It's OK to laugh now, but not then

[umpirebob71]

Hard shot down the third baseline strikes the base and shoots up in the air. I immediately signal fair ball. The defensive coach started screaming "It hit the bag...it hit the bag." I said "I'm aware of that, coach. That makes it a fair ball." "No, no, no, he says. Didn't you see it hit the foul side of the bag?"

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by umpirebob71

Hard shot down the third baseline strikes the base and shoots up in the air. I immediately signal fair ball. The defensive coach started screaming "It hit the bag...it hit the bag."

This is about the time I start laughing.

I said "I'm aware of that, coach. That makes it a fair ball."

Response may be something along the lines of "No ****, coach" instead of such the nice little explanation above.

"No, no, no, he says. Didn't you see it hit the foul side of the bag?"

Again, laughing......hard!

[Tru_in_Blu]

As a league official in our company intramural league, I was overseeing two playoff games between the top 4 "C" division teams. We were walking from an upper field to a lower level field and passed in foul territory along the right field line.

A batter hit a liner over the infield into right field near the line which landed fair by about 10 feet. The ever alert right fielder, noting that the ball had some spin on it, ran parallel to the foul line and proceeded to wait on the ball to go foul, at which point I'm sure he would have pounced on it to keep it foul.

As we were passing very nearby while the play was going on, I suggested to him that he might want to pick it up right away. Runners from first and second were high-tailing it around the bases.

His teammates started yelling at him also, and he did finally pick up the ball while it was in fair territory.

Ted

[wadeintothem]

Foul side of the bag is a good one

Of course with the orange bag.....

[NCASAUmp]

Sadly, I had an umpire ask me the following question...

If a fly ball passes 3B in fair territory, then curves foul and out of play, is that a ground rule double?

[BretMan]

Had a catcher that was a BIG kid and liked to set-up close to the plate. Made it tough for me to get a good look at the ball hitting the mitt.

Pitch comes in, batter swings and misses. DEFENSIVE coach starts yelling, "Come on, Blue, you got to call that!". I'm scratching my head. I did call it- it was a strike.

The coach is getting more and more vocal about how I "missed that call". I figure that maybe I should talk to the coach real quick and see what's up.

Me: Okay, coach, what's the problem.

Coach: How can you miss that? You've got to call that! The batter can't do that! Somebody is going to get hurt!

Me: What exactly is it you think I missed? (I didn't see it or hear anything unusual).

Coach: The batter hit the catcher's mitt! That's interference!

Me: Coach, I was blocked out and didn't see it. I'll watch for it, but in the meantime you might want to tell your catcher to back off the plate a bit.

Coach: (still not satisfied) Come on, Blue. You have to call that!

Me: Are you sure you want me to call that?

Coach: Yes.

Me: Are you really, really sure?

Coach: YES!

Me: Okay. If you insist....(loudly) That's obstruction! You (pointing at batter), first base!

[BretMan]

A sad/funny one about another umpire I worked with...

I'm on the plate, parther in "A", right-handed batter.

Pitch comes in low and batter checks his swing.

I call "Ball".

Catcher asks me to check with partner on the checked swing.

I step out from behind the plate, point to my partner and ask, "Did he go?".

My partner gives me a deer in the headlights look, stands there for a few seconds and then....shrugs his shoulders!

[wadeintothem]

I agree its ok to laugh!

There are those games/tournaments/times when its all business, for me its not all the time though.

You have a lot less problems if you develop a working relationship with those involved, learn names, and treat em with respect and have a little fun. If you try to be dictator-in-chief you'll earn yourself a bunch of trouble and on the other side, some D head coaches try to make that impossible. The extreme side of having a little fun at the right moment is the dancing bear umpire who is putting on a show for everyone - thats almost as bad as the ultra anal umpire running around left field checking shirt tucks and bandaids.

[chartrusepengui]

Originally Posted by BretMan

A sad/funny one about another umpire I worked with...

I'm on the plate, parther in "A", right-handed batter.

Pitch comes in low and batter checks his swing.

I call "Ball".

Catcher asks me to check with partner on the checked swing.

I step out from behind the plate, point to my partner and ask, "Did he go?".

My partner gives me a deer in the headlights look, stands there for a few seconds and then....shrugs his shoulders!

this happened to me my very first game. No one on, and I was set up too close to foul line behind first. F3 moved into my line of vision and I didn't see the play. Catcher askes PU to check with me on check swing. PU points at me and asks. I've officiated enough other sports to know that if I don't know differently - I'm sticking with PU's call. I gave a strong signal. Following game on way to car he was laughing. Said he knew I didn't see it but asked anyway to see what I would do. Told me he'd be happy to work with me again. I've adjusted my positioning!

Originally Posted by BretMan

Had a catcher that was a BIG kid and liked to set-up close to the plate. Made it tough for me to get a good look at the ball hitting the mitt.

Pitch comes in, batter swings and misses. DEFENSIVE coach starts yelling, "Come on, Blue, you got to call that!". I'm scratching my head. I did call it- it was a strike.

The coach is getting more and more vocal about how I "missed that call". I figure that maybe I should talk to the coach real quick and see what's up.

Me: Okay, coach, what's the problem.

Coach: How can you miss that? You've got to call that! The batter can't do that! Somebody is going to get hurt!

Me: What exactly is it you think I missed? (I didn't see it or hear anything unusual).

Coach: The batter hit the catcher's mitt! That's interference!

Me: Coach, I was blocked out and didn't see it. I'll watch for it, but in the meantime you might want to tell your catcher to back off the plate a bit.

Coach: (still not satisfied) Come on, Blue. You have to call that!

Me: Are you sure you want me to call that?

Coach: Yes.

Me: Are you really, really sure?

Coach: YES!

Me: Okay. If you insist....(loudly) That's obstruction! You (pointing at batter), first base!

Had a football coach who was about as stupid as this coach you dealt with, though he did seem to have a smart motive for it. He wanted my white hat to change the illegal motion penalty (which is a live ball penalty that can be declined) to a false start penalty (which is dead ball and cannot be declined) because he thought I had it wrong because his receivers were moving at the snap. They weren't stimulating the snap, so that's why I called it illegal motion. Coach kept insisting for the false start, and I pulled out a flag and called unsportsmanlike conduct on him. My white hat had the deer in the headlights look, as did the coach. When I said to my white hat, "coach is trying to pull a fast one on us," white hat said "next one will cost you your a** coach!" Coach wanted to know how he was pulling a fast one. He never figured it out and looked like he was trying to catch his tail between his legs. The rest of that game went so easy.

Originally Posted by wadeintothem

Foul side of the bag is a good one

Of course with the orange bag.....

You are evil, just plain evil

[ChampaignBlue]

Hard line drive down first base line. BR leading catcher and I trailing. Ball hits the line. Catcher yells out "FOUL BALL!!!!". BR stops and turns to question my judgement only to find me pointing furiously fair. He resumes running and I stick out my left arm but right fielder is now taking his time chasing down the "foul ball". BR takes a wide turn at third, thinks better of it since the ball has finally been retrieved and returns to third. Time. I award BR home on the obstruction.

Defense tries to argue that it was only verbal and I can't call it Obs. Sorry fellas your catcher yelled something reserved for me.

Defense now tries to argue that it also obstructed their fielder.

Sigh. Sorry fellas no rule against interfering with a team mate.