I've Never Made That Call Before...
 

Finished up the final weekend of a pretty good fall league today. Aside from the worst cup-shot I took all season, it was a fairly routine slate of four games on a sunny, mild Ohio fall day.

Of note, I did make one call today that I've never had to make in my entire career. It was the right call- and a real rule- despite the mild objection of the defensive team's coach.

A little background: These are timed games, double headers, and the folks that run the league have emphasised to coaches to have as little "downtime" as possible between innings, to maximize playing time and to keep the games on schedule (each field had six games scheduled that day). At the pre-game conference, I asked each coach to hustle his players in and out and specifically told them that the between inning warm-up pitch rules would be enforced.

Here was the scenario: It's between innings and, depite my urgings to keep the teams hustling in and out, the catcher is dwaddling around in the dugout, so her coach comes out to take the warm-up throws. The pitcher completes her five tosses to the coach and I say, "That's five. Hold onto it, Pitcher", as the catcher strolls out to the plate.

The coach starts to leave the plate area and the catcher sets up as if about to receive another throw, while shouting, "Balls in! Coming down!".

I tell her that the pitcher has already had all the warm-up throws she gets and call for a batter. The coach hears this and gets a little miffed that I'm not allowing his catcher to have her "throw down".

I explain to him that his pitcher only gets five warm-up pitches and she has already used them. He mumbles something about his catcher "being allowed to have a throw down". I explain that there is no rule granting a catcher the right to throw one down, reiterate that his pitcher has completed her warm-ups and tell him that if he wants to ensure his catcher has that opportunity then he needs to make sure she is geared up and on the field to take that last pitch.

The batter settles in and the first pitch is a called strike. The dugouts are very close to the plate area and I clearly hear the coach tell his catcher, "Go ahead and take your throw down to second right here".

And she does, firing a lazer down to second base. I pop up, call "time" and announce, "That's a ball to the batter for failure to return the ball directly to the pitcher!".

The coach comes back with, "You can't do that". I tell him, "No, your catcher can't do that!". The guy starts to act a little agitated, so I tell him to, "Find your rule book, look under Rule 6 and you'll see that your catcher just committed an illegal act. The penalty is a ball to the batter's count".

With that, he shut up. But it was an odd sequence of events that forced me to invoke a rule I've never had to invoke before. The funny thing was that if the coach hadn't been so blatant in instructing his catcher to "throw it down", I might have thought it was just a bad throw that got away. The ball was on a line, right past the pitcher who, apparently taken off guard by the throw, actually made a stab at it with her glove as the ball sailed just over her head.

The batter struck out on two more pitches, so the call had no material bearing on the at-bat or game. I was really hoping the batter would get a walk!

There is also the 1 minute between innings, if teams are dawling... 5 pitches or 1 minute.

That's why we get the big bucks. I've made this call a couple of time. Not necessarily every time I could have, but in similar situations when someone openly defies your directions.

I have only ever seen it called once, and it was on my daughters team at nationals. Count on the batter was 3-1, catch thought it was 3-2, batter swings and misses, catcher fired to first for the throw around and the ump sent the batter right on down to 1st.

I feel special - I've had that call 3 times in 5 years. Not as "obvious" as in the OP - I think all of mine happened when F2 thought it was K#3, and threw down to F3 to go around the horn.

We have 3 pitches or 1 minute... To speed the catcher up, or to let the team know that they have to bring in a "bull-pen catcher" when F2 has to put on her gear, sometimes we allow only 1 pitch.
Next innings catcher will hurry or a sub will fill in for her...

To prevent that pitchers take more than the allowed 3 pitches I always brush my plate after the 3th pitch. Now it's clear for everybody that I can and will call a ball for every pitch extra! Sometimes pitchers will have one or two extra and are surprised to see me in between her and F2. they can't help it saying that I'm the one with guts. Stepping in between while they 're pitching...

...But if a pitcher throws a ball at my a$$ while I'm brushing the plate (which has never happed), I know that she's gone! She must know that she'd her 3 pitches and can't pitch anymore until I say so...

I've enforced the "one minute" plenty of times by reducing the number of throws the pitcher gets if the battery doesn't get out there and get to it.

I've stepped in to brush the plate as soon as the last warm-up is thrown. But I usually wait until the pitcher has the ball and I can get her attention and make eye contact, then I'll hold up a hand and say, "Hold onto it, Pitcher". I wouldn't put it beyond an oblivious pitcher to fire one off while I'm bent over!

I've stepped between the battery as they take their places and loudly announced, "Pitcher, you get five warm-up pitches", while holding up five fingers, then turned to the catcher and repeated, "She gets five", only to have the catcher call, "Balls in!", AFTER the final throw, expecting to get one more for her throw down.

