Check your balls

[BillyMac]

Used a girls ball for the first half of a Catholic middle school boys game, first game of a boys/girls doubleheader, last year. I was the umpire. Site director brought it to our attention at halftime when he couldn't find the girls game ball.

[fullor30]

Wow! I can't believe they didn't catch this. For me, I notice the difference immediately, more in weight as opposed to circumference. Any repercussions coming to crew on this one? I'm guessing yes....... Officials: Mike Sanzere, Ray Perone, Eric Curry


Could game be played under protest? No advantage either way.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by fullor30

Wow! I can't believe they didn't catch this. For me, I notice the difference immediately, more in weight as opposed to circumference. Any repercussions coming to crew on this one? I'm guessing yes....... Officials: Mike Sanzere, Ray Perone, Eric Curry


Could game be played under protest? No advantage either way.

I had an assigner tell me a story about how he had gone most of the first half of a women's college game with the men's ball. During a free throw, the shooter looked at it, then looked at him and said it was the wrong ball.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by fullor30

Wow! I can't believe they didn't catch this. For me, I notice the difference immediately, more in weight as opposed to circumference. Any repercussions coming to crew on this one? I'm guessing yes....... Officials: Mike Sanzere, Ray Perone, Eric Curry

How many girl's basketball games do you work compared to all three of these official? I bet you work more girl's basketball games than they do as they are D1 Men's officials which eliminate their possibility to work woman's basketball for the most part. I am sure they probably do not even touch or see a woman's basketball most of the time. I am not on that level and I hardly see that smaller basketball so when I see it I have to pay attention. Some of the woman's basketballs have a marking of the size and that can be noticed easily, but all do not have the markings or they didn't at one point.

Peace

[Adam]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

How many girl's basketball games do you work compared to all three of these official? I bet you work more girl's basketball games than they do as they are D1 Men's officials which eliminate their possibility to work woman's basketball for the most part. I am sure they probably do not even touch or see a woman's basketball most of the time. I am not on that level and I hardly see that smaller basketball so when I see it I have to pay attention. Some of the woman's basketballs have a marking of the size and that can be noticed easily, but all do not have the markings or they didn't at one point.

Peace

If it doesn't say 28.5, don't use it.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

If it doesn't say 28.5, don't use it.

Do you mean if it says that don't use it?

Peace

[Adam]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Do you mean if it says that don't use it?

Peace

LOL, yeah. I was thinking of the opposite problem.

[mj]

It happened to me 10+ years ago. Played about a quarter with a guy's ball in a girl's game. I was T and the girl dribbled up the court saying "this is a guy's ball." We switched it right away. The JV officials played the entire game with the one we were using and no one noticed.

Now I check for 28.5 on the ball when doing a girl's game.

[fullor30]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

How many girl's basketball games do you work compared to all three of these official? I bet you work more girl's basketball games than they do as they are D1 Men's officials which eliminate their possibility to work woman's basketball for the most part. I am sure they probably do not even touch or see a woman's basketball most of the time. I am not on that level and I hardly see that smaller basketball so when I see it I have to pay attention. Some of the woman's basketballs have a marking of the size and that can be noticed easily, but all do not have the markings or they didn't at one point.

Peace

Point well taken, I have about an equal schedule plus I do a fair amount of kids games. Still, they should have caught this. I promise you it will never happen to that crew again.

I never understood doing 5-6 grade boys games why they play with men's ball.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by fullor30

Point well taken, I have about an equal schedule plus I do a fair amount of kids games. Still, they should have caught this. I promise you it will never happen to that crew again.

I never understood doing 5-6 grade boys games why they play with men's ball.

Growing up in Iowa, we used the 28.5 ball through middle school.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by fullor30

Point well taken, I have about an equal schedule plus I do a fair amount of kids games. Still, they should have caught this. I promise you it will never happen to that crew again.

I never understood doing 5-6 grade boys games why they play with men's ball.

I was not exonerating them totally. It should have been noticed as well as they should never have been given that ball in the first place by the school. Just saying it is not that noticeable if you never touch or see that ball.

I had this happen once in my career as well and I was working both sides on some level and we had a boy's ball on a girl's game. We played for few minutes with a boy's basketball and I even said, "This seems like a boy's basketball" but I was told that was the girl's ball. So we went with it until someone checked again and we figured it out. And this was before the markings on the girl’s basketball were more common. Schools should never put officials in that situation in the first place. The last thing we should have to worry about, are we playing with the regulation basketball.

Peace

[Mark Padgett]

How's this for confusing? Two of the MS rec leagues I work use different sizes for 6th grade boys. One uses the 28.5 and the other uses the 30. Sometimes I get those different games on consecutive nights or maybe a few hours apart on a Saturday. Sometimes I have to check my copy of the rules to remember which ball to use for those games. Once last season, I asked my partner prior to a game and he just shrugged. It wasn't that he necessarily didn't know, he just didn't care.

At my age, anything that challenges my memory just adds to the general confusion in my so-called brain.

[Cobra]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

How's this for confusing? Two of the MS rec leagues I work use different sizes for 6th grade boys. One uses the 28.5 and the other uses the 30.

That really is confusing considering the normal size for a ball is 29.5.

[so cal lurker]

Originally Posted by fullor30

I never understood doing 5-6 grade boys games why they play with men's ball.

I lost my battle to get the local 8-10 yr old league to stop using the men's ball ...

[Overnbach]

Guilty as charged.

I was clock operator in a league tournament. Alternating varsity boys' and girls' games. After a couple of minutes in the second half of a boys' game, one of the officials came over to the table with the ball, and said, calmly, "Do you have another ball back there. This one doesn't seem to have enough air in it." He handed us the girls' ball, and we gave him the other one...which happened to be a boys' ball. I don't know that anyone, other than him, knew what was the problem.

I always thought that official was one of the best, and his handling of this problem reinforced my opinion.