The play at home plate late in the NCSU/VT game

You're right.

 

Wonderful.

"It's all perception".

This sums up a lot of baseball. Perception.

I read the other thread on your thoughts on umpiring. And while I agreed with some of it, disagreed with other parts, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and appreciate you umpiring. There would be no game without you and it appears to many that you do a fine job. Congrats on earning a strong reputation while also being there for the kids.

I appreciate your honesty in the above statement. I've seen many times exactly what you describe. On a steal attempt, you get a perfect throw, a perfect tag and the runner is out even though he may not have been out, it looked good. My sons have been on both ends of this outcome as have most kids. I appreciate you rewarding a perfect effort but I just want umpires to call what they see. Sometimes in life we make the perfect effort and still lose. It happens.

 

If it looks like an out

its an out. The only thing I ask is dont let the situation in the game change that perception. If that smooth play results in an out in the 1st inning let it result in an out in the 7th with the game on the line. As long as the umpire crew is consistent I have no problem with it.

Where we run into a problem is when that same perception that resulted in an out call now turns into "I never saw a tag" later in the game. The best umpires are consistent. What is a strike in the 1st inning is a strike in the 7th regardless of the game situation.

The vast majority of umpires do a great job. Like any profession its that small percentage of clowns that cause all the head aches. The same can be said of coaches as well.

 

One Putt, I agree with your assessment of the perfect effort. Right or wrong, I know that you will get less argument from players, coaches, etc if you reward smooth play. Runners aren't automatically out though. If someone makes a good throw but the runner makes a fantastic slide to avoid the tag or something to that effect than I'm going to reward the runner for going the extra mile to reach the base.

 

And that is what I would hope. I wish all umps were that way.

I've seen my son get the benefit of a call because he made the perfect throw on the bag when I thought the guy was safe. Then I've seen the play where he made a throw 4-5 feet above the bag, well in advance of the runner and he's safe. I appreciate your comments and your efforts to do the best you can for the kids. I booked umpires for 6 years. I see their side. It's not a perfect world in baseball or anything else.

The "perception" comment strikes home to me in more than just umpiring. One of the main reasons my son chose to focus a little more on football instead of baseball was the "perceptions" in the sport. The most obvious reason was he followed his passion.

For him football became his passion but baseball was a way of life. It has been at the core of our family for 10 wonderful years.

 

The other thing to consider is most games are with a two man crew. Sometimes it's impossible to be right on top of the play, so they have to make a call based on "their" perception. As stated, if it looked like an out, he's out. Unless baseball games can afford to pay for a 4 man crew, it will always be difficult to see all bang-bang plays. The best you can hope for is that they hustle and try to get into the best position to see the play.

The funny thing is the criticisms are leveled more dramatically towards umpires than all other sports referees. In football, holding can be called on most plays, yet the decision to penalize is pure subjective. Defensive interference has more interpretations than Gideons Bible. To me football has much more "gray" areas in their rules and decisions of those rules....and don't get me started about basketball officials where each official has their own interpretation of each rule--kinda like Roller Derby.

I find baseball umpires try very hard to follow the rules of the game and have very few gray areas--outside of strike zone--to make the right call. Give me one that hustles, knows the rules and cares about the game and the players..and I'm fine with whatever decisions they make.

If I could suggest one thing I'd like to see many umpires in general do a better job of?----sell your call on a close play. Don't just make the call, turn and go back to your position. Let everyone know you saw it plain and clear.

 

an interesting approach

An umpire once told me that he is there to call every pitch a strike until he sees absolute evidence that it is not a strike and he is there to call every one out until he sees absolute evidence that they aren't out.

I have thought about that and I see his thinking (I think!)

 

Braves, i agree with a lot of your post. But I was not refering to the perceptions in umpiring that frustrated him. After our conversations I think you know that. He was a catcher primarily. He had to get along with all umpires. In fact I've only seen him complain about 1 umpire in 4 years. It was other perceptions in the game.

He liked the fact that it when it came to identifying talent it was more black and white. More tangibles and measurables and less intangibles and opinions.

 

No, I really wasn't alluding to a personal situation--more of a broadstroke. I really enjoyed reading about your son's success in baseball, football and as a person from Wossa and from others.

I'm sorry that he had that one game with Stretchy

 

Funny you bring up Stretchy. The one umpire he was disappointed in was not Stretchy, he did have a very controversial play in a game in Boone in an Impact event with Stretchy behind the plate. The play was identical to the play in the N C State /FSU game on Sunday.

Walt was catching and had to go a good 15 feet up the line to catch a ball from teh outfield. He leaped to catch the ball and Macon Smith absolutely trucked him. He was about 4-5 feet in foul territory. Macon didn't mean it. We know him from years of baseball and he is a good kid. But we were a little surprised that nothing happened on the play. The ball went off the tip of his glove as he leaped and Macon was safe. It didn't mean much but he did get a concussion from the play.

Stretchy and I later talked about it and I had him explain it to me. We never got upset because it was Stretchy back there and we respect him. Walt has had him sveral times. We pick on Stretchy but he is good. But I admit if that had been another umpire I would have gone nuts.

Walt never quite figured out the ins and outs of baseball recruiting. He could never figure out how you could have 1 good weekend in front of the right people and suck for the other 10 weekends of summer ball yet you would be discussed on the internet for 3 months.

Most of the recruiting interest he got in baseball was from schools he did not want to go to based on academics. The football interest he got was from schools that met his academic needs and goals. Then late in his HS sr. year he started getting some very good baseball interest. But by then it was too late and he signed with Richmond for football. And that was the right call. That is what he wanted and was one of his top 3 schools for both football and academics.

Now they have asked him to consider playing both. Obviously I would love to see him back there blocking pitches again but he and I both don't know if he could play two sports and handle the academics. Time will tell. But watching him play his last baseball is tough. When he hit a HR in his last HS game at Ragsdale I was happy for him. It added to a chest full of wonderful memories in baseball. As he said, "I'll play football and I love it but baseball will always be in my heart." It was a way of life for us. The time on the road together just talking is priceless and cannot be measured. The time spent in dugouts, warming up, pst game, conversations with other players from other teams during pitching changes and such. There is a kinship in the game that no other game has.