Seventeen Games this weekend
 

Ties my record for a weekend, and breaks (by far) the latest in the year I've gotten to work. Gonna be cold (well ... Texas cold - 40's to 60's). Just hope we don't get rain. Would be ironic I get through an entire Spring and Fall season with zero rainouts - and lose games to rain in freaking December.

Advil and my backbrace are my friends... said "See ya Monday" to my family this morning.

That is absurd.

Must have short time limits.

Wow....tired much?

Do you feel that you will be giving the players and teams the same quality of umpiring in, say, games twelve through seventeen as you would in games one through five?

What Mike said.

This has been a trend in my area and I have been 'fighting' with schedulers about working too many games in a weekend for a year or so. I was recently scheduled 7 games one Sat after working 2 the Friday night before, and scheduled for 4 on Sunday (all the same tournament). Frankly, that is about 4 or 5 too many games for the whole weekend imo. We don't expect players to play 7 FP games in a day, so why do we think Umps can do a 'good' job either? I think this leads to bad habits and lazy mechanics and have turned back weekend from the assigners who do this. (and last but not least, it could be said it is not fair to the teams who are paying pretty good money to have their games worked.)

Not to mention the softball hangover on Monday.

To clarify on a few of the things said above.

Tonight's 4 games are pool play, drop dead 60 minute time limit. I have 2 plates, 2 bases in that order. Should be about 4 1/2 hours total.

Tomorrow, we're working 3 to a field. Plate, base, off, repeat and stir. I've worked 7 or 8 this way plenty of times, and while it's tiring, it's not a beating and we are all used to this. the first four (I have 2 of them) is the drop dead 60 minute variety. The rest of the day and Sunday is 75 minutes finish the inning, no ties - so at some point we'll get behind I'm sure - especially with teams moving from field to field. Getting behind on one field could put us behind on the other fields. I'll be leaving around 11, 11:30 - hopefully not TOO much later than that.

The main issue for me will be that generally after this sort of Saturday, I'm beat on Sunday. I can do 6 in a row on a normal day. Will be interesting to see how I do working 6 in a row after the Saturday I described. And as we (the umpires) wear down, the level of play is steadily increasing as are the stakes.

I'll let you know. At least it won't be 90 degrees +. I just hope we get to play the last few - looks like serious rain coming in around noon on Sunday.

Curious.....FP or SP?
No matter what the game, I agree that 17 is way overboard, for all the reasons previously posted.

17 games - either there's a half-a$$ed effort or the games are so non-competitive that they don't really need an umpire.
Other then college ball, I'm usually doing a 1-on-1-off rotation. Though there is one time each year in Mike's area where I do more than 1 in a row.

Please note: May be my area, but not my assigning.

As for the other Mike, I'm confident that you are confident in your job. I have no doubt you will do your best every game, first to last. Been there, done that, will never even consider doing it again.

Now the flip side. As confident as you may feel and raring to go, it is too many games. Even with time limits, it is still a steady stream of play with minimal breaks. You believe you are fresh, but if you actually pay attention, I have found myself and others start to check up early on plays and not be even close to where I was on the same play in the earlier game.

JMO, but taken from years of experience. Good luck and take care of yourself first.

I have done thirteen for a weekend.......I think that included Friday........

I did a State tournament in League City that I would have had fourteen.......but there was no IF game.

I used to do multiple cities in one day.........but quit that after I had some gear stolen from my car and I broke a couple of ribs on the same day........I figured that was bad Karma...........I stick to one city from now on........:cool:

Seeing that we are 28 inches behind on rainfall......I would relish it......my yard is dead......my ex wifes yard is dead......my Mother's is hanging on only because it is shaded from some pretty big trees and I watered it a bit during the summer.....

I had to stop that when her water bill go too high..........d;-)

Joel

Most tournaments I have worked have been two on....one off.....but have had a few in the Tx summers where you worked without a break........it sucks.....but it happens.

Joel

Only if you let it.

I know....I know......you can only have someone take advantage of you if you let them.........:cool:

I am older and wiser now........:eek:

Maybe....

Joel

I agree that 17 is way too many games in a weekend for all of the reasons already stated. I have noticed, for me, that after about 4 games in a day, my umpiring begins to erode. Like Mike said, I find I am pulling up short on plays, not always in the best position, and have lost some of my hustle.

Assignors who engage in this practice need to learn that it is not fair to the teams nor the umpires.

Here on LI our season ended 2 weeks ago. At 65 I try to limit myself to 2 FP games per day. I can do 3 or even 4 if on artificial turf but my hustle suffers along with my feet, knees, and back.

I do have some empathy for the assigner. In the fall we loose a lot of softball umpires to football; field hockey; soccer; volleyball; etc. So the pool of available qualified FP umpires for a weekend tourney has dwindled.

Luckily here fall ball is not as competitive as spring/summer so we can get rookie umpires teamed up with the more experienced umps so they can get some higher level experience without throwing them to the wolves.

