Who Does the Plate?

[Toadman15241]

I've never been assigned one or the other. Normally if both want/don't want the dish for a game then the senior man gets to make the call the first time. After that it is customary for it to rotate back and forth.

IMO an association should never assign the dish unless it is a playoff game. If the two umpires can't decide in the dressing room then there are much bigger issues in the association than who is working the dish.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by Toadman15241

I've never been assigned one or the other. Normally if both want/don't want the dish for a game then the senior man gets to make the call the first time. After that it is customary for it to rotate back and forth.

IMO an association should never assign the dish unless it is a playoff game. If the two umpires can't decide in the dressing room then there are much bigger issues in the association than who is working the dish.

Really? So the assignor should have no say in this? There may be reasons for the assignor wanting a specific PU/BU - I can think of LOTS of reasons.

I can't remember the last time I was assigned a game where I didn't know where I was going beforehand.

[Toadman15241]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Really? So the assignor should have no say in this? There may be reasons for the assignor wanting a specific PU/BU - I can think of LOTS of reasons.

I can't remember the last time I was assigned a game where I didn't know where I was going beforehand.

There are only a couple reasons I can think of, the most common being evaluation or playoff games (as I mentioned in my first post). Want to assign for those? Fine.

With every other case one of the following two rules applies. 1) If the crew can't recognize that one should be on plate, the other on bases then you have a bigger issue than which one is working which. (I've mentioned the game where I was the BU for my own high school numerous times. If my partner and I couldn't figure out I should be on the bases then both of us should have been kicked out of the association.) 2) If you can't trust both your guys to do the dish as an assignor then you shouldn't have one of them working the game. End of story.