Wow, what an amazing week-end of softball. Locally we had good HS ball (25 inning, 37 strike-out performance by the winning pitcher), College conference tournament being played in our city. And then what I personnaly witnessed, softball tournament for possible advancement in summer travel championship (qualifier)...10 & under, bottom half of the inning in what is basically an extra innning as the clock has run out...two runners on base, batter has ball pitcher to her and it appears to have possibly hit her but with catcher reaching for it, batter doing a dance to get out of the way and the home plate umpire doing his dance, as he has been getting beat up pretty good for the whole game he fails to see it, batter prepares for next pitch, umpire is getting set for next pitch....batter then looks back and says..."that ball hit me....the umpire removes his mask and repeats to the batter "sweetie, did that ball hit you?" batter says "yes" and the the AMAZEMENT of all watching...he awards the batter first base ! I'm not here to "knock" my own kind, BUT, come'on "don't call what you don't see ! and for heavens sake don't ask the player....next thing you know somebody be asking the coach on the bucket if it was a strike ! Whewwwww, I feel better!

What dance did the umpire feel compelled to do? Maybe if he let his equipment do it's job, he'd have seen the contact.

That said ... I think we've all done this at 10U at some point. Those girls don't know to lie yet.

Please help me understand how bad he was getting beat up by the pitches from a 10 year old girl. ???? Unless that little girl was reall bringing it, I hope if this guy ever gets a HS game someone calls 911 in advance.

That 10 year old batter isn't crafty enough to lie to get on base. If she says it hit her, then guess what?

Ask ! ? ! ?
 

All other issues aside. INCLUDING AGE ! Why is an umpire ASKING a player or coach ANYTHING about a pitch ! Hey blue who asks a question , GET ANOTHER JOB ! Take surveys or something !

"That said ... I think we've all done this at 10U at some point." Don't include me in this. I'm in no way perfect, far from it....but I've never even asked an 8 year old anything about a pitch !

I'm not perfect either, and if I suspected a batter was hit, and tried to avoid, I am not going to rule out the possibility that I might ask her if it hit her. Actually - I would probably say, "Are you OK, where did that hit you?"

I reread your sitch - after being prompted by the batter, I'm probably not doing anything.

PS - at 10U, often the pitches are slow enough that if the batter did not avoid it, she did not TRY to avoid it, thus not getting the base anyway.

Before I started umpiring, I was catcher on a men's slow pitch league that had 1-umpire games. An off-line throw came into the plate as a runner was scoring. I went to the fence to retrieve the ball and the runner that just scored interfered with me, unintentionally, but still interfered.

The umpire wasn't watching. He was inside the diamond, with his back to us, watching a runner go from second to third. After eventually getting the ball, the runner at third beat my throw by a step.

I complained, "He interfered with me!"

The umpire turned to the guy that just scored and said, "Did you interfere with him?"

The guy hung his head and said, "Yeah."

Because of this one event, I remember it like it was yesterday. August of 1978: the last time I actually heard a ball player tell the truth. ;)

Usually when you play catcher in SP, you don't brag about it and you certainly don't complain to the umpire when someone gets in your way. LOLOLOL If you did that in my game, I'd knock your pitcher down the next time I was up and if I didn't get him, the rest of the team would be aiming at him.

Never ask, but....
 

After a foul ball, the batter turns to me and says that he hit the catcher's mit. If she did, it must have been close to the time that she hit the ball and it must have been just a glancing blow to the mit. I was about ready to say I didn't see it and you have to stay put when the catcher says that yes, indeed, she hit my glove. After picking my jaw up off the ground, I call time (I know, dead ball, not necessary, but I wanted the coaches to know it was my time-out and not an unnecessary delay on the foul). I go to my partner out of earshot of everyone and explain what happened. We agree that since they both said the same thing and the catcher even offered her view of the play without being asked, we would call the interference and award the base. I would imagine that the coach had a conversation with his catcher after the game...

Re: Never ask, but....
 

Obstruction. ;)

I would like to say that even though we are all umpires, we are not always 100% correct. We need to let the players have a say once in a while. NOT ALWAYS. If for instance the player hits the glove and the catcher says yes she did. WHY should we argue that we didn't see it. Now if the catcher said no she didn't then WE are the deciding factor!!
I feel we have to remember that there are 2 sides to each story and if both sides disagree then we are the deciding vote.

I see nothing wrong with what we used to called in volleyball 'An honor call'. Of course this has to be on something that can be corrected and isn't disruptive. I can't have the batter and catcher calling balls and strikes for me all game, but if a sudden gust of wind blew dust in my eyes and I didn't see the ball hit the plate and the catcher told me it hit the plate, then I would accept the 'honor call'.

It depends...both are correct
 

Dakota:

Actually, Catcher's interference and Catcher's obstruction are both the same thing and are used interchangeably depending on the set of rules you are calling. Both are correct in this case.

Re: It depends...both are correct
 

Could you name a set of softball rules (remembering that this is the Softball Ofiicial Forum) that defines catcher's interference? In the 4 sets available to me (ASA, NFHS, NCAA, and ISF), the term is only catcher's obstruction.

By definition, interference is an act by an offensive player, and obstruction is an act by a defensive player. How could you have interference, then, by the catcher?

You softball people!
 

Okay...I admit it...I do baseball, too. So, shoot me!