Things I learned at nationals

[okla21fan]

14U USA/ASA @ Midland. Late Saturday afternoon elimination game(winner goes to Sunday ball) between two teams from a 'warm weather/sea side state' that the two teams knew each other very well as they played about 25 miles apart.

1-0 ball game in the bottom of the 4th with home team behind and runners on first and third with one out. R2 on first had been 'on the envelope' when not stealing, but is at least a step and a half off the bag on a steal attempt and I bang her for leaving early. (3 man system)

Here is the fallout:

'you don't make that call in a game like this, cause that is a game changing call
'let the girls play'
'we teach our girls to rock on the motion'
'you called dead ball even before she left the bag'
'thats rec league'
'she has never been called for that all year long'

Then to make matters worse, on our field the first base foul lines were not chalked all the way down through the grass, so my plate umpire decided that he would call all balls on the line for fair/foul as we on the lines might not have a good frame of reference. So on a line drive on the foul line where this was not even close to being a catch/no catch situation , I button hook into a 'modified A' position to give my plate a clear view of the status. Then I hear for a few more batters:

'this guy doesn't even know what he is doing, he didn't even go out on the foul ball.'

The worst thing about all of this was that they were on the 1st base dugout, and for 2 plus innings I could not get water from my jug.

The best thing is that my plate ump came to me after the game and said that he thought the girl was off the bag as well and that it was a great call. But he did add.... 'better you than me'...lol