ASA Girls Slow Pitch National
 

This weekend I called a 18A-12A under Slow Pitch National in Columbus, GA. I had a great time calling Friday, Saturday. If you never called a girls slow pitch game it is fun. Those girls can pitch better then the mens (ha ha). While Sunday was a totally different story, I had the privilages to be PU for the 14U Championship. The game started out good, Visitors was hitting the ball out from the start, home was doing okay. We had a three man crew going on in the game. I will not talk about my fellow umpires. I'm talking about me. While around the 4th inning visiting team open up the gates, then the bottom fell out from the home team, I was calling IP, then I didn't put up my left arm on some or I did it at the end of the pitches. We had atleast 10 to 15 runner scored on IP pitches, home team went through 5 different pitchers in that one inning.

I am so freakin mad at myself, I just fell a sleep out there. Home team girls could not pitch the ball over the 6ft high and if they did some would be a strike or be over the shoulder or inside.

I am so ashamed at myself, I let my UIC, A. UIC, ASA Rep, down on the way I did my game.

I know am a better umpire then this, I was having a good time till today. It was a long quiet ride home.

I learned from this and hope it will make me a much better ASA umpire from here on out. I learned, now I can teach and tell from this weekend.

I WILL BE BACK!!!!!!!:D

10-15 runs on IP? Something doesn't sound right here. That's a lot of base on balls.

I know it doesn't sound right, but home team girls could not get the ball over 6ft. It made it really boring.

Edwin, you had a strong tournament; you certainly earned the championship plate (IMO; as ASA Rep, I observed, but had no say). Your self-stated lapse made no difference in the outcome; the pitchers were unable to pitch strikes, the other team knew it and laid off, whether you verbalized or signaled the IP's "illegal" or not.

Don't beat yourself up over it. The losing coach knew he lost on his (lack of) pitching; he was thrilled to come in second. Keep up the hard work and effort; I was proud of your work this weekend.

That's right, Mike; I do recognize the slowpitch game, too.:D:D I even called a game as a fill-in, when several umpires went down from the heat on Friday.

I was there but in a different shirt than my blue one (I coached one of the 16U teams) It seemed to me that most umpires there see 12' a bit lower than we do here but overall they were for the most part consistent with their calls and that is all I could ask. As always when you coach there are some calls you do not like but then again there were some that went the other way too (That is life)

The only problem with officials I had was teams having to wait sometimes an hour or more for officials to come to the field when other officials were waiting to get on other fields. I think the UIC should have done a better job of scheduling but once we got officials I was pleased overall with their performance. Overall I was very pleased with the tournament except for that one area I just mentioned.

I can tell you from experience, a lot of experience, that moving umpires is not as easy as it would seem to the casual observer. There is a lot more to scheduling than just throwing two names next to each game.

Steve,

Thanks! I needed that. :)

Ed