And then there is the umpire who tells folks, "yeah, but I pace myself". :eek:

IOW, nobody gets 100% because you need to last longer than you should be out there. :mad:

Don't get me wrong. I am aware of special circumstances where it may be unavoidable. I must note that in my area when we have an umpire go down for any reason, the rest of the umpires step right up, often without being asked, and take on additional games with minimal breaks.

However, as a routine so an assignor doesn't have to deal with more people than necessary or because an umpire may be greedy or an association has overbooked their weekend just isn't right. None are an acceptable reason to place the umpires' integrity and health, or the association's reputation in jeopardy.

I think we all know those who "pace themselves". They give the rest of us a bad reputation.
AND, when one of us goes down, I'd hope that all would step right up. That is an extra ordinary effort - not one that should be used to allow somebody to work more games.

Well ... I lived. And I took Monday off from my real job to recuperate. We lost a few games to Rain, so I worked 14 in total. As to pacing, I saw a mix. One guy gave the Friday night games the "I'm being evaluated" hustle. Ran (sprinted ... almost fell once) from position to position between plays, brushed off the pitchers plate and first base EVERY half inning, etc. That guy was crashed on the floor during his Sunday break and visibly limping on Sunday (I didn't see him Saturday, so the limp could have been from an actual injury and not just fatigue). One guy treated Friday night as beneath him, walked everywhere, and was caught out of position twice ... not sure how he would have been on Sunday, as he was sent home and replaced for Sat/Sun.

My 2 partners and I all had about the same pacing. 100% during a play - but much more relaxed between plays. Example - R1 on 3rd, BU in C. Passed ball - runner scores. BU would not sprint back to A, but rather walk there. Another example. On a SB at 2nd, PU would start walking to 3rd for a possible attempt to take 3rd if the ball got away, instead of making Yes - none of us would do this on normal days, but it must have helped, as we were all still giving 100% during plays on Sunday and got compliments from coaches and TD on our hustle.

I wore the back brace all weekend, which helped. The only thing still aching is my feet.

Interesting (to me ... maybe not to you!) notes from the games:
1) Hey fans, how can we have "Nice pitch, pitcher", "Come on, Blue!" and "Nice stop, catcher!" all on the same pitch?
2) One team wore green shirts with red trim and white numbers, red pants, white socks with green trim. Very Christmas - it looked cool. Their sister team had red socks instead and it looked like they were wearing Christmas pajamas.
3) Several of the 10U's looked like they could eat my 11 year old for a snack.
4) Shortest home run ever. Ball hit literally 2-3 inches off the plate on the first base side. I'm pointing fair when it stops. Pitcher comes in to pick it up, sees me calling if fair, and points at it, arguing it's foul because it's in the batters box. As the runner round SECOND, coach then comes out yelling. Catcher walks away to pick up her mask. Pitcher walks off to pout at the mound. Ball is STILL sitting there. Coach is about in my ear looking at my stop sign as runner rounds third - he eventually swats my hand away while this play is still going (he also said, "Look at me, a$$hole" while I'm still watching the play). Catcher sees the runner, finally, and that I'm watching the runner and in position for a call, figures it out, rushes for the ball and fails to tag out the runner. This (the coach) was the only ejection of the tournament.

Might not have been able to resist a "Who's the ******* now?" comment with a ****-eating grin on my face at this point :cool:


I would certainly hope that he was done for the tournament at that point whether his team was or not. If not, I might have had threatened the TD with calling the police to get a point across.

This is hilarious! I might also have managed to clock the coach with my mask in the left hand when I gave the big SAFE signal on the play at the plate, then ejected him....

I did 12u a week ago for the first time in a long time...it amazes me some of the stuff that those coaches and parents come up with....

I actually don't know if he was done for the day. I don't recall which team won that game to be honest. I do know I didn't see him again after that.

Please, please tell me that you filed charges on him. Texas has special charges for assault on a sports official that would have upped it from simple assault and treated it more like assaulting a police officer in the line of duty.

Any assault, especially with battery, by a non-child, must be reported to police, Texas or not, sports official or not.

OK, I think I've caused some overreaction. I would be the first to file charges if I was actually assaulted. This was not an attack. What your seeing in your head is more "active" than what happened here. I had a play going, was standing a few feet from the plate watching the runner and the ball (and eventually the catcher). He was trying to argue with me, so I had my hand up in his direction. He's approaching and pushes my arm aside. Ejectable - he77 yes. Assault? No, not at all.

Except some areas in Pennsylvania.

????????????????? :confused:

Well, actually, it is if the contact was intentional and not part of the game which it isn't since he is not supposed to be on the field.

Not saying that you should press charges, but the TD doesn't know that :rolleyes:

A nice drop ball that falls off the table. Batter tries to check her swing, but the fans think it is an attempt. Catcher does a nice job of digging it out of the dirt. There you go. :D