Lineup Card Management

[BlitzkriegBob]

Varsity game last week, I was PU. During the game, home HC twice announces subs to me that do not make sense (number of entering player being replaced is not one that I currently have in the game and player reentering into different spot in the batting order.) I notice the inaccuracies and immediately notify HC while we determine the reason for the mistakes (essentially HC not keeping very good track of what's going on). This probably takes 2-3 minutes both times to straighten out. In the back of my mind, I am filing this under preventitive umpiring.

After the game, my partner (very experienced guy, but after watching his work on the bases I was leery of his advice) advised me that what he does when subs are being reported is to just quickly jot down the subs on the back of whatever lineup card is handy, then every couple of innings going back to write numbers in the right spots. I believe he was trying to tell me that I was holding up the game by going to the trouble of recording subs as they occurred. I remember on another thread someone giving a link (I believe cactusumpires) to a powerpoint on keeping a lineup card, and after viewing that I've tried to follow that procedure. I also know after the thread on cleaning the PP that I'm not going to necessarily take advice that is in conflict with what is outlined as umpiring mechanics without running it by you guys first.

This particular topic hits me hard because as I mentioned once before, my daughter is playing high school ball, and there has only been one umpire in her 14 games this season that bothered to record subs. In one early season game, I cringed when there was a question about who was in the game (I swear not one inning after I thought to myself that the PU was asking for trouble) and the PU stopped the game as he took the book for one team over to the other team's dugout to compare what was going on . Ironically, the one umpire that did record subs still dropped the ball when he allowed my daughter a second reentry into the game. After witnessing these two events, I sure don't want anything like that to happen to me.

Besides, wasn't it Mike who said the first thing he would ask to see if there was a dispute would be the lineup cards?