First Night....

[CDcoach]

Well I stepped into the umpire's shoes tonight. Had a double header with 9-10 year olds.

It all went pretty smooth. Coaches told me that I was the best they had this year.

They did question me calling as many balks as I did. Told them they couldn't yell "SWING" in the field (I'm assuming that's a league rule...don't think that's mentioned in any rule book ). And of course a few close calls that all coaches think they have a better angle on. The rest of it was due to me having a 14 yr old in the field who was tenative to do ANYTHING.

The balks I called were because pitchers came set and turned thier shoulders...constantly!

Also about this new ump. He wouldn't help me on anything. Run-downs...he would not take half of the play, so I ended up running back and forth...got tiring. One time I even had to run down to third base from PU and chase it between 2nd and third. That was pretty ugly.

And here is my question after my first night...
Top of 2nd inning 2 outs. Count is 2-2 pitched strike but catcher from my view looked like he trapped it. So F2 throws down to first, inning over. No big deal. After the game the board member on duty just asked about it. I said I had a bad view an that's a tough call. If you have a hard time seeing it how do you handle it?