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Quote:

Originally Posted by ozzy6900 (Post 861093)

Rule Myths

3. If the batter breaks his wrists when swinging, it’s a strike.
This could be one of the criterion in which you judge if he swung or not. The best statement you can make when asked about a check swing is that he attempted or did not attempt to swing at the pitch. Other criterion might be that the barrel of the bat goes past the middle of the batter’s body or not. One other criterion might be that the bat crossed the middle of the plate.
Most veterans do not use any physical point (wrists, bat, hips). We simply determine if the batter offered at the pitch.

Thanks, Ozzy. This is great specific feedback.

Everybody keeps accusing us of copying and pasting material on the site...we wrote everything except these "Rule Myths."

This is something that can be found in several places on the internet, but with your help maybe we can have a version on our site that is actually accurate.

Thanks again for your feedback. (Edit) you actually took the time to help us out, and you did something that will be useful to rookie umps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jicecone (Post 861100)

Heres my Feedback

Right off the bat, I can see this site is more about making a buck, (which is fine), then having a new creative approach to grab umpires intrests. Kind of like walking into a new resturant that was cheaply designed and constructed, then serving a just ok meal. You will probabbly not get a lot of return customers.

First of all , lose the whistle, it not used in Baseball.

Next, it is obvious that just about everything is copied from other sites and the ingenuity of a new website just doesn't do much for me. Google.com is more helpful.

As already suggested and is obivious, this site was NOT well planned, and probably took more time to put together than the time used to plan and test it. And I personnally know that what I see, was not that difficult to establish in web development, now days.

You might want to try and capture a more limited audience first and expand from there. Twenty years ago you probably would have had something usefull but, that was twenty years ago.

I can relate to the fact that due to high unemployment, there are some REALLY ingenious ideas out there to make some easy money. I could be wrong however, I just don't see this site as being one.

Keep trying though.

Jicecone, thanks for your feedback. We appreciate you taking the time to help us out.

First of all, regarding the whistle, our original intention was to continue building the site for officials of other sports (soccer, basketball, and hockey), but we started with baseball because contrary to popular opinion we actually do have some experience in this sport. But all the same, I think we will lose the whistle.

With regard to the planning, we weren't sure what to do. The site did take us a lot of hours to put together. Originally, the navigation bar had something like 12 items in it and we decided to rearrange it.

Our "plan" was to write some content about camps and clinics, some content about the rule book, some about equipment, and mainly to focus on what non-umpires need to do to get started in the profession. We wanted to get feedback on that content before we spent a lot more time developing and organizing the site.

We haven't done any "testing" at all yet. When we posted on the forum, we were just trying to get feedback on what content would be useful to rookies and non-umps who want to get started. Now that we're getting that feedback, we'll be able to rearrange the site and plan it out a little better.

A lot of the people on these forums have misunderstood what we're trying to do. We're not trying to teach the pros. We're trying to help out non-umpires...good people who want to get started in the profession.

We're not trying to position ourselves as umpiring authorities...it's not like we're claiming we're MLB umps here. We have some experience in travel leagues, and that's the type of person we want to help. Think about a high school baseball player who wants to ump for a travel league, but he doesn't even know what to do to get started. That's who the site is for.

All we're asking on the forum is, what would be useful to that person. We're not trying to teach the old dogs new tricks or impress all the hot shots on the forum. We're just trying to get the young guys started.

Regarding "making a buck," we're hosting ads in the hope that they will pay for the cost of the site. It costs us about $100 a year in hosting and domain fees. We're just trying to recoup some of that. We're not trying to make a million dollars, and we're not stupid enough to think that this site is going to write anyone's meal ticket.

Thanks again for your feedback and your encouragement.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim C (Post 861036)

We sometimes see new people try this type journey.

This never works as no veteren wants have children teach down to them.

This site should hae been developed, off line, for at least a year.

It is sad that they have "borrowed" way to much information and I hope they have formal permission to use the items.

AND BLACK pants . . . you have got to be kidding me.

T

Hey Tim, just want to let you know that we are not trying to teach veterans.

We just want to help out rookies and non-umpires who want to get started in the profession.

We asked the veterans for help. We're not trying to impress you guys, we just wanted to know what you thought would be useful for rookies.

Regarding "borrowed content," there are only two things we didn't create ourselves. The Rule Myths is something you can find all over the internet. With some of the useful feedback we've gotten we might be able to rewrite those to be more accurate.

And obviously, we didn't film all of those videos. But the formal permission to use the videos is part of how YouTube works...it is in their Terms of Service. When you put a video on YouTube, other people are allowed to embed it on other websites unless you specify otherwise.

We're not claiming to own the copyright to those videos. We're just using good 'ol YouTube in one of the ways it was intended.

Quote:

Originally Posted by briancurtin (Post 861042)

Unless you own the videos you're posting on the site, you should probably take them down. There are many reasons why those specific videos shouldn't be used, but one is that they could disappear at any point, rendering your site less helpful.

Hey Brian, thanks for this feedback. This is something we will definitely have to keep an eye on.

Based on the feedback we've been getting so far, the videos might not be that useful to new umpires anyway, so we will definitely consider removing them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Umpmazza (Post 861126)

I am wondering what kind of schooling in baseball do they have?...

Just enough training to ump for a travel league. We're not claiming to be experts. We're just trying to get good people started in the profession.

Quote:

Originally Posted by refereeumpire76 (Post 861168)

Jicecone, thanks for your feedback. We appreciate you taking the time to help us out.

Thanks again for your feedback and your encouragement.

Best of Luck

Developing Web Sites is a tough business no matter what the subject. Being open and acknowleging constructive critique is a good start for any endeavor.

Again, Best of Luck.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich (Post 861164)

I thought it was 9-umpire mechanics. I remember his instructions on how to wear 3 ball bags as the base umpire, too.

I would not underestimate Lance: he might well have created BOTH.

The 13-umpire system uses one umpire for each defensive player for catch/no-catch, plus one at each base for safe/outs. The PU calls balls and strikes, while the umpire for F2 gets an angle for foul/foul tip.

That's my recollection, anyway. I'd like to see the system in print again to refresh my memory for the next time 6 extra crews show up at one of my games. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by maven (Post 861190)

Seems that one ump per player and one per base is superfluous, but maybe 10 ump system with a PU on both corners of the plate who confer after every pitch would get the pitches called correctly, by committee. Better yet, a 1 ump system should suffice, just pick out the best looking chick down the 1b or 3b lines and get a seat next to her and after every play or pitch ask, "what you think"?
:)