Absolutely. During the regular season if my partner feels like talking, I'll talk between innings. Heck, if I'm working with one of my really good friends I know we're going start in with the jokes and stories so we have to be careful to remember to keep the time between innings short.

During tournaments or when we're being evaluated, yeah, I go to the proper position. Like they don't know we change things when we're being watched. ;)

... at that point I just start talking to myself :eek:

Thanks Dave You are right, I should have had her make the call explanation. But at the time I though be me making that explanation would deflect the coaches anger from her (it did).

I think she needs more time on the field, unfortunately our jr season is only two week long (nine days in a row with one for rainouts) and she has band camp so she is done for the season. Our next opportunity is the JR NFHS Season when school starts next month. But they will only pay for one umpire, So know I need to convince her to work for free a few dates for more training.

Hey, we cant help it. We're people people!


You know, its better than BS'ing with the SS, then they hit her the ball and and she goofs it up cuz shes distracted.

Not that I've ever done that, of course... :o

I'm relatively new to umpiring myself, currently in my 4th year. I've attended clinics, got the ASA DVD on mechanics, and attended a NUS at the beginning of last season. So I've tried to learn and practice the correct mechanics.

This year we took on 3 new umpires. All are middle aged guys who are new to umpiring. A couple have played the game some and one is still playing. The guy that's still playing also pitches in a slow pitch league. I worked a SP DH women's league set with him a couple of weeks ago. He wants to be a sponge and soak up as much knowledge as he can. He's got a lot of bad habits from watching some of our other umps, and maybe from some of the mentoring he's already received. Calling SP strikes is one of the goofier things I do as an umpire. But I had to work with him a lot on his calls, and hand signals. He'd indicate if a ball was outside or inside with a hand wave, that the ball hit the plate with a fist to palm, or that a ballwas "deep" w/ fingertips to shoulders. Occasionally he'd verbalize: "Just a bit outside", or some such. When he called a pitch, he'd rush into it instead of processing the pitch waiting a second, verbalizing and then the hammer for a strike. His calls were everything all at once. So I tried slowing him down there.

I also needed to explain working the slot to him. He'd actually work a "reverse slot" if you know what I mean. That's a situation where he's more likely to take a foul in the kisser.

We spoke a lot between innings, a bit in between games, a more after the games were finished. I think he'll eventually be a great umpire, but like a lot of folks needs to learn where he's supposed to be, how to get the position for a call, a slow down a bit.

One thing that helped me slow down is I call a lot of 12-14 yo JO games, and some men's rec SP, and I've convinced myself that on a force play, the player receiving the ball will always drop it. When they don't, it's like a surprise, and then I can call the out.

I agree that it's difficult to have teens working games at their own age group or even adult ball. Unless someone is a prodigy and umpire savant, it probably isn't going to work out well.