Yeah, maybe he should have said, Sometimes you need to stop umpiring. I have stopped umpiring long enough to tell ***-kickers, that "big lead means BIG KZ". I even called a strike like the one JC described when ***-kickers kept stealing 2B. I ain't proud of it, but sometimes you've got to stop umpiring if you wanna get home before the rooster crows.

Not me. These kinds of games are going to happen to all of us; it's just the nature of the beast. And I think it's wrong for us to take things into our own hands and purposely make outrageous calls to "get home".

Border pitches and bangers going in favor of the team getting pummelled is one thing. But calling strikes and outs that are blatantly and obviously wrong? Not a good practice. But that's just me.

So your border line/banger calls are going for the team that is getting pummelled, not called by whether the play was a true safe/out. So you're disregarding the true rules also, your just nit-picking on the degree of it.

As I said, I ain't proud of it. Whenever I've had to resort to such tactics, I've never got any complaints...quite the contrary.

Thats fine Bob, were all entitled to our opinion and I kind of expected someone would comment about it. However, I am well respected within my community for my officiating and although it may not fit into everyone's standard on this forum, life will go on.

Thank you for your comments.

I have come full circle on this. I am back to calling the game and letting the teams decide how and when to "shorten" the game when it gets out of hand.

I never said that I personally call borderline stuff in favor of the losing team. My point--as poorly as I made it with my post--was that for those who feel they need to take action to stem the bleeding, they can usually cover themselves adequately by not being so obvious about it.

You also have to be careful when you do this. I umpire a lot of girls fast-pitch softball, and they have a rule that calls for an out when a base runner leaves her base before the pitcher releases the pitch. Some coaches, when they are on the positive side of a blowout, will instruct their runners to intentionally leave early to end innings sooner. On a couple of occasions, I've seen the opposing coaches get p-o'ed when this happens, yelling that they don't need any charity.

I can understand that but, sometimes understanding the fine line between procasting a game for the sake of purety and letting it continue to possible unsportsmanlike conduct, requires preventive officiating.

Making a mockery of the game, I agree is totally different.

I'll admit, I do change on occasion when it's ridiculously out of hand, but only on the margins. If it's 20-0 in the 4th inning, the team that's ahead gets a slightly larger zone. The knee pitch becomes top of the shin, the bellybutton top of the zone might become bottom of the sternum. Outside corner might become one ball out. But nothing more than that. Pitches in the dirt are still getting balled, pitches above the hands (in a 'normal' stance) are still balls. I can't really do it on base, simply because I just can't think that fast.

The right thing to do? I dunno. I think so but I see both sides. Just being honest on what it sometimes takes to make it thru the day.

So, you don't do it, you only condone it, as long as they're sneaky enough to not be detected, oh, that's different. I understand that we don't want to embarass a beaten team anymore then they've already been beaten. But every game is different and if you need an out, you need an out.

Not sure I agree with you here. We've all been there, and we know what we're doing when we do it. But he's "taking things into his own hands" when he calls that pitch 2 feet outside a strike... but you're doing the exact same thing if you call a banger incorrectly on purpose. It's just a matter of degree, and your judgement as to where that line is on that day is no more valid than his judgement in his game.

Most teams handle this themselves and call off the dogs. When they don't, I'm not going to denigrate an umpire who does it for them.

I will confess to calling a phantom hold on 3 consecutive plays when an 8 year old football team was up by 50-something and still running up the score with their best player taking every handoff (crap, the middle play of those 3 was a double reverse!). After the 3rd hold, thickheaded coach finally got the point and at least started getting other players into the action. They still scored a few more times, but at least they got tackled once in a while.

When I "open up" my zone, it gets opened up for both teams. To do otherwise is to open yourself up to accusations of cheating.

Who is gonna do the accusing the team that's up by 20 or the team that's down by 20?

Funniest story I heard, "batter, you're getting at most, 4 pitches and 3 of em are going to be strikes".

If the object is to end the game as quickly as possible, why not just announce that every batter will only get three pitches?

Believe me if I could do that I would. The level of play this year is very disproportional here. I realize we should stay professional and unbias at all times however, 10 out of 22 games this year have been mercy rule games.

The game I called ridiculous strikes in had the other team down 16 runs , still stealing bases and smart-as comments are being generated by the losing team because they didn't want to be there anymore. I am not saying that I should care about the talent on the field because I am being paid to officiate reguardless. However at some point we our the one's stuck with the mess created by the Athletic Systems that want the kids to be involved with activities but, spend little time considering level of play and trying to make it competitive.

Yes the coaches care, but they can't play the game for the kids and have to spend more time being a psychologist rather than a coach.

So, as I said before "sometimes you just have to umpire".

My worst game was actually two, about a dozen years ago.

Both games were 2-0 for the home team, and first pitch of game 1 to last pitch of game 2 was three hours even. The check bounced, and we never did get paid.