The Joys of JV
 

(Bit of a rant thread here....indulge me) I worked a JV game between two inner-city schools. It was single-man, but at this level I don't mind. Not much happens....oh wait: yes it does! I made calls tonight for rules that I've never had to invoke in all my time umpiring.

• "Triple play" on a fly ball with the based loaded: Fly ball is caught, R3 is picked off at 3B for leaving before the ball was touched, and R1 rounds 2B and heads for third while R2 is slowly tagging up at 2. Never called a runner out for passing a lead runner before.
• Batter-runner interference on a D3K. She picked up the ball and handed it to F2. Never called that before.
• Batter interference on a play at the plate on a passed ball. Never called that before.
• BR advances to 3B on an infield hit followed by a poor catch attempt by F3. Ball gets away and rolls to RF. BR gets to 3B and decides she must have been out. Coach grabs her on her way to the dugout and sends her back to 3B. BR is out for coach's assistance...never called that before.
• F9 scoops up a ball with her hat: 3 base award for detached equipment. Never called that before.
• This one's on me, as I missed it at the plate meeting: Coach tries to sub #1 for #1. Duplicate numbers on the lineup card...had to fix it and give the coach a warning. Neither player was actually wearing #1. Never had that before.

We played 3 complete innings in 1 hour 45 minutes (local JV time limit). Home team won 23-14. Yuck.

Thanks for the laugh. I can visualize the game completely based on your description.

I might use those in a clinic or class. :rolleyes:

Of course a few of those are at least partly familiar. Must be my longer experience. :p :)

They should all be out from running the bases in reverse order :rolleyes:

....and you didn't have a partner to share all this joy with.....

I guess that's what I get when I contact the HS office for a last-minute assignment. My JC games up north yesterday were cancelled due to snow.

Also, my protective equipment earned its keep last night. Everywhere that had gear got hit, and I do mean everywhere. Luckily, I didn't get hit anywhere that there wasn't gear. :D

Well hopefully my schedule gets better, first 3 scheduled games are all JV. The first one was miserable, neither pitcher was even close to being legal and there was nothing they could do to get legal for the game. They simply were not pitchers and had been thrown out there with no instruction.

Hopefully todays wont be as bad as Mondays.

Which is why some JV games need coaches more than they need umpires.

Which is why
 

most JV and other lower, developmental games, need a LOT more coaches who are either much better at coaching, or much better at herding cats.:o

One of the coaches was a good coach, if a little too serious, given the talent he's been handed. I thought he was going to have a heart attack right there in the coaching box. It should be noted that he wasn't some A-hole berating his players, either. He was just frustrated that he would tell his players to do ONE THING, and on the next pitch, they would do everything but the ONE THING. Any parent knows exactly what he was going through. :D

Had a JV game years ago where the visiting team didnt have a coach till almost the beginning of the season. Poor kid they brought in as I think was a relief pitcher, pitched a ball that went over the backstop(cleared it by a few feet). Didn't help it was 40* that day.

Seriously, why do they waste money on umpires for some of these games.

Todays game, 1 hour to complete the first inning and it was all the visiting team batting, home teams sent only 3 batters to the plate. Completed the 3rd inning with 10 minutes left to go in the time limit and home coach said he had enough and didn't want to continue.

Final score, 30-0, 3 innings in 1 hour 35 minutes and up until the 3rd inning the home team had only sent 6 batters to bat. They did manage to get a walk and a base hit in the 3rd and finished the game having sent 11 to the plate.

Wednesdays game I had to keep asking the catcher to back off of the batter or she was going to get whacked in the back of the head. Todays game I couldn't get either catcher to get within 5' of the batters. Mondays game I was just waiting for the one first basemen to take a ball in the teeth. Every time she caught the ball she held the tip of the glove right under her chin and more or less used it as an aiming device for her glove. I'm pretty certain by the end of the season she is likely to be missing some teeth.

Because the girls are out there trying their best to learn the game. They could otherwise be out in the streets getting into trouble.

I had one of those games last year with one of our inner-city teams. It was brutal from my perspective as the PU, but I just grinned and beared it. During the game, a fight broke out in the stands between two girls who were watching. It got ugly fast, and parents from both teams went over to break things up. Some of the players looked on in shock. It was pretty sad to see.

Wow....this makes me feel a lot better about the level of play around here. Even most of our middle school games are better than some of those described.
Heck, you'll have games where 1/2-3/4 of the kids on both sides have travel team batting helmets, bat bags, etc. Had one of those, and it was 1-0, great pitching, both teams infielders made spectacular plays, and we were out of there in an hour...for 7 full.

Had a JV last year where the coach had had food poisoning from the night before, and she only had 8 to start. The other team took it easy on them; they would score 5 in an inning, then ease up (lefties batting right, etc), or the coach would have base runners step off early to get an out, and so on. They got their 15 run lead in the 5th, got the other team out, and we went home. I always consider when a coach does that as an act of sportsmanship. :cool:

You may consider it an act of sportsmanship, but there are some (losing) coaches that consider it being "shown up". Their attitude is that they don't want the winning team to give them outs, they want their kids to fight through and earn the outs. I have seen heated discussions from one dugout to the other when these tactics are used.