Pet Peeves..........
 

One of my biggest as an umpire is when I am ump'ing a game and one of the teams playing has a "fellow umpire" on it---and they make every attempt to do stuff they know is illegal or to make you think you've made the wrong call and don't know the rules.


grrrr......

Added pev
 

As an umpire. I attend my daughters games as a fan or sometimes a score-keeper and I see umpires who THINK they do know the rules.

My pet peeve: Partner allows 15-20 warmup pitches, 3-4 minutes, chatting with someone outside the fence.

That or coaches that yell time and start walking toward their pitcher, not waiting for me to call TIME, before play has completely stopped.

Yes---this is tough to watch. I have several times gone to "said umpires" after the game with my rule book in hand and show them the actual rule. Only one time did they not appreciate it. I do not do it during a game because I feel that would be very uncouth.

Yes.......I give about 4 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

Let alone the talking to outside the fence visitors. How about the partner that tries to be the funny, buddy-buddy with both the the coaches before, between and during the innings because everyone knows he's going to screw something up....including himself and hopes his fake "I'm your pal" attitude will save him.

This......

I admit it is hard for me as I have played ball at the complex that I now umpire at for about 15 years now. I know, have played with and/or against most of the players that come there for games. I make every attempt though to keep it "professional" when I am in my umpire attire.

I did get a compliment last night.....an older gentleman on one of the church teams games I had told me I had the most consistent ball/strike zone and hustled more than any umpire they'd had so far this season. (I did make sure last night wasn't their first game. lol)

:eek:I'm the BU and I watch my partner ignore EVERY one of the "administrative" rules.

I will talk to them when given a chance and will hear them say "Well I don't enforce those nit picky rules".

I try not to work with that person again.:rolleyes:

"nit picky rules" ............ :(:(:( one more reason umpires in general get bad raps......

Thank you for hitting my pet peeve. Umpires that refuse to enforce the rules and make it harder on me for doing so.

Yes. I dislike it when the, "none of the others make us do that...." card gets played.



Oh and how many of you get the "it's a vicinity play" thrown at ya??

My biggest pet peeve: People that don't know the difference between "their", "there" and "they're".

How about coaches who argue calls for the simple SAKE of arguing a call, knowing full and damn well that the right call was made? :p

Strike Zone
 

In SP, hearing the coach or pitcher say, They really need to chalk that line in front of the batter's box, so Blue knows where the Strike Zone is!

Blue, that was a foot behind the line!

Inside, I snicker...

Well, their you go.

When their misusing they're words, there points often become mute.

Your rite.

Wholly molee!

Ah, I wish their points were "mute" instead of just "moot."

:D

Ah.........and re-enter the "clowns".........

We never leave, Surf! :D

This is nothing....wait til we fire up a good beer debate.

I've been savoring some Sam Adams Honey Porter and Cream Stout lately :rolleyes:

And here we go...

Surf, get it over with. What's your favorite beer? ;)

Sam Adams Cherry Wheat for me.

Absolute favorite beer is Great Divide Oak-Aged Yeti - a Russian Imperial Stout. Well, that's a winter beer. Let's see, summer beer - Summit Brewing Co. Extra Pale Ale and Sierra Nevada Summerfest. And, then there's the recipe for Wry Smile - a rye IPA. Yeah, homebrewing is cool. OH, there's Arrogant *******. And Brother Thelonius. And Gulden Draak. I better quit now.

Even if you're not old enough. ;) We won't tell. :)

Typical Texan! :p

Whoops...look'it what I've done.

I rarely drink beer, but when I do...my standby favorite before moving to Texas was Newcastle. Now, it is Shiner Bock. I've heard St. Arnold is tasty but haven't gotten around to trying it yet. When I'm feeling rowdy, a Black and Tan is the order of the day.

At last. Somebody who drinks beer!!! :D

That's a local St. Paul beer... and my favorite USA brewed beer. My absolute favorite is (or maybe was... with the consolidation of UK brewers, I don't know if it is still the same, or even still brewed...) Pedigree Bitter... live ale (unpasteurized) drawn from the tap.

Will the rain of terror never end?




stay thirsty, my friends

So I gather.............lol.

Favorite beers seem to be a hot topic on several sites.

I don't drink beer. I do like my own homemade vodka and lemonade mix though......or Tarantula's (tequilla coolers).

Oh I am old enough.......:o

You may have caught another reference to the World's Most Interesting Man in another post in this thread...just sayin'. ;)

World's Most Interesting Man?????? :confused::confused:

Excuse me...I misspoke....The Most Interesting Man in the World...

YouTube - The Most Interesting Man In the World: People hang on his every word, even the prepositions

Oh please.

Then you should remember Blazing Saddles and single bases at 1st. :p

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!".

I also have a problem when I arrive and try to have a pre-game and my partner states he's "sone this long enough to know how and what to umpire."

I go over a few thing anyway and most of the time I will watch my partner screw things up.

Since we are talking peeves here, how about that partner who thinks that the plate conference with coaches is a good time to give a clinic? I had one this post season who droned on and on for five minutes or more. It was ridiculous.