Usually, the teams will finally get the message. But, generally, they act like I'm "making up rules" or being some kind of a hardass by enforcing this. So many teams treat the between-inning break like the seventh-inning stretch that I really have to wonder if other officials in my area are bothering to enforce this at all.

Back a few years ago in one local league, this one with a TWO HOUR time limit on their games, one of the league officials asked me how it was that most all of my games went the full seven innings, while many of the others were only going five or six. The simple answer: I enforce the time and warm-up pitch rules. If both teams spend a couple of extra minutes each time they change sides, you're looking at about 30 minutes of players standing around doing nothing instead of playing the game. In a timed game, that 30 minutes can often be the difference between playing a full seven and getting cut short by the time limit.

I gotta ask... why are we telling the players anything in regards to their warm-up pitch counts? .... I was under the impression that we count them and roll the ball count up as required. I mean, I sure as heck wouldn't tell any other player "not" to do something during the game to prevent a penalty going to the offense.
Just my 1.8565785 cents. I cant afford 2 ;)

Again, I only call SP, but I also enforce the warm-up pitch rules with one exception - the 1st inning (rec league only). Pitchers here don't have anywhere to get warmed up, so I'll let them have 5 or 6 in the 1st inning. After that, it's 3 warm-ups, and everything after that is a ball. If a new pitcher comes in, they also get 3. If it's an actual tourney, it's 3, period.

As the second warm up pitch is being grabbed by the catch, I call out "one more, pitch." After the pitcher gets the final warm-up back from the catcher, I hold up my hand and start moving in behind the plate. If they toss two, I call the first ball.

I almost never have more than 3 warm-up pitches.

It's called preventive umpiring and is a part of good game management. Sitting back and watching a pitcher take 8 warm-up pitches and then beginning the next at bat with a 3-0 count is, IMO, irresponsible. Remind them after the 4th if you like, penalize them after the 6th, but don't allow them to throw any more after that. Take control of the game.

BTW, since I read you are embarking on a college career, this approach is what the National Staff prefers as well.

seems like overumpiring
 

With all due respect Bretman, this seems like over umpiring to me. I don't know about your fall league in Ohio, but all the fall ball league experiences I have had in SE Texas, the leagues were instructional in nature and not to be officiated like a National tournament.......

I second this. You don't want to create a monster by letting a situation get out of hand.

I disagree. Keeping the pitcher within his/her limits keeps the game moving, as pointed out earlier. It also keeps the pitchers from getting surprised when they DO go to a State, Regional or National. Maybe a warning may be better in the lower leagues, but the rule should not be ignored.

When I was a kid, I played in a tournament under ASA rules. The league I played in allowed us 5 warm-ups the first inning, 3 each subsequent. Fortunately, the plate umpire at the tourney said to me in the first inning, "you get 3, pitcher." I was surprised, and I asked her, "don't I get 5?" "Nope, must be a local rule." "Oh. Okay!"

I was glad she didn't keep a silent count. Then again, we stomped that team 16-0 anyway. ;)

I won't confine my observations to just "fall ball". The lag between innings is a year-round occurance.

Why can't the "instructional in nature" extend to teaching the teams the expected behavior between innings and the rules that should be enforced during their "real" games that count?

I hear that a lot- "It's only fall ball". Sure, maybe the games are more laid back and than your typical travel ball tournament, but I don't see that as an excuse for an umpire to throw good game management and rule enforcement out the window.

Again, I will note that the "between inning" conduct for this league was a point of emphasis by the league organizers. All of the coaches received written instruction to this effect with their league rules. We have been asked to cover this with coaches at the pre-game conference. The folks that run the league- ie: pay our salary- have requested that the umpires enforce these rules to minimize downtime and field scheduling issues, while maximizing playing time for the participants.

In light of all that, if I just ignored those directives, because "It's only fall ball", that would strike me as a bad case of under-umpiring.

Well I for one agree, well partially:D I agree Fall ball is more of a fun learning experience. One that Bretman did a great job of teaching, teaching the catcher she can't mess around in the dugout and expect to get extra pitches so she can throw one down like she wants to. She also learned she can't overrule an umpires directions without concequence. She learned both of these things in the calm learning environment of Fall ball where it made no difference (in the game, or world as fall ball is "for fun") and didnt' cost her team a run at the state championship. Granted this scenerio is not likely to ever cost someone the game, but I personally feel that fall ball is 100% the time to enforce these types of rules and to let people know about things in a more relaxed learning environment where you can say "catch, you know you can't do that..." and they will laugh it off BUT will learn a lesson where it doesn't change the earths rotation, or at least players coaches and parents feel like it does when we call this during "regular" or post season.