northwestern mutual commercial.
 

Anyone else seen the commercial with softball game going on? Opening scene the pitcher is leaping.

First base ump is WAY too close...

Forget where the ball was hit but as I recall was also out of position in foul territory.

Those AZ umpires are looking good, as usual....

Warning: Possible overanalysis ahead. Pretending to be an evaluator tonight. Here's the commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vq3efsguUQ
Yup, nice RH batter's box/home plate hi-def view of classic leaping at 0:09. (Too bad you don't get that solid a view once you're set. At least she drags through the rest of the pitch.) Illegal pitch in any league I've worked where the players aren't guys. I'm calling that from first base every time....

...but of course if like this guy I start so far foul that the 1b coach is asking for his coaching box back, how can you see the leap?!? :) This is obviously a 2-man game, so he's terribly out of position for the entirety of this double play. Not only is he straight-lined on the throw to first, he's straight-lined and 75 feet from that sweet neighborhood play at 2nd @ 0:17. (Not sure F6 ever touched 2B; I still have an out on this.)

IMHO it would be impossible to be more out of position. On the other hand, the sell-out is decent. He doesn't step through it, but if he had, he'd have been on top of F3. He doesn't appear to have an indicator or a brush, so...there's that too. Frankly, as a mass-media representation of our avocation, I'm just happy the shirt is tucked in, hat brim forward, and the shirt is the right color. (Also, the plate ump's shin guards aren't strapped to the outside of his pants.)

Clinics for beginners to 2-man should show this as a "DON'T do this" video.

Good scoop by the F3 actress. I wonder how many takes this took.

In another vein, apparently Northwestern's marketing dept thinks that only baseball is worked three-man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhYmvHrCNCc Nice four-stitch plate hat on the 3B umpire (visible at 0:10 and 0:22). Dork. :)

If he was wearing a 2-stitch hat I'd understand your comment, but a 4-stitch is nothing that out of the usual.

True. I'll admit, I'm a little biased on hats. :) The good ol' boy who brought me up through the ranks insisted on nothing shorter than a 6-stitch, ever. I wear a 4 behind the plate, and I still occasionally feel like it's a beanie after working so long with Lyle. I'm not around the big diamonds enough to know what's actually being worn on the bases at HS/college/big boy games.

What was he doing in "A" with R1 on 1B?:eek:

That is what I asked the same thing.

MTD, Sr.

So many other things to talk about with the WCWS having started, many areas in the middle of high school playoffs, summer ASA qualifiers heating up, etc. etc., and we're wasting bandwith critquing commercials that obviously involve actors? Really? :p

Well, if we must, putting the BU in the proper position would remove him from the camera shot for the call. Gone would be the dramatic affect to get that "Teamwork" point across, which is the whole theme of the commercial. And I don't know how you can possibly see that the BU doesn't have an indicator or brush.

It's a commercial, gents, not a positioning/mechanics training clip.

The commercial was a success if you remember the company and its product. :D

What is he doing?
He's playing an umpire in a TV commercial! :D

Uhhhh - I think it was an Insurance company...:confused:

My guess would be.......... Making a commercial.

Well, no. Not if I choose not to patronize a company because of stupid commercials There is a difference between humorous and stupid.

I Wonder if he stayed in a Holiday Inn the night before?

I thought it's supposed to be a Holiday Inn Express.

If by this you are calling these commercials stupid due to the way umpires are portrayed, I disagree. In my view, these commercials present the umpires as professionals in appearance and basic mechanics, unlike the usual where they might have a backward hat, not much of a uniform at all, etc.

The gripes with this one seem to be due to videographic composition rather than ignorance or lack of respect for umpires.

No indicator or brush? Really? 4-stitch hat? C'mon!

But, yeah, the BU is out of position in the softball one, but that seem to be for composition purposes, as I said above. If he had been where he was supposed to be, the final shot would not have been as dramatic.

shows you how effective those commercials were......

No, I cited and was referring to Rich's statement about the commercial being successful.

Perfect example, at least in the midatlantic area are the Sonic's commercials. They are just outright stupid.

Then again, I do not make purchase decisions based on advertisements.

+1 -

Yeah, don't knock Sonic...:p

I'm still trying to figure out softball mechanics (Coach Dad is 0-3 on the summer so far), but in baseball there'd *always* be an umpire in A on this play in a 3-umpire crew. Once we add a third umpire, we split a double play responsibility between the two base umpires.

