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!

Great article. The only thing I'd disagree with is that I believe it's worse in football (especially if you're the line judge - he gets to bark in your ear and there's not a whole lot you can do about it), and FAR FAR worse in basketball ... which I refuse to work.

That could definitely be. But since I don't call those sports, I truly have no idea. I suck at basketball anyway. ;)

Volleyball definitely doesn't have this problem, and that was primarily the sport I was referring to when comparing other sports to softball. I've never heard of a curling player yelling at a ref. Then again, do they even HAVE refs?

It's such a genteel sport, maybe Curling is based on an honor system where an opponent says, "Oops!" and the sweeper says, "I'm sorry!"

I LOVE doing volleyball - the coach says something and BAM - you hit him with a team misconduct red card, and it costs him a point! Hell, the coach calls for a sub, and doesnt do it, it costs him/her a point (team delay)! I have been doing girl's volleyball in the fall the last two years, and love every second of it - no modified (7th & 8th grade) match lasts longer than an hour, and half our local vb association are members of our hs softball association!

True, and speaking as a volleyball player, I must say there's a much higher sense of "honor" in the sport. If a player takes a swing and accidentally hits the net, they'll be honest and grab the net to show the ref "hey, you missed something. Go ahead and call it on me."

But that's a discussion for another forum!

One of the things that irritates me the most is that there's this conception that it's not only "okay," but it's almost expected of a coach to argue with an umpire when a tight call doesn't go their way. Even if they know they're wrong, they still do it. I'm not talking about asking an umpire to go to his/her partner; I'm talking about getting in the ump's face and chewing him/her out. 99% of the time, the call stands as called, and the coach accomplishes nothing other than thinking that they "got into the ump's head."

That's probably my biggest pet peeve. In fact, I think that's what happened the night I wrote that rant. :)

Along the same lines...the batter who seems to have something against home plate and feels the need to beat it up with the bat when they step into the batter's box.

Oh I definitely agree. Fortunately, that's a pet peeve with an easy solution. :D

My biggie:

3-0 count, pitch comes in that would be a borderline strike regardless of the count. Batter takes two steps toward first. I let go of my usual hwaah and the right hand goes up in the air. (Yes, I will let you know when you can run, not walk, to first.)

Of course everyone on the offensive team has to shake their heads, moms and dads have to piss and moan about WTF is wrong with these umpires.

It's not limited to softball. Baseball may in fact be worse.

I only do men's slow pitch ASA.

MY pet peeve....is batters who HAVE to stop the game to get ready to hit. It's not that they need the time to get set. They HAVE TO stop the game and have everyone wait while they do it. I see them ask me for time (which I grant).....and when they're set....they see the pitcher isn't ready. They'll step out. THEY'RE NOT WAITING FOR ME!!!....lol

It's hilarious.

I played NAIA and DI college baseball.....and the thing I miss the most.....is being able to police this, ourselves (as players).

1. The infield idiots, every time there is a hit to the outfield, that ask for 'time' when the ball comes in with runners on. I just point to the P and move on.

2. Your idiot partners who GRANT the time...

Every partner that calls time without reason is not necessarily an idiot.
Every partner that does not call time without reason is not necessarily a genius.

In professional baseball, it has become an accepted tradition to argue with the umps. You don't really see this level of acceptance in other sports. MLB managers are actually criticized if they don't get ejected often enough. And when a team explodes for 6 runs after the coach was ejected, he gets credit for firing up his team. Guys like Billy Martin & Lou Pinella made it into an art form. Fortunately, it hasn't become an accepted practice at the high school level (yet).

A couple more pet peeves...

Base coaches who signal a "safe" call.

Pitchers who feel the need to glare and act bewildered, especially on pitches that weren't even close. (I occasionally glare back. I have also called time out to clean off the plate and quietly suggest to the catcher that he might want to go out and tell his pitcher to knock it off.)

Players who "hold the tag" on the baserunner while he's trying to get up after a slide, hoping he will lose contact with the bag for an instant. The poor baserunner finally has to call time out just to get up. It's such a waste of time.

13-14 year old baseball game, catcher kept setting up on the outside corner so every time he reaches across his body to catch the ball it's outside. Pitcher continues to shake his head and glare at me. I whisper in the catchers ear "My suggestion to you is that you tell him to stop his *****ing and moaning or the strike zone is about to become and 1" x 1" square"


Softball game this weekend, catcher keeps setting up on the outside corner. Pitches keep being outside. Now this time the head coach yells at the catcher
"You have got to adjust to the placement of the ball and also to his strike zone."
I was blown away by this in the fact that the coach knew enough that I wasn't changing my strike zone and that he put it on his pitcher and catcher to get it right.

Well, we can hope anyway. My arm bruise and two thigh bruises might be contradict the idea. :)

How about umps whose every thought is how to finish quickly, and never about how to improve? :eek:
Or, coaches who wait until the D is on the field, the B is in the box and then report as sub? :(
Or umps who tell coaches they don't need to know ANY defense changes.

And most of all, whoever invented the idea that previous umps mistakes apply to this game.

Yeah! for once I'd like to meet those "umpires who called our last game" that said blah! blah! blah!

Not an official but on your side of things.
My biggest pet peeve lately is catchers that threaten a throw to a base each and every pitch instead of just throwing it back to the pitcher.
Worse than that is a catcher that runs halfway to an occupied base every pitch.

Pitch splits the plate at the waist, you ring it up. From the bench you hear " thats not you...(fill in the name)" Very next pitch, same place, batter laces it for a hit.

I want to say, " I guess it was you...."

For those who do the real softball game, don't you just love the slow-pitch batter who tells you he cannot swing until he takes a strike.

I usually reply, "No problem, I'll take care of that for you".

Worse than that are the 4 parents yelling, "Walk her back, Susie!!!"

The "other" ump, I hate him. This is from an article I wrote for our news letter.

The worst umpire ever!

There is an umpire in our association that I absolutely hate. I would go so far as to say every time I met him I want to punch him in the nose. This umpire makes the worst call, has the worst attitude, is never properly dressed, doesn’t know the rules, is a lazy goof-off, and is apparently does more games that anyone else in the association. Who is the weasel? The Other Umpire.

Have you ever made a call or enforced a rule only to hear from the players about what the other umpire did or didn’t do? The other umpire didn’t make us do that, or the other umpire let us, or the other umpire made us. The other umpire is so often plain wrong I wonder how he got onto the field in the first place. These are some of the comments made to me by players this week.

The other umpire told us you have to slide at home.
The other umpire allowed this bat in the game last week.
The other umpire didn’t make us remove our jewelry.
The other umpire said you don’t have to tag-up on an in field fly.
The other umpire said you get 1 + 1 on an over throw.
The other umpire said you only get one base on an overthrow from the out field.

How many of you hate this guy too? Lets vote him out of the association, banish him forever, send him far away. How can we rid ourselves of this horrible umpire? Simply by being better umpires ourselves. The other umpire can’t stand the light of common sense, good understanding of the rules, and proper on field mechanics. He crumbles to dust at the mere mention of reading the rule book. He heads for the hills every time we attend a clinic or an umpire school. Every time we act as a team and make the same call the same way, or correctly enforce to rules the other umpire is ejected from the game.

Let us send this guy packing.