Tale of a Drafted Clock Operator.....

[Nevadaref]

I've kept the book and clock for our state tournament. It is definitely an eye-opening experience. Every official should have to do it.
It gives you a much deeper appreciation of your table crew.
It also impresses upon you how important it is to give clear and crisp signals to the table.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

I've kept the book and clock for our state tournament. It is definitely an eye-opening experience. Every official should have to do it.
It gives you a much deeper appreciation of your table crew.
It also impresses upon you how important it is to give clear and crisp signals to the table.

Completely concur Nevada! It ain't easy at "the big time" and I've done a lot of Rec games! It was more hectic than I thought as there was many four and five man substitutions. I was ok by the end of game two but need to concenrate more on my job.

I noticed the two handed college mechanics used sometime. Specific ways the refs chopped the clock. Different angles. Making eye contact with the officials/scorer while inbounding the ball. Those kids run onto the floor before the buzzer or a whistle. "Hey son, tuck that shirt in" (hey, I can help). But most importantly, reporting to the scorer so they can see/hear. "Foul, 0, hold". Buzzzz! "There is no 0!" "Oh, ok, that's 10!"

[SethPDX]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

I've kept the book and clock for our state tournament. It is definitely an eye-opening experience. Every official should have to do it.
It gives you a much deeper appreciation of your table crew.
It also impresses upon you how important it is to give clear and crisp signals to the table.

I've sneaked a peek at the book when I've gone to my alma mater's D1 games. I gotta give the scorer credit--that's a ton of stuff to keep track of.

Most baseball umpires, unfortunately, do not even read the scoring rule in the back of the rulebook and could care less how to keep score. (But I have--I keep score for fun at the pro games I go to.)

[Juulie Downs]

I've done the clock a few times and I'm horrible at it. I suppose that if I finally learned to watch off-ball, which I did, I could learn to concentrate on the game from the clock perspective. But it would definitely take some learning!!

[Back In The Saddle]

One of the side-effects of being born into an officiating family is that I was keeping score and running clock at church basketball games since I was about 10 years old. But I don't do it very often any more. And when I do, it's a lot more challenging now that it was at 10.

[grunewar]

Another benefit of keeping the clock was my ability to watch and listen to the coaches from up close - in the box, out of the box, trying to get a call, asking questions, chatting, etc. and then watch how the refs handled it.

At one point H JV Coach yells all the way across the floor - "Five seconds, five seconds!" Tweet. Ref calls it! Coach turns to his bench and mutters under his breath, "Man, am I going to have to call the whole game?"

Interesting perspective sitting right there......

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by grunewar

Another benefit of keeping the clock was my ability to watch and listen to the coaches from up close - in the box, out of the box, trying to get a call, asking questions, chatting, etc. and then watch how the refs handled it.

At one point H JV Coach yells all the way across the floor - "Five seconds, five seconds!" Tweet. Ref calls it! Coach turns to his bench and mutters under his breath, "Man, am I going to have to call the whole game?"

That's why I refuse to make any call that a coach is clamoring about.

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

That's why I refuse to make any call that a coach is clamoring about.

I have just officially adopted this policy as of tonight. Oh my heavens. Had my local HS JV coach again tonight, on the road this time. This guy spends more time begging for calls than he does coaching his team. His single most oft requested call?

Three seconds.

He was at it all game long. With 3.8 seconds left in the game, one of his kids asked me to watch the three seconds. The other team was still in the backcourt running out the clock. I'm not making this up. 3.8 seconds left, and he's got his players begging for three second calls.

I WILL NOT EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, NO MATTER HOW OUTRAGEOUS, EVER EVER EVER CALL THREE SECONDS IN ANY GAME HE IS COACHING. PERIOD.

Unless one of his kid goes camping.

[archangel]

Originally Posted by grunewar

Another benefit of keeping the clock was my ability to watch and listen to the coaches from up close - in the box, out of the box, trying to get a call, asking questions, chatting, etc. and then watch how the refs handled it.
At one point H JV Coach yells all the way across the floor - "Five seconds, five seconds!" Tweet. Ref calls it! Coach turns to his bench and mutters under his breath, "Man, am I going to have to call the whole game?"
Interesting perspective sitting right there......

Coaches can "think" what they want, but many are too smug and think because they yell out an uncalled violation, then the official "wakes up" and calls it--when its mainly a timing of the whistle issue.....

[Raymond]

I kept the book for softball when I was 12 until my senior year in HS. I did the book and/or clock (sometimes both) for military basketball games (Travis AFB) my senior in HS up to the point I joined the military 6 months after graduation.

Probably why now I interact a lot with the table crew during my games. Probably why I'm also quick to recognize mistakes made by the table.

[archangel]

Originally Posted by SethPDX

Most baseball umpires, unfortunately, do not even read the scoring rule in the back of the rulebook and could care less how to keep score.

Examples please, on what you think is unfortunate. I also do baseball, and when I ask the scorekeeper what the score is, and they say 6-3, what else do I need to know?