Pregame meeting

[Dakota]

The thread, below, on the bat the bench rule, describes a problem at the 16U state fall tournament that has continued to bug me.

While it is true there were several bad decisions made (sloppy rule writing, overly agressive coaching, possibly less than ideal game management by the umpires, and overly "by the book" ruling by the state officals), that led up to the forfeit being called, as I was driving in to work this morning, it occurred to me what could have prevented this entirely -- a good pregame meeting.

If the UIC at this 16U tournament handled things like the UIC at the 12U tournament I worked, the umpires had a copy of the rules, in summary form. They had written instructions from the tournament UIC to make sure they covered the fall rules in the pregame meeting.

I can only assume the bat the bench rule was not covered adequately with the head coach for the offending team. This game was the first game of the tournament for both teams, it was early morning on the first day of the tournament. It was the PU's responsibility to ensure everyone was aware of all of the unique / local rules.

The pregame meeting is a critical part of preventive umpiring, and if it had been done well at this game, it quite likely would have avoided a forfeit, and prevented one team being sent home from the tournament having only played 2 innings.

[Skahtboi]

You are absolutely right! Preventative umpiring is the best umpiring, and the pregame meeting is the best tool for preventative umpiring. I had that hammered into my head by the local UIC way back when I was a rookie, and I continue to hammer it into the heads of rookies to this day when I am giving clinics.

[Steve M]

A pre-tournament meeting with the uic, td, and each team's head coach is very helpful in preventing this too - maybe even more so. I like to do this with each of the tournamets that I uic. Another meeting, 45 minutes before the first game, between the umps and the uic is a must. These are the meetings where we cover the tournament's "special" rules - how we're going to rule on them, time limits, ground rules, and special stuff that should be gone over at each pre-game meeting at home, and so on. That tournament you were at, Dakota, got ugly because (I suspect) that poor tournament administration was shown.

[bluezebra]

When I assigned HS softball umps in my area, I insisted on getting the tournament rules from the Tournament Directors (usually the Athletic Directors). I do the same for FED volleyball now. We have no problems.

Bob