NCAA game - Assistant Coach
 

How would you handle this situation. I had a college game 1 1/2 weeks ago where I was the BU, in which I called 8 illegal pitches on the same girl, same game. She was sometimes starting with her non pivot foot anywhere from an inch to 5 inches behind the pitching plate. I explained it to her and the coaches. They must not have felt it would be advantagious ??? for the team for her to change since she periodically kept doing it. Now yesterday, same girl doing the same thing. I call illegal pitch and explain AGAIN!!! Assistant coach then makes this remark "sure is funny, we were in a tournament in Arizona this year and better umpires than you never called that" Then a remark about the game the other night. All this was yelled from outside the fence. Should I have warned him, talked to the Head Coach, ran him, or just ignored him and went on? This is my second year of doing college ball. Dave

I have no personal knowledge of what it's like to work NCAA games, so I have no idea of ramifications...but my first thought is that the coach made a personal remark, directed at you. Why didn't you dump him?

I woulda dumped him, even if it was the last game I ever worked.

The other side of this.. is the coach is probably right about it not being called. If it was consistently called, the pitcher wouldnt do it. She has it in her muscle memory to do it..

So that is a whole other aspect to IPs and when Umpires dont call it just to save the trouble.

Why was the Assistant Coach outside the fence during the game?

Since sportsmanship and misconduct are a point of emphasis this year for the NCAA, and since this particular coach was being anything but a positive role model, and since it was a blantant attempt to show you up (if it was loud enough for everyone to hear), I would say that you should have sent him packing. Then you go home, get on your handy dandy home computer and submit the report. Let Ms. Abrahamson sort it out.

Later on I asked the Head Coach coach if his pitcher was a Freshman and he said yes. I told him that the way she was pitching was legal in NFHS. I just don't think they helped her in the transition. Dave

Well, I would guess the vast majority played travel ball.

I do get this call a lot early in the year after NFHS ball though.

Just keep on calling it. Every time.

When I said outside the fence I meant outside the playing field. If he came up to me without yelling it out across the field it probably wouldn't have seemed so bad. Dave
P.S. I have them again this Saturday.

Hey coach I hope you were playing under a different set of rules at that tourney, cause if they let her get away with that it was a diservice to your team and your pitcher.

Ok I might have said the above if he was having a one on one civil conversation with me....but shouting accross the diamond like that....nah he would have been my first ejection!!!!!

Arizona umpires ARE obviously superior to all others.....:cool:


Run his *** next time......

And what school was this..and when were they here?

E-mail him this link...probably anonymously though :D

http://www.cactusumpires.com/pdf/ncaa-pitcher-feet.pdf

I agree with Darrell.....I would also like to know what team it was and when they were here......

Not sure what part of Arizona it was or the date. It is a small college. Dave

Dave,
I don't know that I'd dump for one instance of this "Assistant coach then makes this remark "sure is funny, we were in a tournament in Arizona this year and better umpires than you never called that". Since it came from across the field, I'd be leaning toward a dump.
However, when this followed, "Then a remark about the game the other night." I'd have some paperwork to fill out & send in.

Then again, I'm not from Arizona, so............:D
'Course, we got some superior folks in Pa, too:cool:

In both instances, the coaches from the two different oppossing teams came up to the umpires and asked if we would watch for this infraction since they knew she pitched that way. This was right before the game started. I think the ***istant coach heard the coaches talking to us and thought we called it because they pressured us into it. You would have to be blind not to see it. Dave

Wow, thats good coaching.

So they intentionally have their pitcher illegally pitch, then gave you crap about it.

Why am I not surprised?

The funny thing about the whole thing is the coach never says anything when I call an illegal pitch with nobody on base. Get a runner on base, then call an illegal pitch and then here comes the remarks. In the first game that I called illegal pitches, I called about 6 illegal pitches with nobody on but when a runner is on second and I call her he says "good time to call an illegal pitch now" What was he watching on the 6 previous ones? Dave

Look, I can go out and purchase one of those kitchen timers and hang it on the fence, too. :rolleyes:

but can you USE it properly.....THATS the tricky part.....:D

A couple things:
1. The NCAA made it a point this year that illegal pitches are to be called and "better" umpires are calling it. I was in Florida the first week of March for the Rebel Spring Games and by the mid week the NCAA had called the tourmement director saying your umpires are calling the illegal pitches and the pitchers are adjusting...Good Job.

2. Can we really trust coaches when they tell what happened earlier in the year...NO. But it may have happened the way he said.

3. According to the NCAA Assistant Coaches down on the list of getting leway for there action. It starts with fans, Head Coaches then Assistant Coaches.

I believe that the Assistant Coach that you described went too far and should be gone, but it is still a judgement call.

Since I have them again tomorrow, I think at the plate meeting I will state that if a coach has a problem they should address the proper umpire in a reasonable manner to discuss the problem. Another question. Should it be the Head Coach that asks the umpire questions on a ruling or can it be the Assistant? My guess is that if it can't be civilized neither one should approach the umpire. Do you let the Assistant be the spokesperson if the situation warrants? Dave

Yeah... don't.


:)

Aren't they supposed to know that?
Aren't we supposed to avoid clinics or anything like a warning/ultimatum or implication we expcet trouble at the plate conference?

As long as I decide what "warrants".

You may want to re-think your plate conference coverage. I doubt you would want input from a coach on how to correctly administer a plate conference. At the college level, coaches know whom they are to approach with questions. NCAA wants umpires to answer questions from any coach this year.

OK...I still want to know the name of the small college.....

"Since I have them again tomorrow, I think at the plate meeting I will state that if a coach has a problem they should address the proper umpire in a reasonable manner to discuss the problem." Do not address this, just let it be a whole new game with no history.

"Do you let the Assistant be the spokesperson if the situation warrants?" Yup, as long as it is a 1-on-1 discussion, let any coach approach you. It's college ball, use their standard.

I would also like to know which college is being referred to. I probably worked that tournament. I called several illegal pitches on one team on that exact same violation.

Paul

Well I can tell you this. They are from Nebraska.

Well I guess we were not the good umpires from Az. ;) No teams from Nebraska, just teams from CA,UT,TX,NM,MO,KS,HI,NM,WA,AZ,IL,FL,MN,and MT.

Paul

PS: No timers were used or harmed during the entire tournament. :D

Believe it or not at a JV tourney game today I see something shiny on the backstop. It was a pretty nice timer attached to the fence. I checked if it worked...it didn't. :( . So I used my Target Timex....