Top Baseball/Softball Rules Myths, 2011 Edition

[Simply The Best]

Originally Posted by biggravy

Same here. When I started in 1996, baseball and softball umpires were paid the same. Of course, it was far easier to get softball umpires. I initially was registered for both but after one year I asked to only work baseball. I knew it would help the assigner and get me more games. A couple years later the pay rate for baseball increased but still around here we have far more softball umpires than baseball umpires.

If you take the word of the national, regional and local softball associations, this is true nationwide. There appears to be a much bigger turnover in baseball, the older umpires migrate more often to softball only.

What is fun is to observe the generally "superior" position in officialdom that baseball umpires take. Regardless of pay.

[tjones1]

I, too, wouldn't work if I was forced to officiate softball.

[bob jenkins]

Be civil or be gone.

[Gulf Coast Blue]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

I'd quit first. I despise softball. I worked it for a few seasons and actually got one step from the state tourney when I lived in Tennessee, but haven't worked a game since 1996. And wouldn't.

Why Rich.....what do you find so distasteful. The beer tastes the same after the game.

And thanks Bob.

Joel

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Blue

Why Rich.....what do you find so distasteful. The beer tastes the same after the game.

And thanks Bob.

Joel

The uneducated coaches. The parents. The singing. The incessant slap hitting. I hate all of it. I'd rather watch soccer or cricket on TV than softball.

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

The uneducated coaches. The parents. The singing. The incessant slap hitting. I hate all of it. I'd rather watch soccer or cricket on TV than softball.

Don't forget the ridiculous, "mandated" mechanics.

[dash_riprock]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

The singing.

I swear they have a cheer for a 2-0 count with nobody on.

[soundedlikeastrike]

Originally Posted by dash_riprock

I swear they have a cheer for a 2-0 count with nobody on.

The game is fast and fun..

I've done maybe 2 dozen in my life, definetley emergency favors to my assignor. If you've a good enough set of earplugs and somehow get a grip on the circle, the crow hop, the replant, it's a great game.

But I've none of the above mastered, so avoid it at all costs.

In fact the last tourny I was pressed (coerced) into working, I flat told my partners, if you want a call on any of the above violations then you better make em, cause I don't have a clue.

Oh and then theres the dreaded batted ball that goes straight down bounces up and hits the batter..

[greymule]

I umpired solely baseball starting in 1965 (age 16), began softball in 1995, and within 8 years was doing 100% softball.

In New Jersey, schools had to pay the softball umpires the same as the baseball umpires. So it was a choice of (1) $72 for a girls' school game and then $80 cash for two rec league softball games in the evening, or (2) $72 for one three-hour baseball game, with no time for any evening games.

Certainly the number of low-level softball games is greater, with all the church leagues, company coed leagues, and seemingly infinite bottom-level beer leagues. Therefore, the pool of umpires for softball is larger and reaches far down into the "barrel" of competence.

But at least where I was umpiring, the overall quality of school baseball had by the late 1980s deteriorated to the point where it hardly resembled what it had been a couple of decades before. (Virtually all the once-flourishing semipro leagues, full of college players and former pros, had faded away by the mid-1970s.)

Are there idiot, know-nothing coaches in girls' softball? Yes, but baseball had them, too. The college softball I did was a lot of fun, and I admit I kind of liked the rec/travel league singing and chanting.

One comment about the OP—baseball and softball myths should not be combined in the same list! While some myths ("the hands are part of the bat") apply to both baseball and softball, some baseball myths are actually rules under some softball codes. For example, the baseball myth of "one plus one" is (or at least was) actually the rule in USSSA softball. And the myth that the batter has offered on a bunt unless he "pulls the bat back" is not a myth in NCAA softball—the batter has "offered" if she leaves the bat in the strike zone.

Just three examples of ASA softball plays that run counter to basic principles of OBR (using baseball notation):

(1) Bases loaded, 2 out. Batter hits a ball off the fence. R3, R2 score, R1 is out at home for the third out. BR missed 1B and is properly appealed. Ruling: BR did not score and therefore cannot be appealed for a fourth out. Inning over, and the 2 runs count.

(2) R3, R2, 1 out. Batter hits a pop toward 1B. R3 crosses the plate. BR then deliberately crashes F3 to prevent a double play. Ruling: BR is out on the INT, R2 (runner closest to home) is out, and R3's run counts.

(3) R3, R1, 1 out. Batter gets a hit down the RF line. R3 scores, R1 misses 2B and proceeds to 3B. BR is thrown out at 2B. R1's miss of 2B is properly appealed. Ruling: Because the runner following R1 had been put out, R1's miss of 2B is not a force out, and R3's run does count.

[Simply The Best]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

The uneducated coaches.

No different than youth baseball ime.

The incessant slap hitting.

What incessant slap hitting? Prefer bunting?

The parents.

No different than youth baseball ime

The singing.

I guess you have never watched cricket or soccer

I'd rather watch soccer or cricket on TV than softball.

[Simply The Best]

Originally Posted by MrUmpire

Don't forget the ridiculous, "mandated" mechanics.

Yeah, we have none of those in baseball.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Simply The Best

Yeah, we have none of those in baseball.

There are certainly "mandated" mechanics in baseball. The difference is that when someone comes up with a goofy "new" mechanic in baseball, it doesn't get off the ground and dies a quick, painless death. In softball, those same goofy mechanics get incorporated into the "mandated" mechanics.