Thank the Maker I found this place!!!

[Carl I.]

Howdy all, I'm new here!

Last week I did my first game. I have been coaching girls softball for two years now, and don't plan on leaving my position there. The ages I have been coaching though have been 1st-4th graders. But the league needed people for umpires, as it seems it is a job nobody wants. So I volunteered on the nights I don't have games for my girls.

Well, I though I would be going up one league and dealing with girls a little bit older. But nope, I got sent on into the High School level with fast pitch 12"!!! Suddenly I found myself in a really tough situation, and all of a sudden all of the rules of the game went flying out of my head!

On the base paths it wasn't so bad. I had fun with that and was happy with my calls.

Then I went behind the plate. Oh man...THAT sucked! I had no idea it was sooooo hard to call balls and strikes! Then you get a catcher who knows how to frame a pitch and you don't realize how much she is tricking you until you see the other teams 3rd base coach basically DYING in the box!

The one coach helped me out before the game by telling me "no matter what happens, you will always make the right call", I said "no...I don't think so" and he said "no, no matter what we say or think, your word is the one that counts, and you will be right". So it was nice to have a coach right away that was going to be understanding and who appreciated the game and the job of the umpires. So that helped.

But then the game started, and I didn't feel I did a good job until the last inning. I finally started to feel like I got it right.

Unitl I called strike 3 on a girl who had just taken her first strike! LOL!!!

Oh man, what a night.

What kind of advice can you give a newbie behind the plate? Where is the best place to position yourself have you found? Is it right over the top looking down, or is it over the catchers mitt, or the throwing hand? I feel fine with the inside and outside calls, but I can't get the height down. That was my main problem, calling them too high or low, or not either.

Thanks in advance. Best thing about this experience is that I will NEVER complain about an Ump for the rest of my life. Easily the most thankless, lonely, and most abused job in sports. Man, parents can be ugly.