Mens Orthodox Fastpitch, I'm doing the game solo. R1, R3, outs don't matter, 2-1 count on batter.

R1 is off with the pitch. Inside pitch coming straight at my eyes, batter swings, I hear the tick and look down to see the ball in the catchers glove. I signal strike and foul tip. Catcher looks back at me and says "It hit the ground". I never saw the ball hit the ground and don't have a partner to check with. I give the catcher a little shrug and tell him that I thought he caught it thus foul tip, runner safe at second. Just then batter says, "Yea it did hit the ground". OK, good enough for me; I send the runner back to first.

Was nice to see.

Best example of sportsmanship I've seen was on the gridiron. Home team up by 40 or so after his 3rd or 4th string scored yet again. Time winding down, but visitors are shorthanded and exhausted. Tells me (HL) that if his team gets a first down, to call holding, and if the other team fails to get a first down, call facemask. After visitor finally scores, hometeam promptly returns the kickoff back for a TD - as I'm running by the coach he yells out that he had 12 men on the field.

I wouldnt do those calls for that coach. If he wants to tell his team not to defend on a play and let them score, thats on him.

Sportsmanship, as described in the first play (a batter being honest) is much different than having a coach whispering in your ear telling you which flag to throw. I hope you didnt oblige him! If a ref did that for me, I might think it was fun, but in the back of my mind I would think "what a weak ref".

See? Apparently not! :)

Some of the coaches I ump, once they are winning by more then the amount needed for the slaughter rule, they only lets their runners go one base, and do not run up the score.
There is still some Character out there.

He didn't want to tell his kids to quit playing (a good way to get hurt in football ... quit trying your hardest while the other team IS still trying) - but he didn't want to embarrass the other team any further. (It would probably have been more insulting for him to be downing the ball with 5 minutes to go, or punting on 1st down).

And yes - I dropped a flag on that touchdown, and we dropped a couple more before it finally ended. And I'm positive he wasn't thinking, "What a weak ref".

This same coach, in another game, was way ahead, and his kicker inadvertently kicked what ended up looking like an onside kick to his side of the field. His boys were about to recover and he started yelling at them - GET AWAY FROM IT!

Sportsmanship is not dead. I have one team who when they hit a batter, the pitcher immediately comes up to apologize and make sure the girl's ok. Might not work when she gets older, but her heart's in the right place (and this girl flat outclasses her peers at this age group).