A Surprise Compliment

[whiskers_ump]

In Lake Charles, McNeese St. U hosted tournament of 18U Gold teams.

Really a simple call, but one that I guess neither team expected.

Championship game, three man crew. I am on the plate. 0-0
in 5th inning. Runner on 2B, two outs. 2-2 count on the batter.
Left handed batter at the plate. Ball comes in close, batter jerks back
ball tips the bat handle, going straight to catchers mitt. I signal
tipped ball and ring batter out. Offense coaches, one from 1st and 3rd start
towards plate area. 1St base umpire catches 1st base coach allowing
the 3rd base coach to continue towards me. He gets about 1/2 way in, when
the teams manager tells him, he will handle this. He slowly approaches
me, sticks his hand out, and says, "Blue, that was a major league call." "I
will handle my coaches." I really don't know what the two coaches could have
had on their minds. Defensive coach also tells me it was a great call.

[azbigdawg]

I wasnt even there, and I like the call....

[CecilOne]

Of course, WE know that wasn't the only time you were that good.

[FUBLUE]

Excellent call. Took serious guts to make the call, but manager knew you were right. Great job.

Had one yesterday at a 18U "Season-ending" tourney. Inside pitch, batter pulling away, ball hits very knob of bat, rolls foul for strike two. Third base coach looks at batter (whose just standing there laughing) and before he could say anything batter taps knob of bat with her hand. He walks away. Manager yells out of dugout, but before I could explain anything, batter says "it hit the bat."

Then, "good call blue" comes from the dugout.

[Skahtboi]

Originally posted by FUBLUE
Took serious guts to make the call...

Not meaning to offend or anything here, but I disagree with this comment. It was the correct call, and was the only one that he could make. That is what we get paid the big bucks for!

[FUBLUE]

No offense taken...but you mistook what I meant.

Serious guts meant that he could have gotten away with "the easy call" but chose to make "the right call" instead. I've seen guys take the easy way, and no one says a thing. I watched a guy do it this weekend...looking for an out. No one argued until he opened his mouth to explain the rule. Too bad for him, he had it sold.

Guts meant "the right call" in my book.

[Dakota]

Congratulations, Glen, but the real story here, it seems to me, is a coach who knows the rules, knows a good call when he sees it, and immediately steps in to quiet his less well-informed base coaches.

[whiskers_ump]

Tom,

I totally agree. This guy said the statement loud enough for
his fans and coaches to heard him. I have called several games
where this team was a participant. The guy knows softball and
can and does come down hard on umpires when mistakes are made.
In all the games I have been involved in with his team playing
I have never seen him yell out his remarks. He always comes to
you and lets you know what and how he saw the situation. His
action did make things earlier the rest of the game. Which
BTW went
two ITB's. (His team won by a really bad timing play by the opponent.

[CecilOne]

Originally posted by FUBLUE
No offense taken...but you mistook what I meant.

Serious guts meant that he could have gotten away with "the easy call" but chose to make "the right call" instead. I've seen guys take the easy way, and no one says a thing. I watched a guy do it this weekend...looking for an out. No one argued until he opened his mouth to explain the rule. Too bad for him, he had it sold.

Guts meant "the right call" in my book.

What are you suggesting would be "the easy call" in this case?

[FUBLUE]

Not saying I've seen this (but I have):

In this situation I have seen "blues" call hit batter.

In similar situations (ball ends up rolling foul), I've seen blue call "foul ball"

I've seen batter have similar thing happen, hesitate, and then shake hands like it hit her. Blue says, "take your base." (Brilliant on her part).

I've seen blue say "did it hit you?" Batter: "no". Blue: "foul ball"