First weekend

[MD Longhorn]

Finally got our first weekend of Fall Ball under the belt. Let me first thank my scheduler for giving me 10U. The play was awful but at least the coaches were worse. First time I've ever LITERALLY pulled the rulebook (the local, not the ASA rules) out of my pocket, handed them to a coach, and asked her to read them. Proper etiquette on my part? No, probably not. But she simply couldn't understand me and even her other coach was telling her I was right and trying to get her to sit down.

The recipe of walk - passed ball - passed ball - passed ball (SCORE!) - walk ... repeat and stir until time coach to pitch, toss in the occasional HBP - PB - PB - PB (score!), was not exactly appetizing.

Got to see a pitcher hit her self in the head with the ball (straight up.... straight down). Got to witness a SB attempt that took literally 20 seconds to resolve, as the runner (who still hasn't touched 2nd) collided with the back of the SS who already had the ball and kept stomping on 2nd base, but never tagged the runner on purpose. She finally turned to look at me (I suppose wondering why I'm not calling the out) and accidentally tagged the runner who was still standing about 2 feet off the base not knowing what to do.

During the first 2 games, where I was PU, my BU made exactly ONE out call. (Ironically, when I was BU, the very first batter grounded out on a nice close play that I got to sell - partner was pissed.)

I think I said, "Coach, 1 base per pitch" about 40 times.

All that said... it was great to be back out at the park.

[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Finally got our first weekend of Fall Ball under the belt. Let me first thank my scheduler for giving me 10U. The play was awful but at least the coaches were worse.
All that said... it was great to be back out at the park.

Sorry to hear your 10&U are so much less than ours.

Or, sorry to hear you have to play with local rules.

[CecilOne]

Although we did have the "must slide" and the "hands are part of the bat" come up in the same game.
That was also the same game the pitching distance was wrong and the game balls were late.

And my partner kept calling foul balls, etc. as BU.

[NCASAUmp]

Our 10U isn't much better, but they're only allowed to steal 2nd. No D3K, no IFF, no windmill during the pitch.

It's a lot of "ball... ball... ball... HAW! ball four. Ball... ball... ball... HAW! HAW! ball four."

Often takes a half hour or more to get through an inning, and that's calling nose to toes, box to box. Thank god for time limits.

[MD Longhorn]

We have 75 minutes, with 15 minute scheduled breaks. Unfortunately, when almost every half inning takes within 1 minute of 15 --- you can't end the game anywhere near 75 minutes - I lucked out yesterday with, for the most part, the home team leading after 2 1/2 or the visitor being up by more than the run limit... but this is going to get ugly one Saturday, I know it.

Note on the local rules... after a few years of good umpires here (and one of us on the board), we've got most of the nonsense out of the rulebook, and the rare deviation from ASA is actually spelled out and enforceable. Nothing like the thread I started on that other league a couple of weeks ago. MOST of the "local rules" are really just regurgitations of actual ASA rules. Things like "The lookback rule will be enforced." (I wanted to add, "along with the rest of the ASA rulebook").

[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Note on the local rules... after a few years of good umpires here (and one of us on the board), we've got most of the nonsense out of the rulebook, and the rare deviation from ASA is actually spelled out and enforceable. Nothing like the thread I started on that other league a couple of weeks ago. MOST of the "local rules" are really just regurgitations of actual ASA rules. Things like "The lookback rule will be enforced." (I wanted to add, "along with the rest of the ASA rulebook").

Good!

[JEL]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

We have 75 minutes, with 15 minute scheduled breaks. Unfortunately, when almost every half inning takes within 1 minute of 15 --- you can't end the game anywhere near 75 minutes - I lucked out yesterday with, for the most part, the home team leading after 2 1/2 or the visitor being up by more than the run limit... but this is going to get ugly one Saturday, I know it.

Note on the local rules... after a few years of good umpires here (and one of us on the board), we've got most of the nonsense out of the rulebook, and the rare deviation from ASA is actually spelled out and enforceable. Nothing like the thread I started on that other league a couple of weeks ago. MOST of the "local rules" are really just regurgitations of actual ASA rules. Things like "The lookback rule will be enforced." (I wanted to add, "along with the rest of the ASA rulebook").

Our 10U plays 90 minutes. In the "live" games I have seen 1/2 innings take 40+ minutes! That is even with a 7 run per inning limit. Rarely get more than 3 complete innings in a game.

Worse yet, only the last 3 games of the season use love pitching! The bulk uses a pitching machine and two umpires at that! At least one umpire gets to load the machine.

Theory is, the batters can't hit because the pitching stinks. Doesn't matter that the pitching stinks because they don't get to pitch!

Oh well, machine games go about an hour, sometimes less. Get full game fee. Who am I to complain?