The pesky little things that annoy you...
 

So I was thinking about the little pesky comments and situations that get under my skin on the field... nothing huge, but like, "come on, knock it off, you know better" type of situations.

- Players or coaches asking for check swing help when your partner's on the wrong side of the field.
- On-deck batters telling you they're on the opposite side for safety reasons.
- Batters who need to landscape and groom the batter's box... every pitch.
- Catchers who take forever to get and relay the pitch signal from their coach to their pitcher.

There's probably some others that I'm not thinking of at the moment.

What are yours? I'm not looking for you to tell me how to solve them, ... I'm just more interested in what things irk you.

Consider this posting the umpire's rant and b!tch session. Let's hear it, blue! :eek:

My signature says it all, particularly in reference to called balls or strikes. ;)

Well, when they're coming from Dixie Youth:

"2:10 - The on-deck batetr will use the on-deck batter's circle behind the batter that is at bat..."

Yep, it's hard to break the habit when they get old enough for NHFS, where they prohibit it around here. The travel umps seem ambivilent, as long as they don't have to hold up play for the player to run behind the plate.

Catchers who think framing a pitch means moving the mitt back into the strike zone after they catch the pitch.

People who tell the pitcher what a great pitch it was-three feet outside , followed up by pitcher continuing to throw there all day expecting me to finally realize it IS a great pitch......

...Housekeeping things like equipment, bottles, chalklines and coaches being other than where they belong. ...Holes in fences and long grass. ...An endless supply of used balls. ...Bases and plates that move

"Where was that, Blue?" pitch after pitch.

"Out of the strike zone!"

That is one of my big pet peeves. I don't know how many borderline strike calls they take away from their pitcher doing that.

I agree with the catcher's poorly "framing" pitches, that's definitely a huge pet peeve.

On the flip side, though, I hate it when pitchers throw strikes on the inside corner and batter's jump out of the way.

I have a personal webpage where I occasionally write rants about things that annoy me, and it just happens that this topic is similar to one I wrote about last September. What do you all think?

http://sabian.whispers.org/rants/umpires.html

Where it belongs, in the catcher's glove!

Catchers that poorly frame are irritating. But let a batter jump away on a pitch that has the inside corner, watch how quick that strike gets rung up.

That was a great read! Enjoyed it very much. Like I sometimes say: ...Nothin' like fun at the ole' ball park! ..Al

Thanks! I appreciate the compliment. I guess I probably had a bad game that night. ;)

Like I said in the rant, I usually love what I do, but now that I'm in my 15th year, I sometimes question why I do it. I think at some point in time, we all question it ourselves.

That is, until we get a great game like the one John mentioned earlier!