New Tournament Rotation
 

We have been seeing locally a shift from the traditional Plate-Base-Off rotation to a Plate-Plate-Off-Base-Base-Off.

It has some advantages and some disadvantages.
Among the advantages and disadvantages based on my experience and as stated by others:

Advantages
- Keeps the game schedule going, although the traditional practice of previous BU remaining for first few minutes while previous PU changes out never seemed to me to be an issue with the schedule

- Fewer equipment change outs, many feel strongly about this but changing out has never bothered me

Disadvantages
- Loss of focus, my preference is to be as fresh as possible for any given assignment and have found that late in the second game in the repeat position close calls are more difficult to make

- Physical challenge, early in the season, it is not so much a problem doing back to back plates, but I think that many will struggle in the dog days of summer. And taking weather out of the equation, (at least for me), I would rather do 3 plates back to back than 2 bases back to back. The base game is harder on my back and feet than plate.

Anything to add?

This past weekend at a Men's NAFA tournament the crew asked for this rotation and the UIC said no he wants us fresh on every plate game. his reasoning was if you have a bad Plate and have to do a second plate it could be very problematic.

My new mantra is quality over quantity. Sure, I've worked plenty of days where I did 4-8 games. That just isn't physically or mentally as much fun anymore. So, my new preferred rotation would be...plate-base...home!

I can't even begin to imagine what I would look like after doing back-to-back plates when it's in the 90s with 95% humidity. When I finish my plate, I look forward to removing that wet uniform and even wetter gear for my next game on bases. And then I can don a fresh uni (not the same one from previous) for my second plate. I'm sure for the second game, the coaches during the plate conference, and the batters and catchers during the game, would appreciate my not looking and smelling like I swam in the water treatment pond.

Also, doing back-to-back base games in the same uniform makes you look and feel like crap (wet and possibly dirty uniform, salt-crusted hat, shoes than look like brown hush puppies) for the second game. I really prefer having the opportunity to look like an umpire and not like Pigpen for every game.

I do 1 tournament - in Mike's area - where the rotation is this plate-plate-off-base-base-done. It isn't bad.
But my preferred rotation is plate-off-base-off... With a maximum of 5 games per day, this keeps me freshest.
The plate-base-off has too much changing and really does not provide enough recovery time.

I'd say 90% of the tourney's I've done in the past 5 years (all in the Houston-ish area) have been PPoBBo. The rare PBoPBo tourneys always throw people a bit, probably simply due to unfamiliarity.

That said, I do prefer PBoPBo - it's easier to stay fresh... and also, it eliminates the situations where you have the same PU for semi and final games - which seems fairer, generally speaking. I hate getting the noon and 1:30 plates - especially in 100 degrees.

Gone are the days of doing eight games per day. I once did thirteen.

If I could, I would do no more than three or four.

Joel

I guess one of the advantages you have with PPoBBo is that you and one partner aren't stuck doing the same assignments for the day.

Let's say one field has Tom, Dick and Harry assigned to it. The games would go like this:

1. Tom (P), Dick (B)
2. Tom (P), Harry (B)
3. Dick (P), Harry (B)
4. Dick (P), Tom (B)
5. Harry (P), Tom (B)
6. Harry (P), Dick (B)

So when Tom and Dick work together, Tom will do the plate in Game 1, but do the bases in Game 4. It does allow more variance than PBoPBo, where Tom would have plate and Dick bases in Games 1 and 4.

Steve mentioned liking PoBo. That wouldn't work with a three-umpire-to-one-field setup. You'd need four umpires, with one pair working together throughout.

Very true. That happened once to me, over 2 days, we used the same rotation. When I was plate, I had a competent BU every game... but when I was Base, I had to deal with a complete clown of a PU (complete with dancing to the music the teams were playing) who seemed to cement his feet in place to call pitches and never moved a damn inch during the inning (although he was quick to vacate upon getting the 3rd out so he could go chat with the hot moms and such).

I can handle a guy like that for a game, and maybe another game 6-7 hours later... but every third game for 2 days was quite a drag.

OTOH, when he was the base guy and I was watching, he appeared to be competent and professional - even between innings.

With a heat index of 127 F, I can't imagine doing a single plate.

I like this line of thinking. Unfortunately there aren't many UICs that want to assign an umpire to just a couple of tournament games a day.

I don't know that I would fault the UICs.

In my neighborhood, we wouldn't have enough umpires provide availability to do a one on, one off rotation. Then most of the ones that would provide availability would complain because they aren't getting enough games to make any money....:rolleyes:

The preferred rotation is one and one. Then a P-B-O.

AFA mixing it up, you can always make a move to another field/crew coming off the break, but much of that depends on how the tournament is going. You can set it up that way, but the UIC & umpires must be flexible and willing to forego that, or any schedule, if the situation dictates.

MTD, Jr., and I much prefer the PU/BU/off rotation. Here in NW Ohio we umpire in two different areas. The Toledo area and the Findlay area.

The Toledo area tournaments are either ASA or USSSA. The games are 1:25 long with 0:15 between games. Two umpires are assigned usually assigned on average six games in a row. It is next to impossible to use the PU/BU rotation and keep the games on schedule.

The Findlay area tournaments are ASA. The games are 1:30 long with 0:30 between games. A three umpire PU/BU/off rotation is used and the umpires much prefer this rotation.

MTD, Sr.

Six games a 12 hour day is borderline absurd, but understandable. Six in a row is stealing money because I don't give a damn who you are, you are not mentally or physically able to give 100% for every play of every game. You may think you are, but you are not and your body will betray your mind when it goes into survival mode.

We've all been young and foolish and thought we were the Energizer Bunny out there. But if you get a video or 3rd party opinion, you may discover that you are not getting to where you need to be as easily as it was early on, if you are getting there at all.

We are there to umpire a game, not prove how tough we are to the world. Don't know how many times, whether playing or umpiring, that I've heard an umpire refer to pacing or saving himself because of the schedule that day.

I can understand emergency situations where someone goes down and the schedule needs to be adjusted, but the original schedule should never be that short on umpires.