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.

It is interesting to see the different points of view. A few years back, we knew that umpires would be working a lot of games at a National. They kept adding more teams and more fields, but there wasn't much time to get many more decent umpires. Knowing different preferences, we asked the umpires which rotation they preferred, whether it be one on and one off, two on and two off or plate-base-off. Enough preferred each of the rotations where we were able to accommodate most of them.

I had always preferred two on and one off. Once I suit up for the plate, I would rather just stay back there. To take everything off and jump on the field all sweaty after a 10 minute break isn't exactly refreshing. The sweat just bakes into you why standing on the bases.

An hour and a half time limit certainly helps when working two in a row behind the plate...

Irish:

You are preaching to the choir. The real problem is that many guys in the Toledo area don't like the idea of a three umpire rotation because it means that they can't get in as many games and they want to make money.

MTD, Sr.

6 in a row????
Actually I've done it, but not because it was planned - and although I consider myself a pretty competent umpire normally, I'm not sure I can say the teams got my best towards the end.

and then I remeber (way back when I was the best umpire in the county:rolleyes:, and a few years younger I did 9 (1:15) in a row.
Funny thing is, I was so new, that at the time I didn't think there was anything wrong with it AND I thought I was as good at the end as I was at the beginning....

Tournament scheduling should be interesting this year. Back about three years ago, we had an assigner who was adamant that umpires should not work more than two consecutive games and no more than three or four in a day. His reasoning was the same as what's been expressed here (mental and physical fatigue, the quality of umpiring in later games, etc.).

Some guys bitched that they weren't getting enough games under his system of scheduling. But I think it worked well from the standpoint of the teams having fresher officials, which directly affects the games, plus a larger pool of umpires were getting experience, which in the long run would affect the quality of the umpiring as a whole.

Then we got a new assigner. Pretty much everything became "three umpires to a field, all day long, plate/base/off rotation".

The second assigner was an experiened umpire and he had to realize the pitfalls of working too many games in a day, especially in severe summer weather. My impression was that he went with this system simply because it was easier for him to make the schedule.

Why bother contacting, scheduling and confirming with, say, six umpires, when you can cover the same number of games and only have to deal with three umpires?

That assigner had enough after one year and yet another took over. I think that our group was getting desperate for someone to do this, as the person who took over seemed ill-equipped to handle the load. The new assigner continued the "three men to a field" type of scheduling. There was also a lot of miscommunication about assignments. Numerous times I received the wrong game times or field number. One week I even had an UIC call me to ask why I wasn't at my assigned field, when I had never been contacted about working the tournament!

That assigner had enough after one year and gave it up. Now, this year, the original assigner is taking it over again. I'm wondering how all the guys that loved working tons of games in one day are going to react if he goes back to his old way of doing things?

People who complain about not getting enough games, and I'm not referring to those who need X number to cover costs and some extra, are not the umpires I would want on my field as a player, coach, partner or UIC.

I hear you ... but if I were to tell an assignor that I cannot work more than 4 games in a tourney, I'm simply not going to get called. Heck, sometimes if you say you can work Saturday but not Sunday, or vice versa, that's reason enough not to get called.

This is what I was saying earlier.

There are people who do this for the money??

Then they should focus on making themselves better so that they can work D1 NCAA games, and leave the 12U and 14U weekend tournaments to those of us who are out there to enjoy the challenge.

That's fine, let 'em fill it with the greens. I can find other things to do instead of umpiring. I've been through all of this on both sides. The assignor has a choice, x number of good umpires who know their limitations and give the teams quality umpiring or guys who are looking for the paycheck and are most likely mediocre, or will be by the end of the day.

When the teams ask why I'm not working their tournament, I simply tell them the assignor didn't need me. Let them complain to the association.

And that would be reason enough for me to find a different assignor to work for. I have several summer tournament assignors that seem to like having me work their games - 1-on, 1-off with a max of 5, but hoping for no more than 4. Each of these assignors rcognize that an umpire working a game needs to be fresh enough to give each and every game the intensity and effort that it deserves.

LIES!!! THis would NEVER happen!!!:eek: