It happened again last night......

[IRISHMAFIA]

Felt like working some ball last night, so I went out and worked the bases in a fall-league quarter-final of a one-game elimination playoff.

I'm innocently standing off F4's shoulder with a runner on 1B and one out in the bottom half of the sixth.

Since this was a SP game, the only thing I have to do prior to the ball being put into play is watch the runner on 1B. Well, sure enough as the pitcher stepped onto the pitcher's plate and gets set to pitch, the runner steps back off of the base. I'm damn near in shock that this is happening to me twice in the same season.

As the pitcher begins to pitch, the runner is still off the base by about 2' and being as anal as I am, I kill the play and call no pitch. That's just about the time the ball went flying over my head into the RC gap.

Of course, all the standard lines came to surface. "How can you make a call like that?", "Nobody calls that in a playoff game?", "How can you make that call in a game of this importance", etc.

Thank God that team came back from a deficit to win the game in the bottom of the 7th. If not, I'm sure the loss would have been my fault. Forget the 7 infield errors and the 4 dropped balls (and I mean dropped, not missed) in the outfield. And did I happen to mention the walks given up(approx. 8-9) and the more than 20 illegal pitches called on that team's pitcher?

BTW, even after the game was won, they continued to argue the call

You just gotta love this game!

[mo99]

I always get a kick out of that Mike.No matter how poor the play is on the field(errors,walks,base-running blunders,bad coaching,etc)we as umpires are responsible,in their minds,for the outcome of the game.Sounds like a good call to me,the importance of the game, as they say,is irrelevant to us as umpires.Like you said,"you just gotta love this game".

Jeff

[Steve M]

Mike,
At this time of year, I'd probably gladly do one of those games - even with the idiots. And now that Ed's back, we just might hear about some other AA's.

The next time I'm anywhere near being on a field will probably be January in State College.

Steve M

[argodad]

One of my regular partners and I use the same line after most games. As we walk off the field, BU turns to PU and says, "Sounds like you lost another one, partner."

Larry

[pob14]

Uh, really, man, you have to take ALL your pills.

Dongguy . . . never heard a more appropriate handle.

ETA: Oh, yeah, is this guy's IP address logged? Because he just committed a Class A misdemeanor in MY state, and I bet elsewhere too.

[CecilOne]

Originally posted by pob14
Uh, really, man, you have to take ALL your pills.

Dongguy . . . never heard a more appropriate handle.

ETA: Oh, yeah, is this guy's IP address logged? Because he just committed a Class A misdemeanor in MY state, and I bet elsewhere too.

How about not posting another flag higher than ours?

[CecilOne]

Hasn't anyone told Mike that you can't start a thread without saying things like mound, catcher interference, hands are part of the bat, appeal for ask, etc.? It's no fun this way.

[pob14]

How about not posting another flag higher than ours? [/B]

Huh?

From the Flag Code:

No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America.

That's how I got 'em.

And if you're implying that it's a crime to violate the Flag Code, you're wrong about that too.

[KentuckyBlue]

...but as a blue, you know I don't care if I'm ever popular. But first to the topic at hand.

A female in adult slow-pitch NSA co-ed had just slid into third base safely. I thought I saw her standing off the bag during the next pitch. She was down the line at me and I couldn't really tell if she wasn't heel-up against the bag for a pitch or two. But after the third pitch I was pretty sure she was off. I called time, went up the line and told her gently that she should be on the bag. (Kinder gentler me. Usually I just ring them up, but this league was mellower, less-skilled players, I wasn't totally sure about her violation, and the particular game was lopsidedly out of reach anyway -- all reasons arguing against a dramatic ring-up.)

So anyway, she inexplicably gets angry at me as she is finally batted home. When she crosses the plate she tosses back at me that she couldn't stand on the bag because she had injured her leg when she slid into third. I could just gape at the ignorance of such a crushingly illogical statement. So I let it go, then the next thing I know during the next batter the scorer tells me that she's flipping me the old table-for-one from the dugout. I kept myself from tossing her by reminding myself that I didn't see it. Served me right for not ringing her up when I had the chance.

I've never shied away from stopping the game and calling a base runner out for leaving too soon. It ALWAYS causes a crapstorm. And it often happens during a crucial moment of the game. And as our cousins in the basketball stripes will remind us, you have to call to the same standards at the crucial moment that you used with the game in its first minute. But if you've caught the runner and everyone knows it, you earn instant respect all through the rest of the game -- no one will pull anything on you after you make that call stick because they decide you're God's own eyeballs.

Okay, now for the unpopular opinion: I know all about vexilology and what it signifies. The American flag is bigger than the errors of those who display it badly, and the concept the flag stands for is far bigger than the flag itself. I think people who dither about little points of flag display or other aspects of patriotism are acting pretty tinhorn. This is grating on me right now because last week at the Kentucky football game I was near a man standing with his daughter, and he was still finishing up a cell phone conversation when the National Anthem started. Some beer-soaked touch-hole in the row behind him got all puffed up at him for failing to respect America, as he (blearily) saw it. Okay, cellphones are everywhere and obnoxious, and it wasn't the dad's finest moment. But if some Miller-time yahoo had embarrassed me like that in front of my daughter, he'd have spent the first quarter scrambling over that section of the bleachers hoping to reassemble his full set of teeth. (Or the 22 teeth of the average Kentucky football fan, anyway.) Two-bit Fox-network patriotic blather gives me the fantods. Jerks who think they're good Americans because their tricolor bumper sticker validates their racism are embarrassments to their country and the real patriots who fought and died for them. And Lee Greenwood is a no-talent hack who has ridden one treacly, embarrassing song to an undeserved career since the mid-1970s. Now I feel better. Have at me, Rush legions.

[Dakota]

You don't have to be a Rush legion to disagree with those last 7 breathtakingly ignorant, warped, twisted, jaundiced, and embittered sentences. Take it elsewhere, please.

[Elaine "Lady Blue"]

Guys, guys, guys!

We are umpires, and as umpires our jobs are to call OUTs and STRIKES, not help a female Coed player. Off the bag, call her out, not whisper to her to get on the bag!
You know you can't help AAs, they are a breed to themselves!

Mike, you need to take more meds if you feel bad about that call!

hahahahahaha! No more AAs for me!

.......and where is my Ed?

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally posted by Elaine "Lady Blue"


Mike, you need to take more meds if you feel bad about that call

You must be mistaking me for someone else. I don't feel bad about making the right call.

[ChampaignBlue]

KB, you're not alone in the belief that the "spirit" of America is far more important than it's symbols or icons. I say this only to balance the view of another, not to turn this into a debate. Play Ball!!!!

[CecilOne]

Obviously, it is more important. But if you give them an inch (off the base, or above the flag), they take a mile. But we have the right to be "ignorant, warped, twisted, jaundiced, and embittered" and say so in this country.

[CecilOne]

Originally posted by pob14

Huh?

From the Flag Code:

No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America.

That's how I got 'em.

And if you're implying that it's a crime to violate the Flag Code, you're wrong about that too. [/B]

Congress passed a joint resolution which was amended on December 22, 1942 to become Public Law 829; Chapter 806, 77th Congress, 2nd session. Exact rules for use and display of the flag (36 U.S.C. 173-178) as well as associated sections (36 U.S.C. 171) Conduct during Playing of the National Anthem, (36 U.S.C. 172) the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and Manner of Delivery were included.