Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA (Post 613253)

Are you telling me that there are organizations that let umpires on the field without at least telling them how to call an IP?

Originally Posted by BretMan (Post 613469)

No, that wasn't my point.

What I meant was that not all softball organizations instruct their umpires to call an illegal pitch as soon as it happens. ASA does, of course.

There do exist sanctioning bodies that instruct their umpires to call the illegal pitch when the ball reaches/crosses the plate, regardless of when the infraction actually occured.

Since the OP specified no organization or version of softball, calling an illegal pitch as soon as it happens might not necessarily be Umpiring 101 in all cases.

Originally Posted by scottk_61 (Post 613365)

He is a class act...

Originally Posted by Skahtboi (Post 613512)

Are you sure you want to take it that far??????? :D

Originally Posted by Tru_in_Blu (Post 613032)

Left arm, please.

Originally Posted by fiasco (Post 613305)

Welcome to the real world, sir.

That's life. Sometimes umpires fall through the cracks and don't get top notch training. The good news is that, in the majority of these cases (as in mine), these umpires are doing low level recreation co-ed games. Not that I will call them meaningless, but not properly understanding the IP mechanic in this case is really not the end of the world as you so dramatically make it out to be.

Were I to move up, say, to upper level men's league softball or even fast pitch girls softball, of course I would get the proper training through my association.

But the reality is, when you're new like me, you start out doing low-level games where the players are there just to have a good time, and so am I for the most part. I care about the job I do, and my assignor is not always readily available to answer my questions when I think of them. So I come to places like this, only to encounter pretentious blowhards like yourself hellbent on protecting the integrity of the game via an internet message board.

So, I'm not bothered by the flippancy I get when I ask a simple question and get a "oh that's softball 101" answer. Some people have the heart of a teacher, some do not. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not trying to skate by. I read some of the ASA manual every day. Some days I get it. Some days I feel like I'm getting dumber with every page I read. I write down scenarios from games I work and talk them over with my assignor. I ask some questions here. Some of them are stupid questions, but I've never been afraid to ask stupid questions and encounter people who love to tell you how stupid your question is. That's just life.

Originally Posted by BretMan (Post 613469)

No, that wasn't my point.

What I meant was that not all softball organizations instruct their umpires to call an illegal pitch as soon as it happens. ASA does, of course.

There do exist sanctioning bodies that instruct their umpires to call the illegal pitch when the ball reaches/crosses the plate, regardless of when the infraction actually occured.

Since the OP specified no organization or version of softball, calling an illegal pitch as soon as it happens might not necessarily be Umpiring 101 in all cases.