Umpires Gone Wild

OK, we had the team ejection when the players left the bench to congratulate their teammate after the homerun, and then we had the out call when the West Forsyth player allegedly missed first on a home run that we debated at length on here.

Now this weekend...

First, we had the call Friday night in the Arizona State v Cal Fullerton game that I'm sure you've all seen or heard about -- the balk to score the winning run when the third base umpire said the pitcher failed to come to a "clear and discernible stop" on the fourth pitch of an intentional walk. I know some guys willl defend the call like the NCAA ump coordinator did and I don't really care, because no matter what anyone says I'll firmly believe the call was absolutely absurd. Did he come to a stop? It is hard to say -- there was a definite change of direction, and it wasn't any worse than the change of direction from the stretch that you see as often as not. It was a call made for the ump to ge his mug on TV and to have an impact on the game -- nothing more, nothing less. Certainly no runner was deceived by the move on ball four of the intentional walk. But I don't want to debate that.

It is the absurdity of a call tonight that I want to vent about. Tonight, in the Charlotte v Steele Creek American Legion game, a Charlotte player was tossed for wearing a Lance Armstrong LiveStrong-type rubber wrist band. Yes, a rubber wrist band. The umpire said it was jewelry and that you don't get a warning in Legion about jewelry, so he booted the kid when he got to the plate in the bottom of the second before a pitch was delivered to him. (Never mind that he had been catching the first two innings wearing the darn thing, and had caught the whole game two nights earlier wearing it with the same ump in the field). Now to me that is really sad. I thought only my third child would stoop to any level to get attention, but now I know there are others. This guy must have been an eighth child or something.

Would it have been so hard to just say, "Son, that wrist band is sorta like jewelry and you can't wear jewelry in Legion ball, so how about taking it off?" No -- he just announced that the player was disqualified so everyone would know he was the big man in charge.

Some of these guys have fogotten why they're out there. It makes me very thankful for the vast majority of umpires who love the game, love the kids and are never really noticed because they're doing their jobs well. I'm sorry they get lumped in with the power-hungry, attention-grabbing few who think it's cool to call something unusual or bizarre that has nothing to do with playing the game so that they can have an impact and be noticed. I'll bet a guy who would make that call never played the game, or if he did, he never could impact the game with his play on the field.

Anyway, as I said, thank goodness these idiots are the exceptions. My hat's off to the vast majority of the men in blue, who, while they all miss calls now and then, they respect the game and the players, and they let the kids play the game and let that play determine the outcome.

 

Totally agree. Let's stop defending all these ticky tack umpire calls. If the same discretion is used in every day living the jails would be over crowded due to jay walkers and spitting on the concrete. Yes, those are laws too but thankfully not enforced.

 

Very bad... umpires should be trying to be "un-noticed", not making absurd calls which affect the game and call attention to themselves... Umps who do that are losers, want-a be's....

 

Defend This As Well?

I want the same people that were defending the call on missing first base to come on here and defend the balk call on the intentional walk in the Cal State Fullerton game. I want to hear you justify that call by saying rules are rules and we have to enforce them or we are cheating and teaching our kids how to cheat.

 

Livestrong bands

I play on a 16u travel/AAU team and never before have umpires told me to take my livestrong band on. Ive had mine since last summer and worn it everywear. I even developed a rather noticable tan line from the thing. However, last weekend while playing in Burlington, an umpire comes up to me during the 4th inning, while we are taking ground balls warming up. He tells me that i have to take my band off. However he said i could leave my sweat band i had on my forearm on. To me this doesnt make sense. If a livestrong or any other kind of band is like jewlery, wouldnt wrist bands and even rubber bands go under the same classification?

 

I saw the balk call, but didnt actually see what the pitcher did..

If he balked , the umpire has a duty to make the call..
If you want the rule changed maybe you should form a committee to have it changed .
Dont come on here and say you wouldnt want to win a ball game this way.. thats BS.. no we dont want to win this way , but its no different than a great kid making an error with bases loaded in the last inning that allows us to score the winning run...



:imagestor

There , i said it.. now run with it...

 

Intimidator, I respectfully say: You are out of step on this topic. I can't say that strongly enough. The balk call was the 2nd worst call I can remember...only topped by the 'missed 1st on the home run.'

My credentials: I am a 'graduate' of Harry Wendelstedt's umpire school. I worked D1 baseball for about 15 years. I would still be working if I had not devoted myself to my son.

My point: I know what I am talking about. The rule book has to be applied with discrimination. Legalists make for a mess, as Dodger has illustrated.

This is not re-writing the rules. I was taught to use judgement, never 'making a call that nobody wants.' NOBODY wanted that balk. NOBODY wants a kid to be ejected for wearing a rubberband. NOBODY wants a kid to be called out for barely missing 1st on a home run. NOBODY wants players to be thrown out of a high school game for spontaneously greeting a teammate at home plate on a home run.

Everyday at the highest levels, the elite umps make snap decisions that they later regret. If these officials have a clue, they are kicking themselves today for embarassing the profession & ruining ballgames that should have been decided by the kids. The headlines should NEVER be ticky tack calls.

 

I'm sorry .. i didnt go to school to be an umpire.
I didnt know you had to if you understand the rules and could halfway have good eyesight.

are you saying that on an intentional walk in the last inning that the pitcher doesnt have to follow the same rule as if he was holding a runner on base in the first inning ?

What if everyone was relaxed and thinking , oh he's intentionally walking the batter but then sneaks in a fastball for a strike , i guess thats ok even though its unethical and poor sportsmanship..
thats why i would be more inclined to teach my players to be ready for anything and to follow all the rules to the best of their ability..

 

Intimidator, when you made the comment about 'umpire school', that discredits you. I thought you might appreciate the meaning of that....But obviously you do not, so I will step aside because I cannot converse on your level of understanding.

But I conclude with this: If the balk was so flagrant that it could not be ignored, then it should have been called. If the kid came to the plate wearing jewelry after being warned, then he should be ejected. JUDGMENT. It's used everyday by the best umpires. You just don't see threads or headlines about that. It's only when BAD JUDGMENT is applied that we have these discussions.

 

There is a lively discussion of the balk call in the ASU - CSF game over in the general items forum on hsbaseballweb.com. The posters are weighing in overwhelmingly against the call over there, with some long-time posters chiming in. Even the "purists" who want the rules strictly enforced are critical of this guy, as I think most everyone thinks he was just calling it to be the show. A CSF supporter found the call to be ridiculous, making the very good point that it deprived the CSF players from having a chance to win the game themselves (it would have been bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth).

The same ump called another balk on Saturday (this time against CSF). Replays of Saturday's alleged balk showed pretty clearly that the pitcher first stepped back off the rubber and it was not a balk. I'll bet this guy's crewmates are ready to string him up!

Piaa-ump is a long-time poster over there. He is also a long-time umpire who answers rules questions in the "ask the umpire" section of the sight all the time. I really liked what he said:

"These umpires are hand selected for NCAA championship tournament play and the assignments are dearly sought after... you can bet your bottom dollar that this call will come back to haunt this umpire........

I am all for calling a game to the full extent of the rules....and I try and do so....but with balks I fall back on the training I got 20+ years ago from the SAL league umpire who trained me.... He said:

You call 100% of the balks everyone sees
You call most of the balks that baseball people see (players, coaches, umpires)
You call none of the balks that only you see...."