40-0!
 

While drying out after a one inning rainout I check my e-mail. I can't find a link, but a fellow broadcaster tells me Pierce County (Ga.) defeated Savannah 40-0 in three innings. He said Pierce had batters go one base at a time, even had right handed batters bat left handed. There were so many walks and errors, everyone played. Some runners obviously got into a rundown to get an out.

What is your worst game?

37-0, 9th grade girls softball. 3 innings, almost 2 hours.

I distinctly remember two things from the game:
1) a pop fly to F9. She didn't even have to take a step. All she had to do was reach her glove out and catch the ball. She did, the ball bounced out of her glove and onto the ground.

2) the team that got beat actually turned a triple play in the 2nd inning: First batter was HBP, 2nd batter reached on and F6, and 3rd batter hit into a triple play on the first pitch.

Two seasons ago.... D-3 game, game 2 of a DH.... 21-17 in 3:47..... Lots of action on the bases (no defense)!

I honestly cannot remember the worst game I've ever umpired. There have been plenty of them, and I try to forget them as soon as I walk off the field.

That said, if I had to pick a level of play where I've seen the biggest gap in talent between teams (leading to these kinds of blowouts), it's JV Girls Softball. Around here, the better schools have a JV team that would give some schools' varsity teams a run for their money. So when they play those schools' JV squads, the games get ugly quick.

I recall some JV games when I started umpiring softball that never got past the second inning before we reached the time limit (yes, our JV softball games are time limited for this very reason).

I had one of those blowouts once. The winning coach asked me (privately) what he could do to put an end to the madness without insulting the other team by striking out on purpose or other similar stuff. I told him to have every batter try and hit a one-hopper to the second baseman (and not try and beat it out). It didn't always work - like when F4 tried to get the lead runner at 3rd - but eventually they got the outs.

Have a strike zone from hell for the winning team.

Even worse
 

I had to watch my son's JV game...30-0
Killed me that the senior umpire on the bases did nothing for the first year behind the dish....this guy was calling major league zone....eeeesh...plus it was typical Seattle weather- 40 degrees and windy...
Bit my tounge....

About 15 years ago as a 1st year teacher, I was given the assignment of coaching the girls slow-pitch softball team. The school hadn't had a team in 4 or 5 years. I had 16 girls show up for try-outs the 1st day; one took a fly ball off the nose and another took a ground ball off the eye...I only had 14 show up on day 2 of try-outs.

Long story short, I ended up with no juniors or seniors on the team. I started 4 7th graders and 3 8th graders. We opened the season against a team that had won 2 of the last 3 state championships. We lost game 1 45-0...and it was the first of a double-header lol. We actually played much better after the nervousness of the 1st game and tied them 5-5 in game 2, but I'll never forget the epic beating of that day!

Heck, that's good. I would've expected only 4 or 5 of them showing up after those two injuries! :p

Great stories!

The rainout had all the ingredients for such a blowout. The home team had beaten a weaker team 18-0 Friday, and the visiting team lost Friday 21-0.

Top of the first saw a strikeout and a single. Then the third batter struck out with the ball hitting the dirt. First base was occupied, sort of. The batter-runner decided to run to first anyway and the catcher threw to first, catching R1 spectating a few feet from the bag! After tagging him out, F3 stepped on the bag before BR touched first, but I don't think it mattered. After the first run scored in the bottom of the first, the rain and lightning came. I'm not sure I should have been disappointed in a rainout or relieved to not broadcast a lopsided game.

I like it when the coach of the team that is winning has the girls leave the base early so they are called out. It is quick, doesn't ruin anybody's stats, and doesn't appear to make a mockery of the game.

Just had a 19-0 mercy game on Sat. Hm team up to bat with one out remaining and then the Vis. got their last chance. Pitch comes in on the ground 2ft outside zone. I call strike and batter say's "that was kind of wide blue", I say, "then your probably not going to like the next strike either, swing the bat please". He does and strikes out.

I tell him at the end of the inning that I knew that was his third trip to the plate that inning and we needed to move the game along. He turns around, looks at me and says " Im cool with that Blue".

Sometimes you just have to umpire!

JUCO game home team is up 14-2 in a scheduled nine inning. When we finish top of seven we are done. VT puts up a 14 spot in the top of the seventh.

Let me guess, the 7th inning went over an hour?

While I agree with your statement, I don't think that what you did (if accurately described) should be called "umpiring."

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.

39-2, 5 innings. No 3 inning mercy rule in Missouri for baseball.

ô!ô
 

When scores get into the "silly" situation the umpire must recognize that he is part of the problem.

We have talked about this many times on umpire boards.

Know how to control your game.

T

Classic nice guys finish last story ...

High school JV games where I'm from start no inning after 1:45 (or at least they're not supposed to). Working the plate on a nice Saturday afternoon for a JV doubleheader. 1st game goes without incident. Second game is 16-2 after 4 for the home team, and the time limit had run out. Visiting coach asks if we can play it out, being it's a nice Saturday and he wants his kids to get a couple more swings in .. chances are that it's over after the 1/2 inning anyway. I ask the home coach if he's ok with that (Yes, I know I shouldn't have done that) and he said that was fine (as he wanted to get his pitcher some more work). Visiting team scores 6 in the top of the 5th and comes back to win 21-17 in 3:15 for a 7 inning game. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY !!! :mad::mad::mad:

city championships 48-3 after 3 innings, it was scheduled to go minimum 6 innings but time ran out long before six innings.

It was 28-0 after 1 inning, 42 -1 after two. Biggest strikezone you could imagine after the first inning.