A couple of weeks ago, while in Orlando, FL, I tried a local brew called Blonde Ale from Orlando Brewing that was very good. Also, I had a very good beer out of PA called Yuengling that was an excellent beer. Can't find them here so I usually go for Landshark or Blue Moon.

Ah yes, Yuengling. It really is a good lager, and is my go-to when at the bar. I far prefer anything from Ommegang or Unibroue, though. I'll take an Abbey anyday.

When you say Bud, you've said it all - Click here

I found some Session Lager at Cost Plus today. It is brewed by Full Sail in Hood River, OR. Tasty beer and I haven't been able to find it until today.

Yuengling is an acceptable lager. I have never had the Blonde Ale from Orlando Brewing.

Now, judging from your beer tastes, let's challenge them just a bit. If you like a good lager, look for Sierra Nevada's SummerFest at your local purveyor of beers. There should still be some left on shelves, though its time for distribution should be just about done. Anyway, this is a very good lager, and it is widely distributed. Another widely distributed lager that is good is Longboard Lager from Kona Brewing. Other good examples of lagers include Birra Peroni and Birra Moretti from Italy, both very crisp and clean examples of the style.

If you like wheat beers, such as Blue Moon, then I would suggest branching out there, as well. Kona's Wailua Wheat is very good. Shiner's Hefeweizen appeals to many people, though it is only a mild example of the style. (Maybe the mildness is the reason for the broad appeal. Also, while I am not a big fan of Shiner's brews, I have found they make a good stepping stone to real beer.) Pyramid Brewing makes a Hefe that is far closer to the true style, and it is also fairly widely distributed.

Blonde Ales tend to be takes on English Style Pale Ales. Sadly, the grand daddy of this style, Whitbread's, is no longer being brewed. Red Hook makes a good Blonde Ale. Here is a pretty extensive list of them. Bass, Smuttynose, Old Speckled Hen, Sam Smith's, and 1066 tend to be available in many parts of the US. If you decide to play around with some of these, and can find Red Hook products in your area, give Red Hook's ESB a try. If you like that one, then look for Fuller's ESB. Now, THAT is a real taste treat.

If you really like your lagers, then why not give some pilsners a try. The best of these, IMO, is Victory Brewing's Prima Pils. Wow! Easier to find, though, in most parts of the country, are the two Czech brews, Pilsner Urquell and Czechvar. Both very good.

"I don't drink beer often, but when I do...."

I'm no student of the styles and locales, but I left in those I've tried and like.

Back to pet peeves:
- partners who never look at me
- spectators who throw out-of-play balls into the field
- umpires who talk with coaches about a partner's call

Finish that sentence, and I'd prefer to stay thirsty.

As a general rule, SN has a big bite at the end. Sometimes that is good, sometimes not so.

Eeehhh., okay, but NBD.

Have yet to find a wheat of "hefe" worth the cost of the plastic Dixie cup it may come in,

You need to move around more. How can you compare Bass and Sam Smith with Smuttynose and OSH? Not even in the same farmyard let alone barn.[/quote]

Victory, out of Downingtown, PA. Not bad, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

Had two real good brews last night, Brazilian. Xingu (black beer) and Prima Louca (pilsner). Both were worth the try.

I always have two things in my garage refrigerator: Bottles of Bass Ale and cans of Guinness Draught.

The pint glasses live in the freezer, the Black and Tan spoon hangs next to the sink.

Why would you kill a good beer with frosted glasses?

Chilled glasses from a reefer, okay. Frosted from a freezer? You're better off drinking a Jersey Turnpike.

Oxymoron, anyone?

I have some... no more an oxymoron anymore than bottles or cans of Miller Geniune Draft.

Well it isn't that much of one for Guinness since the cans have those widgets in them. Maybe not draught in the truest sense of the word but it works for me.

Yeah, right... :rolleyes:

Try selling that as "draught" to the
http://www.camra.org.uk/images/logo.gif

I'm just not enough of a beer purist to care honestly. ;)

England's full of lunatics. They call 'em "eccentrics" over there.

Nitrogen pellet, but I don't believe you get real Guiness in the US.

Not the SummerFest. It is a clean, crisp lager with no hop bite at all. Notice I left off all of the American Pales and IPA's from being mentioned, as I didn't want to scare a novice off. I know that hoppy beers tend to scare away the uninitiated.



While not a big wheat beer fan myself, I would not go as far as your comment here. There are some quite palatable wheat beers out there. Case in point, Erdinger's Dunkelweiss.



Again, this has less to do with my tastes and travels, than with trying to get someone who thinks Landshark and Blue Moon are what constitutes "real" beer to try some other offerings. I wasn't meaning to compare. I was trying to introduce. If I were to make a list of beers that I were to consider "great" and "good", then we would be here for quite a while. In defense of Samuel Smith, though, they have some good recipes for good beer (I am partial to the Oatmeal Stout and the Taddy Porter), and of course have a much more storied legacy than Smuttynose. (Hopefully you didn't read "Sam Adams" where I said "Sam Smith.")



