we went onto the field, held a plate conference, let home pitcher warm up (she couldn't even hold the ball!), got into position, called play ball, then called ballgame... and took our money. "Game Management" went ballistic, first at us, then at UIC. UIC told them to go fly a kite. "Game Management" said they weren't going to pay us for that "sham". UIC told them that EVERYONE (us, both coaches, him) told them to postpone or cancel that game - and had they done so, they would have only owed us our "show up" fee. And, if they didn't pay us, they'd "never find umpires again."

Was a fun conversation to watch, honestly. But it reminded me who was in charge and when. I'll never forget it.

[David B]

Originally Posted by jdmara

1+

-Josh

Agreed, the coach in all reality knows the kid did not catch the ball.

Move on.

Thanks
David

[DG]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

you should:

1) write an email to the coach.
2) save it as a draft over night.
3) read it again the next morning.
4) edit it.
5) delete it.

10-4

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by MOofficial

Top of 7th, Home team is up 4-2, 2 outs, no runners on. Fly ball headed towards center field, center fielder runs with his back towards me, straight to the fence, I can see the ball above the fog but when it gets in it I lose it. I go off the center fielders reaction, he stops running and in one fluid motion bends over a little bit, turns around and fires the ball back in to second as fast as he can. Going off his reaction I say no catch, runner at second. I get back to third base and nothing is being said until the coach comes out and says "Corey that's a catch, he should be out."

"So, Coach tell me this: Why did your fielder fire the ball in to second base with such urgency if he caught the ball for the 3rd out? Don't fielders who just made a catch for the 3rd out just trot in with the baseball? Not a catch, Coach."