N.S.A World Series

[Indiana_Umpire]

The clock error occured at Michigan City. The coaches tried to bring it to the plate umpires attention, based on what the coaches had for the start time -- when the problem was brought to the PU's attention, there should have been 5 minutes left in the game. However, something went wrong with the clock, and it had stopped. The PU came over to the fence, looked at the clock, shrugged his shoulders and walked back to the plate. After a 10 minute half-inning, the coach again brought it to the crews attention. This time the BU came over, and said that "someone" must have stopped the clock. He said there was nothing that could be done - started the clock - and the game had 20 minutes to go! It was brought to the UIC's attention, which fell on deaf ears, and the game ended up taking well over 2.5 hours. Sad. When walking off the field, a comment was made to the crew -- and the BU replied that it was the coaches fault the clock stopped. When he was challenged, he went and cried to the UIC, and tried to get the folks that questioned him thrown out of the park. I have never, in my 25 years of softball, seen a group of umpires more scared to have someone question them on the game they are hired to umpire. Again, I'm sure there are some good NSA umps, but I have yet to see one. I sure hope you were ata different site.
And let me clarify that the ASA nationals that I have worked have been true 3 man crews on all of the games....We went one on and one off, but all games were umpired by 3 man crews.

[NEohioref]

Well guess what I was in Michigan city. And if this is the same situation I know what went down beacuse the umpires did discuss this. The plate umpire was using the base umps timer, On this timer if you do not turn it off after the alloted time it starts counting up.I know exactly who and what you are talking about. I'm not going to throw the coach or the umpire under the bus. Because im not sure who is truely at fault. And the U.I.C backed his umpires desicion on the time. How could he fairly judge how much time is left.If he would have went with what the coaches said, that would have meant he didnt trust his umpires.J.M.H.O

[Indiana_Umpire]

NEohioref -- Well, at least you are able to proivde more information that the crew on the field did. I don't understand where this could be a "trust" situation. The UIC, Umps, and Coaches could have gotten together and got the RIGHT CALL, instead of worrying about egos and backing up Umps. The crew made a mistake, albeit a honest mistake that could be rectified. If the clock starts to could up after it expires, then couldn't it be said that time had officially expired if it was running up instead of down? (Seems common sense to me.) However, the crew did want to discuss it, was annoyed that it was taken to the UIC, and in the end even more damage was done than the original problem. In this case, the crew made the situation worse. As Umps, aren't we taught not to make things worse than they are? So, in reality, the crew made a mistake, made the mistake worse, and the UIC then helped continue making it worse. I guess it comes back to my original observation that I wasn't very impressed with NSA, it's umpires, it's umpire training, or it's UIC. But, thank you for helping me understand what actually happened. If the crew had taken 2 minutes to listen and talk with the coaches, maybe this whole thing could have been avoided. Thanks!

[NEohioref]

Thanks you sound like somone I can really talk too. With your point being taken about the coaches and the umps coming together. How much time would have been left , or how much time is left ,how many runs scored should be counted. Or just play another full inning and call it quits?what did u want to see? I R A Blue? Indiana Ump?

[BretMan]

I wonder if the "comedian umpire" was the same guy I was partnered with a couple of weekends ago. He said he was from the Dayton, OH area which would put him pretty close to Indiana.

He had a running commentary going with players, coaches and fans throughout the entire game. When he did the plate, between innings he would mill around behind the backstop and keep the commentary going with fans in the bleachers.

During one such break, he made his rounds and stopped at every little kid or baby in a stroller, stooped down and gave them a "cootchie-coo" or slapped them a "high five"!

One strange habit he had mechanics-wise was that about half the time he called a strike he would use NO hand signal whatsoever.

Our second game together he worked the bases and this one really takes the cake. The pitcher completed his warm-ups, I get behind the plate and am ready to go...but my base umpire is MIA.

I walk down the first base line to find him and see him rummaging around in the grass behind the dugout. A player had lost his car keys and he was helping him look for them!!!

[Indiana_Umpire]

NEohioref - Well, I appreciate you speaking openly about what happened. I think it's something we all can learn from, and since we can't change the past -- we only have the future to focus on.
I guess from my perspective if I were in the same situation, I would hope that I would -- have jumped on handling the problem as soon as the time question was asked. (Note that in this case, the crew actually waited an inning to an inning-and-a-half to actually find out what was going on.) Knowing my clock, I would have then gathered the coaches and my fellow ump to explain what happened, and then (depending on who was hitting, the inning, etc.) I would then have formulated what would have been the most fair solution possible. However, simply continuing to play wouldn't be an option....and that's basically what happened. It just appeared that the crew was caught off guard, became very defensive, and didn't want to look bad. Maybe they throught the the UIC could come down on them, heck, I don't know, but the way they handled it was wrong. Communication...communication....communication. They just didn't talk, to each other, the coaches, nothing. Then to make it worse, I think the coaches were afraid to talk with them, (more than the little they did), in fear that they would be ejected since both made it clear that they weren't gonna' "take nothing" from anyone. Again, thanks for the discussion. I know I've learned something from all of this, and I appreacaite your time.

[Indiana_Umpire]

BretMan - His mechanics were "ok"...nothing to write home about, and his zone was a little tight. But, as for his "antics", we might be talking about the same person! I just found it really, really odd and frankly unprofessional the way we was handling himself. And the BU in this crew wasn't much better. I "heard" (yes, I will admit I didn't hear this myself), that the BU openly asked the opposing coach (who was a home-towner), about purchasing some insurance from him during the coin flip. Now, if I'm the other coach, and hear one of the umpires that is about to call a winners bracket semi-final - ask the opposing coach about purchasing some insurance from him....well, let's just say that I'm off to a bad start. These guys might have known each other off-field, but it was really unprofessional to bring it up when he did. I think, for me, it just goes back to a sense that these umpires just didn't take the game seriously. Maybe it was because it was a 12U, but I've worked a ASA 12U national, (a great honor for me), and we treated it like an ASA major tourney. We had fun, but we were there to perform a job and to give the girls the best umpiring we could. I just think that this is one area that NSA needs to hit...and another being positioning and mechanics. But I come from ASA, where these things are stressed already, and maybe NSA doesn't want to do it this way.

[UmpLarryJohnson]

JEEzus thats hard to read can somone buy you paragraphs??