I have and it ain't pretty! :)

One of the teams I had yesterday has taken great strides in equalizing th enumber of irght-handed and left-handed batters in their lineup. last year, they had 1 token right handed batter - now they have 2.:D

Years ago while watching a baseball game where the BU who also umpired softball called dead ball because the batter hit a pitch into his foot while still in the batter’s box. The PU hustled to the ball, picked it up and began blowing on the ball several times. The PU then announced that all was ok and that through resuscitation he’d brought the ball back to life and it was time to play ball.

Are you serious? I'm ROTFL over this. What age group was this?

HS Varsity. I chuckled for several innings.

I believe in NFHS BB they are using the DDB signal now?

They'll come around on the dead ball call as well.

That will be fun because heads will explode.

And the friendly white uniformed gentlemen with the nice wraparound white strait jacket and rubbered white paddy wagon van didn't come to take this blue to a nice state-owned "hotel" equipped with a bunch of rubber rooms? :D

Headless umpires...chaos will ensue. Headless coaches...serenity for umpires. :D

"Headless coaches?" Isn't that redundant?

If so, who stole my damned serenity? Because I sure as hell don't have any on the field. :D

Getting back to the original topic. How many times will you let a batter ask for (or is it demand :p)time. Some of these players are out of control with tightening their batting gloves or digging in their feet at the box.As other officials have posted I'll give time if it's an legitimate request otherwise stay in the batters box and swing!

Unless the batter has requested time in a timely manor, my response is "Balls in play." I stop the jockeying back and forth between the pitcher and batters early in the game by directing the batter to the box and directing the pitcher to play ball.

I've also been know to mention to the catcher that her pitcher has twenty seconds to deliver the pitch after she's received the ball back and grant the catcher time out to deliver the message.

This is directly from the NCAA dierctor of umpires:

Granting Batter’s Request for ‘Time’

-The batter should be granted Time when the umpire thinks it is necessary and appropriate.

-Batters should not routinely be given Time whenever she asks for it.

-You are NOT wrong to deny granting Time when the batter is uncomfortable in her stance, and the pitcher still has time left.

-The batter should NOT be given Time if there are no apparently unusual circumstances.

Realize that the game situation may be an appropriate reason to grant Time. An extreme example: bottom of seventh, score visitor 1, home 0, home team has not had a runner past first all game and batter hits a triple. The pitcher may shake off more signals than usual and need a little time. Or, same situation, but two outs and batter hits a double and home team brings in a pinch hitter. This hitter may need some time. Good game management requires that umpires recognize this to be a normal flow (or normal break in flow) and grant Time accordingly.

When a batter requests Time, and you are not going to grant it, say something positive like: "The ball is in play," or "We are still playing,” Stay in there,” or “Keep playing." If the plate umpire responds with the word "No," while not incorrect, it is can be misinterpreted by the pitcher or catcher to be the beginning of "No Pitch."

The umpire’s tone needs to be firm but not mean.

Says Jim Evans about the DDB, "What does that mean? Is it in a coma?" :D

i learned this year that there are pitchers who don't even look at my stop sign and just start to pitch, so I put my stop sign right on top of the catcher's helmet and in a tournament, i had this pitcher who quick-pitched way too much, so I deliberately took my sweet time to get set, keeping my stop sign on top of the catcher's helmet, got into my crouch and then pointed to the pitcher to pitch. a couple of those "slow down" messages and a few "no pitch" calls got her coach to tell her to wait till i'm ready...

i've even had a few pitch when i'm still putting on my mask, so I learned to put on my mask to the side of the plate rather than behind the plate... i already give them a huge strike zone, they need to give me a chance to get ready or i'm just going to keep "no pitch"ing them...

i'll extend the "time" courtesy to the batter unless it's being done deliberately to slow down the game since they already have to deal with my huge strike zone, they should get a chance to step out for a sec up to a point.

once i had a 3 hour game and both teams were just dilly dallying between innings and it took them 2hrs 15 min to play the first 4 innings (lots of runs too) so after the 4th inning, i took away the between inning warmups, as soon as the 3rd out was made, i yelled: "balls in, batter up!" played the last 3 innings in 45 min.

Did he really?

Thats funny :D