Hows the metal cleats in ASA?

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by JefferMC

Hey, was this you? (I guess not, poster says "she").

Originally Posted by FromAFanBoard

we play strictly ASA showcase and I have been extremely impressed with the officiating, until this weekend in Rock Hill with one particular umpire. Runner on first and second with 2 outs ball hit to our ss runner brushes the ss glove as she is fielding the ball causing her to bobble the ball. No call. Asked the field judge and she said there was no contact. Asked our ss if there was contact she said yes then asked if we could get help from the plate umpire and field judge said no. I did not push it any further. Between innings asked the plate umpire (off the record what he saw) Field judge came up and wanted to know if we were talking about the play. I asked how she defined interference she responded "look it up in the rulebook".Plate umpire then answered if there is contact 99% of the time it is called. Field judge then said " contact was made after the ss had made the play on the ball.I responded "you said there was no contact!" Then field judge said I would be ejected if I "said another word"

For the record, the "off the record" plate umpire told the coach that we would NOT discuss that specific play, what the coach saw, the plate umpire saw, or what the base umpire allegedly told him. The coach then stated he just wanted to know (to tell his shortstop how to adjust) if contact during the fielding of a batted ball constituted interference. The response is an accurate quote, that if there is contact, 99% of the time it would be ruled interference.

I was not certain there had or had not been contact, and I had a highly qualified base umpire in proper position; she made a "no call", and handled her own conversation afterwards. If she had asked me, my response would have been that she was in much better position to judge than I was, so she had no reason to ask me for help. Beyond that, I was only willing to give a generic answer to a generic question, while refusing to discuss that play.

I knew he was fishing for something to twist, but also felt like he deserved a generic answer. So, he got one, my partner was satisfied that I had not stepped on her call, and after reminding the coach why we were all there (an exposure opportunity for his players, none of whom were being helped by the discussion), we all let it go, and moved on.

[JefferMC]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

we all let it go, and moved on.

He hadn't let it go completely until he gave it a vent on that fan board. I pasted a bit of it thinking there was at least a slim chance someone here was involved and would see what was still stirring in the coaches mind.

The interesting thing about that board is the high regard most have for the "ASA umpires" while bashing High School umpires, USSSA umpires, etc. I wonder how many of those "ASA umpires" are the same as those "good-for-nothing NFHS" umpires...

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by JefferMC

The interesting thing about that board is the high regard most have for the "ASA umpires" while bashing High School umpires, USSSA umpires, etc. I wonder how many of those "ASA umpires" are the same as those "good-for-nothing NFHS" umpires...

This particular crew was primarily college umpires that are also ASA umpires, coming from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. In general conversation, most spoke of doing very few high school games in the spring, at least partially due to their college schedules.

The six Georgia umpires may be the exception; our fall high school season allows us to use most of our top umpires in NFHS, too. None of us call any other alphabet soup organizations, though.

[JefferMC]

After I wrote that last, I got to thinking that with you coming from Atlanta, it was likely a number of other "non-locals" were doing the tournament, and obviously you wouldn't be doing HS ball in NC on a regular basis.

In the 14U/16U tournaments in this area, I see some of same faces doing NSA, ISA, NFHS as well as ASA.