I know it hasn't always been this way, but this change about 10-20 years ago (and getting away from the "umpire ahead of the runners" mentality) was smart, IMO.

Alabama / Kentucky ended on a double play last night and the base umpire responsible for both halves did a fantastic job and nailed the call on the back half. That said, making her call both halves with 3 umpires in place just seems silly to me -- it forces someone else to get any late interference at second base.

Serious question -- why never a 4 umpire crew in fastpitch?

The commercial did not have a 3-umpire crew on the field, or if they did, I never saw an umpire @ 2B

Why do you think there is something wrong with the "umpire ahead of the runner" mentality? I'm a firm believer it is better for the umpire to be waiting on the play than the play waiting for the umpire. The "mentality" is the priority of the runner. The closer to the plate, the more important the call. Yes, we want to get them all correct, but the ramifications of an error in judgment would be, hopefully, less catastrophic @ 1st than @ 3rd.

Don't know. I can tell you with ASA it is purely a financial issue, sometimes to even have 3-umpire crew. Than again, I've worked 6-umpire games and there are still angles that do not get covered. :) Personally, I'm also a firm believer that the 3-umpire pre-pitch positioning with a runner on 1st only is lopsided and should be changed.

BTW, don't care about baseball, different field, different rules, different game. Softball keeps their umpires out of the possible plays while baseball occasionally puts their umpires right in the middle of it.

We did four-man for our high school playoffs a couple of years ago. It tended to crowd the field, just like it does in youth baseball (LL, etc.) So now we go with three-man.

As I continue to work both sports (with most of my emphasis now on softball because, quite frankly, the games take much less time to finish, I don't have to cover as much ground to get into position, the players don't bitch about calls, and trash-talk is virtually nonexistent), I admit that there are quite a few differences in philosophy when it comes to positioning. Some softball practices make sense and I wonder why they don't use them in baseball, and vice versa.

What gets me is when there are different mechanics in different softball organizations. NCAA will have base umpires stay out on clean base hits while ASA makes them button-hook in is just one example. I don't recall these drastic differences between organizations in baseball unless, of course, the field dimensions are different.

No - it was a success because you remembered the company. That's the objective of an ad.

Cliche: There's no such thing as bad publicity.

Because it looked better for the commercial. :rolleyes:

Rita

+2

You could save this topic with some specifics. :)

I remember Miller Lite from their commercials, too. But I don't buy their product.

BTW, think about who said "there is no such thing as bad publicity". It was the guy selling it and failing miserably who had to justify himself

Not to all...:p

Do you buy everything you see ads for? Of course not. Why should this be any different?

Ads are seen by millions of viewers. If 23 people don't like i because some detail is wrong should they consider the ad a failure?

It is artistically better.

99.9% of the population won't notice anything wrong.

Some of the other 0.1% don't care that it's wrong.

Why waste so much energy on the issue?

BTW (need to watch again to be sure) I think the relay person slings the ball rather than throwing it. Her hand doesn't seem to follow through.

They are NEVER going to consider an ad as a failure simply because that would not support their agenda.

I believe all ads prey on the stupidity and laziness of the general public. While I will notice ads that are put in front of my face, I have never, and I mean never in my adult life, made a purchase based on an ad no matter the medium.

And, yes, I expect accuracy in any format being present for any reason, from theater to commercials; movies to sidewalk performances. Why, you may ask? For the same lazy and stupid people who cannot shop without ads, they tend to believe everything they see and read.

Lots of ads are failures and pulled.

Lots of ad agencies get fired for being ineffective.

Seen the ad where Godzilla chokes on a car? How accurate is that?

You only go see non-fiction theater? How accurate is a light saber?

Is Tony the Tiger real?

And you expect people to believe you've never purchased a product that you first heard about from an ad?

Okay, I'll give you the point that I was a bit vague on my parameters, but I'm not referring to fiction.

Maybe you should look up the word accurate as opposed to "real".

And you expect people to believe you've never purchased a product that you first heard about from an ad?[/QUOTE]

I really don't give a shit whether you believe it or not. You certainly are in no position to contradict me. I'm telling you I do not pay attention to ads, never had.