NHFS Survey
 

I received a survey from NHFS today and I'll bet a lot of you doing HS ball haven't gotten this. They want our input as officials so please take the time and fill it out.

NFHS | NFHS Sport Questionnaires

Regards,
Ozzy

Some good "Would you like to see rules on the following..." sections, too. Maybe, just maybe, they'll drop the immediate dead ball on balks.

Did it yesterday. I wish they had a comments section so we could be qualitative as to why certain rules are good or not good, or so we could suggest having officials being involved on the rules committee.

I strongly agreed with all changes that would bring FED in line with OBR.

Hopefully we're not the only two.

I don't know what changes you are referring to, but most Fed games are played by students that are not that athletically gifted.

I think you could tweak a few rules to see if it makes a difference.

The problem is OBR, or professional baseball, becomes a monkey see, monkey situation with several players.

Me too (number 3)

I'm happy with HS balks exactly the way they are and would be thrilled if NCAA/OBR killed the ball exactly the same. I'll make sure to fill out the questionnaire that way if that's a question.

I'll bite.

You enjoy penalizing the offense for a defensive mistake? What about the OBR/NCAA rule do you not like?

There's at least three.

Four

It's not penalizing anyone. The rule is consistent -- the batter is hitting a dead ball, not a pitch.

I just don't think it's that important. Everyone acts as though OBR is perfect and NFHS is flawed and for half a century all balks in OBR (until the mid-1950s) were immediately dead.

I call HS games, college games, and games under OBR and I just don't see why it's important to bring all the codes in line with each other. I'll simply call what the NFHS and my state tells me to call and not really care one way or the other.

Not athletically gifted? I don't know if you umpired for the Special Olympics or something, but the HS ball out this way is the breeding ground for the pros. I have umpired for a couple dozen players that at least made it to the major league level. Most FED games here feature very skilled athletes. Some of our JV teams are better than many varsity squads in some other areas. Just the way it is.

Did you even fill out the survey? You would know what rules I was talking about if you had.

I wonder if the guy who hits a home run after you call that balk would agree with you.

Not athletically gifted? I don't know if you umpired for the Special Olympics or something, but the HS ball out this way is the breeding ground for the pros. I have umpired for a couple dozen players that at least made it to the major league level. Most FED games here feature very skilled athletes. Some of our JV teams are better than many varsity squads in some other areas. Just the way it is.

It's not that way here. I have had one player get to MLB in 34 years of umpiring.