Umpire for 42 years...

[Agreen_14]

Last night I was picked up to play a game in a church league. They put me at catcher so I'm talking to the blue the whole game. The games going smooth for the first 5 innings, no problems. Then it just seemed to fall apart for the umpire. Again this is a church league so no one is really getting mad at the blue but he starts making really bad calls. The first one was a play at home with me as catcher. R1 rounds third and heads home on a wild throw to 1st. Ball gets to me before the runner slides, I'm standing in front of the plate. I catch the ball, quickly turn and put the tag on the runners leg before he touches home. The ump calls him safe. No biggie, tie game. The ump was standing about 5-6 ft. in front of home plate inside the diamond. Was he in proper position? He couldn't see the tag because I had to turn my back to him...

Next play R1 on 1st B3 hits a grounder to F4, F4 turns and tosses to F6 who tags the base but R1 slides and takes out F6. I'm not sure if it was intentional but it looked unfair to me. There was an oppurtunity for a double play had F6 not been hindered. The ump calls an out at R1 out on a force all play stands... I turn and ask the blue, "You didn't think SS was hindered and therefore couldn't make the throw" and he gives me this blank look... I say "He took out the SS" and the blue says "Well... He's allowed to take him out..." "...As long as he's sliding".

There were several other questionable calls as well... I explained to the ump that I'm trying to learn as much as possible before my debut as an umpire and I was just curious about some of the calls he made. He said "no worries, most of this stuff you won't see on the test or in the books" LOL! If I was a mean person I would've told him it looks like somebody needs to READ the rulebook.. I know I didn't give many details, but believe me, he missed some pretty key plays. He did say that he had umpired all different types of baseball/softball including Semi-Pro and womens college FP, I gave him respect for that.