Umpire "Etiquette"

[MikeStrybel]

1. Shake hands when one of you is leaving for home from the parking lot or locker room. It's as good a time as any and cannot be miscontrued.

2. I prefer to have collegiate minders hand me game balls. They are usually bringing three or four out. Varsity ball is a different story. I want the game to move along and have no problem with a coach or player tossing a ball my way, if I'm looking that is.

As an aside, I stopped letting coaches throw balls in to the mound from the dugout last year. Illinois has an official baseball for playoff contests. The pitcher for the home team had a big hook and after repeated foul balls out of play, I was out of baseballs. The HC tossed one in from his dugout and the kid cracked off a nasty deuce for the third out. The catcher rolled it back out to the mound. The HC told the AC to pick it up on his way to the 1B box. He was beat to the punch by the HC from the visiting team who saw it was a high raised seam ball, that is not allowed in HS ball. I am pretty vigilant now.

It was a pretty rotten Spring for baseball this year. We went through a bunch of balls due to the wet conditions. I had coaches toweling them off during many games. With tighter budgets, it was unlikely that we would see a coach crack open a new dozen late in the game. Get me a game ball and let's get the game finished.

[jicecone]

I agree, congratulate each other when you leave the field. The losing team can easily take it the wrong way.

As far as having the ball tossed back, just make sure I am looking at you.

[jdmara]

Originally Posted by MikeStrybel

...
As an aside, I stopped letting coaches throw balls in to the mound from the dugout last year. Illinois has an official baseball for playoff contests. The pitcher for the home team had a big hook and after repeated foul balls out of play, I was out of baseballs. The HC tossed one in from his dugout and the kid cracked off a nasty deuce for the third out. The catcher rolled it back out to the mound. The HC told the AC to pick it up on his way to the 1B box. He was beat to the punch by the HC from the visiting team who saw it was a high raised seam ball, that is not allowed in HS ball. I am pretty vigilant now.

I'd like to hear how this situation was remedied?

-Josh

[MikeStrybel]

Originally Posted by jdmara

I'd like to hear how this situation was remedied?

-Josh

We had a rough Spring here, Josh. In fact, our playoff games were delayed due to the rain and field conditions. I'm not sure how many baseballs are issued by the state for these contests but they were depleted quickly at our field. It seemed that almost every outfield hit required a new baseball. Between innings, the HC would almost always pick up the game ball and rub it up as his pitcher came out. This hadn't been a problem as the ground was saturated and we did all we could to keep the balls clean and dry. He saw the ball and waved it to me. I figured he wanted another one and flipped one that I had just been given to his pitcher as he came on the field.

After inspecting the suspect baseball, I approached the other HC and asked him why he didn't give me an official ball. He pleaded innocent and said that he just grabbed a ball from the bucket after he saw me show empty ball bags. We had used the supply of new balls and were toweling off others as the game progressed. He knew the opposing HC and apologized loud enough for him to be placated. The opposing team wound up winning so karma prevailed.

[JRutledge]

1. I do not think it matters as much as people are making this out to be. I am mostly worried about leaving the field first. I have never really thought about where I shake my partner’s hand. People will read into these things even if you do it in the parking lot.

2. Never heard this one before. Usually they flip the ball and if they make me have to go out of my way to get it, I will let it go. That being said flipping it to me is likely going to keep the game moving. Also when I have on-deck batter go get the ball, I do not try to get the ball from them unless I have no baseballs in the bag. Other than that I could give a darn how they give me the ball unless they are making me have to run and get it. I think sometimes people get these "pro" ideals in their head and try to apply it to a level where we do not have the luxury of ball boys/girls or an organized level where there are multiple balls sitting off to the side.

Peace

[cookie]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I will now follow through with a handshake with my partner well off the field for the concerns mentioned above (though I wonder why it has been 6 years for someone to even mention it to me).

As for the 2nd issue, I encountered that stricture during a gathering of umpires from all over the country. It was mentioned to all of us in attendance by an umpire who hails from the West Coast. (Might it might be a West Coast thing??) However, though fully capable of catching a flip, I will tighten up on my practice of it depending upon the situation.

Thanks again...

[CT1]

One thing in your post that no one has mentioned:

I *never* throw a new ball to the pitcher. To my mind, that's the catcher's job. Plus. if F1 happens to be distracted & gets hit with my throw, guess who's going to catch hell for it?

Now if F2 just got dinged, I'll slowly walk the ball out toward the mound & *give* it to F1, but I don't throw.

[UmpJM]

CT1,

I "rarely" throw a ball to the pitcher because, like you, I feel that's the catcher's job, so I just usually give one to him when a new ball is required.

The exception for me is when I've come up the line on a fair/foul call and the ball ends up foul. If I'm significantly closer to the pitcher than the catcher is, I'll go ahead and toss it to F1.

I always make sure I've got his attention before I release the throw, and, at my age, the velocity of my throw is such that it isn't going to hurt him even if he does get distracted and gets hit.

As to the OP....

1. I always wait until I'm off the field and well away from the fans before I shake hands or "fist bump" my partner and compliment him on not sucking.

2. I treat having returning balls thrown to me as a "...when in Rome..." situation. It seems primarily level dependent, somewhat regional, and, occasionally, coach/team dependent.

I like the way Bob Jenkins put it in a thread from last year when this discussion came up:

...You don't (imo) want to be the "reda$$ umpire who makes us carry the balls out to him on an effin silver platter", nor do you want to be the "effin LL umpire who doesn't understand the protocol at this level."

And, you do sometimes have to spend some time "training" the participants what is expected / allowed. It's (occasionally) a fine line to walk.

There are some coaches who make it a POE to teach their players to be respectful to the umpires. While I personally don't find it disrespectful to have a returning ball tossed to me, it is MORE courteous and respectful for a player to hand the ball to the umpire.

Regardless of whether it's tossed or handed to me, I make it a point to ALWAYS say "Thank you" to the person who returns it to me. And if it's a catcher or head coach, I use his first name when thanking him.

JM

[Eastshire]

It's been long enough since I've worked a game that I can't honestly remember when I shake my partner's hand, but I suspect it was as I left the field. It certainly never caused an issue.

I think the concern is overblown. I referee soccer. In soccer when the match is done, the three referees all congregate in the center circle and shake hands there before heading off the field. No one ever says anything about this because it's done that way all the time (and, let's not flatter ourselves, no one cares much how the officials leave the field, so long as they leave).