What is pony? Glorified rec? This is all preseason stuff right now around here until Memorial Day.

I might get flamed but I probably would have let that go. Let the girls play - I'm not big on the large and in charge stuff. Stuff like that I just let the coach know what I would normally do.

Championship play - Whole different ball game. Some BS preseason Pony .. what ? 12U? tourney... nah. Sorry.

But not the worst call ever... ;)

Michael, this is where you missed a great opportunity :D If he wanted to talk to the UIC, you should have located the UIC and told the coach to go ahead and talk to him, NOW!

God, I loved that one the first time I heard it!

PONY Baseball/Softball • Protect Our Nation's Youths
:rolleyes:

It wasn't a BS preseason game. This was a Sanctioned PONY Qualifier Tournament. My enforcing the rule wasn't about being large and in charge.

I worked a couple of games of the 14u national champs. They could flat out play. Thought for a moment I was back in Texas doing FP. Next game I woke up and realilzed it was just a dream.:eek:

I disagree - It was definately large and in charge and a gotcha.. or at least the way you described it. Thats obvious you pulled a gotcha.

I'll give you that it wasnt a bs tourney - pony league world tourney or whatever - It still would have taken a small amount of preventative umpiring to keep that from happening. Even if it was a big tourney and you were strickly enforcing - "coach are you sure, that will be a charged conference".

Wade, as I read what happened, you are being unfair to Michael. F2 requested TIME, not the coach. Once the coach came out shouting instructions to his players, it became a charged conference. The coach did not ask for the TIME or give the PU an opportunity to prevent anything. It seems clear from the coach's response, s/he went through F2 intentionally under the belief that this would not be a charged conference.

Well maybe the coach deserved that gotcha then. I'm not sure of the whole situation at the time. Seems like a little bragging about a gotcha call to me.. sometimes in the heat of battle the gotcha gets gotten... :D

I guess it was my worst call ever, but I called a foul ball when the player's feet were inside the line. :D :D :rolleyes:

Or maybe it was the illegal pitch when the leap was high enough to be seen by the PU and carried the stride foot to the circle line. :eek:

Thanks Dakota, that’s why I enforced the charged conference.
I don’t see in my OP where I appeared to brag about a “gotcha” call. It seemed pretty straight forward to me. The coach was charged with a conference. It was conference number four. By rule, on the fourth conference a different pitcher is required.

How do you not at LEAST admit that this is a gotcha call? You could have prevented it.. "Coach get back in your hole or this is a charged conference" would have done it.. that would have taken what? a half second and everyone gets to play their game happily without some ruling like that.

Maybe the coach was a jerk? Doubtless he probably was having problems with you all game or even in the past.. and you got him on this one? hmmm? Why else would he even try this that way unless there is some level of history here?

Confess and ye shall be set free.

At least admit you were getting this coach for whatever reason. Because IMO, this is very preventable and this type of call exactly falls under a "preventative umpiring" issue IMO.

In any case, at least its in the right thread. :D

Worst call? Heck, today my partner and I were the worst umpires ever. I mean, I didn't even know:

(1) The hands ARE part of the bat. Even though the batter didn't swing it should have been a foul ball instead of HBP.

(2) If I ring up a strike on a check swing it can still be appealed to my partner if the offense asks.

(3) I'm the plate umpire, so I'm supposed to overrule my BU's call if it's "blatantly" wrong (this one happened about three times and I still didn't get it right).

I set a new personal record for most sh*thouses in a single game, but having both coaches ticked off at you for getting everything right feels pretty good. Funny thing is, after the game our evaluator wanted to talk some minor mechanics adjustments instead of all the rules we missed and calls we blew...

(If you were about to dig through your rulebooks to correct me you can put them away now.;))

So my call last weekend wasn't a worst call ever. I wasn't a worst umpire ever.

I just had the improper angle and distance.

Runner at 2nd, off with the pitch. Sharp one hopper hit to SS who throws to 3B. Throw handcuffs 3B, runner easily there, slides feet first, tag way up on shoulder, I am right there somewhere between 45 and 90 and have a great look. Call her safe.

Here comes DC running across field, how can I make that call, you missed it, I could see it clearly from my bucket 80 feet away, you gotta get help yada yada yada. No, coach, not getting help blah blah coach has his say and walks back across field from dugout.

Fat b*atch in front row, first base line:
"Blue you need to pull your head out of your @$$." Not butt, @$$.

All this fun because I'm covering for Mizz Lou to change into her base duds.

(Secret just between us: when I got back to the car I tried to pull my head out, still didn't work.)

Did you go through the unfortunate episode called "break-up" with your partner? In case you did then what was the reason(s) for break up? Did you find out something bad in your partner or did some external event brought about that?

Gosh, I'm glad you asked. It was a dark and stormy night one December afternoon when my partner called me over to the sofa. As we slept in the dining room, she broke the bad news. It was something bad in my partner's external event that we just could not fix no matter how we bounced the ball in the pool.