You don't have to. Prima Pils is, IMO, probably the US's best pilsner. Some folks don't like a pils. That is up to them. Also, Victory's Hop Devil is a very good example of the American Style Pale Ale, with its many layers of complexity for beers that many just view as "hop monsters." The rest of Victory's brews don't really wow me, but I will defend those two as very respectable beers.

If you are talking about what you get in the Irish pubs, then you are correct. Completely different animal altogether.

1) Partners who yap too much at the plate conference ...

2) Partners who run around nit picking, BELIEVING they are some how puritan in enforcing rules when all they are really doing is ruining the game for everyone involved except themselves. An example of this behavior are the uniform inspectors, those who call time out to run to right field over an ear ring or run around attending some other nonessential task, those who toss bats that should never be tossed, but do so for the fun of it, those who announce outs and occupied bases to pitching changes, and those who call an IP then immediately run to the circle to conduct a coaching clinic on pitching mechanics, some times even including footwork demonstrations.

Let the girls play ball - follow that number 1 rule and everything else falls into place in most cases.

3) beer drinking threadjackers.

Well soon as I make a trip to Ireland I will be sure to try a real pint of Guinness. ;)

I'll keep an eye out for some Sierra Nevada SummerFest.

Gee, now I want a beer. :rolleyes:

I don't give a rat. It tastes good to me. Even in really cold glasses.

You don't need to go to Ireland. Canada allows direct import.

Agree, but what do you do with the coach in the 3B dugout who is screaming about the "jewelry" violation by the RF? :confused:

Last time I heard of a coach complaining about another team's player wearing jewelry, the umpire decided to take a break, walk to his car for a drink and a smoke, take an obligatory scan of the rule book, returned to the field and tossed the coach! :eek:

Oh, did I happen to mention he also kept the clock running? :D

Well.. I dont have many pet peeves involving coaches as they fall under a slightly different category: "triggers".

Well put.

You must be watching some NSA tournaments around here. I admit that I enjoy working them, but these are some of the exact same things that kinda tick me off while I'm working them. I do most of them, following the "when in Rome" concept, but I drop them as soon as I'm working something else.

1) NSA plate conferences require attendance by the coaches and the entire teams, since we are to check for uniform compliance by both teams. If either team is not in compliance, then the opposing team gets their choice of home or visitor, rather than doing a double coin flip. Since they are there, we are to remind them that shirts are to be tucked in all the way around, yada yada yada.

2) Yeah, uniform inspections are done, though this is one that I conveniently forget to check during the game. On a few occasions I have had a BU who has called time and run up to remind a batter that her shirt needs to be tucked, since I was negligent in doing so. We don't have to worry about jewelry any more, since NSA discourages wearing it, but does not prohibit it. The passing along of game information to a new pitcher in mid inning I do, but it feels stupid while I'm doing it. Even most of the high school umpires around here do it also, but I don't do it in a high school game. Finally, yes when we call an IP, we are supposed to call a coach from the violating team out to the circle so we can explain what the violation was. I keep mine brief, but a lot of my partners have done the whole pitching clinic thing. This is another one that some of the high school umpires do, but again I don't do this outside of NSA.

3) I pretty much stopped drinking around 12 years ago...probably haven't had 24 beers since then, so yeah I can't keep up with the beer conversations.

Wow! NSA actually requires the teams to line up for inspection? I can't imagine going through that rigmarole! I hope that whole Mickey Mouse process doesn't migrate my way...

Something in another thread reminded me of another pet peeve. I'm PU, and BU decides to call for "Balls in!" (before the minute OR number of pitches is up). Worse, the BU that adds, "Comin' down!"

Another - PU that says, after an outside pitch, "Bring em in, pitcher" or after a high one, "Bring em down, pitcher". How the hello do you know she didn't throw it high or outside on purpose?

I wouldn't know why any umpire would says anything.

75% of the time or so, pitcher / catcher know when their time is up, or their pitches are up. That 25% that's left, I generally say only where catcher can here me ... "Bring em in, catch", and they do the rest.

I think this definitely is a case of it depending on the level of play - when you have two good JV teams where the kids play travel ball, they are throwing it down after 3.....if not 1 sometimes - you have GOT to love that.....and then you have games where you have to nursemaid EVERYthing.......yuck....

Usually an "okay, let's go" to the catcher is all that is necessary. It better be since that is all the notice they are getting.

We do a couple of youth leagues, and when you are dealing with 8/9/10 yr olds......eccch....babysitting for an hour and 3/4...the only decent thing is that our assignor makes em pay premium fees.....$50 a game working alone.:eek:

That's as opposed to $39 for babysitting the older 'children' of our rec leagues with a partner....:p

I only say it if the PU already said it, and the players probably didn't hear him/her. The PU, in my opinion, is the one who sets the tempo on the field. The BU is there to assist. Kinda like dancing: one leader, one follower.

I don't tell the catcher what to do, just "one more" or "this is last".

So now we know, your real name is Arthur Murray! ;)

Definitely not. I can't dance for ****! :)

Maybe Arthur Spooner...