Pet Peeves..........

[BretMan]

Originally Posted by surf24

I give about 4 (warm-up pitches) in the very first inning and after that they get one. I mean they've already thrown a bunch --- it isn't going to get better. lol

One pet peeve is when an umpire ignores a rule in the rule book- like how many warm-up pitches the rules allow- and enforces some arbitrary notion of what they think is "better for the game".

Others:

- The "excessive warm-up pitches/excessive delays between innings" is a big one for me. The rules do prescribe a set number of warm-up pitches and a set amount of time in which they must be delivered. I'll give them that much, but that's it.

- When I'm the base umpire and at the plate conference the plate umpire goes off on a lot of tangents about obscure rules, tries to explain "his" strike zone, gives pre-emptive warnings about rule violations that aren't supposed to warrant a warning until they actually happen, tells the coaches that "we might miss some things, but you can't argue them because it's our judgment" or spends the plate conference joking it up, or buddying up with the coaches.

- When I'm the plate umpire and at the plate conference the base umpire feels the need to interject himself on every other sentence I utter.

- One that happens way too often and gets under my skin after awhile:

I hold up, say, two fingers on each hand and clearly announce, "Two balls, two strikes!".

The next pitch comes in and I clearly announce, "Ball!".

At which point, the batter/catcher/base coach asks, "What's the count, Blue?".

After three or four of those, I'm really tempted to say, "Exactly one ball more than when I gave the count after the previous pitch!".