Travel Ball

Umps

My two cents. We've been playing alot of ASA tournaments since last Fall. Have been involved in NSA for several years. My take is, that ASA officials seem more professional, hustle, call the outside strike corner consistantly (but they are supposed to be certified and maybe paid better). This past weekend, we had some pretty good NSA umpires, in Statesville. They only provided 2 officials for the championship game and the IF game for 18U but provided 3 officials for the 16U finals. No problems with umps in the finals though. Our Sunday morning game, though, was comical, with the NSA umps. The behind the plate ump thought that he did not need to help his fellow field ump at all (he just stayed behind the plate), while the field ump ran around the field, like a chicken with his head cut-off, making bad calls after bad calls, at 1st base and third base, and half-swings from the batter.

It's been my experience, that we have had some pretty bad umpires, in the finals of NSA State tournaments. Overall, though, you have to admit, that NSA has it going on with their organization. I did see, where a couple of very good USSSA umps, were calling games for NSA, in Stateville.

 

I witnessed a few bad calls in a game at Cherry Park as well that definitely had an impact on the outcome of a very close game on Saturday. It's a shame when these young ladies play so hard and the final outcome of the game is taken away by something that is totally out of their control.

 

I don't know if its one organization's problem or another. You get some good umpires and some that couldn't pass a drivers exam. Not so much their eyesight as their knowledge of the game. We have played across most of the organizations in the past and present. So far we have played ASA only and the umpires have been about 50/50 good vs bad. Just got back from Georgia and we had some good umps and then some questionable ones to be nice. Had one ump who asked Explosion's first base coach to please have the fans quit making the call before he did...It was confusing him....lol....
you just had to laugh at that one...Hang in there and just hope the talent wins out in the end.

 

Umpire shortage........

quality ones too!

Dennis mentioned this as why more Fields were not utilized at this past tournament.

he also noted three that had National and collegiate experience and it showed with them.

 

Thrillers placed 3rd in Statesville 18u. Wished we could have given the Cardinals a better game. The only thing I'll say about the officiating is in our last game the ump behind the plate called an obvious outside pitch a strike and our first base coach told him that it had to be outside and from behind the plate he said that he should teach his players to be more aggressive with the bats. That is uncalled for in my opinion. Then when he lost the count the other coach told him what the field ump said the count was and he got in his face and said he wouldn't believe a word he said. Both umps had the wrong pitch count. :banginghe

 

Ump's in Statesville..

Overall, not a bad job, not the best I have seen but then again NOT the worst. We had one plate umpire that when the fans got on him about a call he started to explain it & then would not stop arguing with the fans. Also, had a plate ump miss 2 balls that went off the batter, while still in the box, he did not make the call & neither did the plate dude until the coach said something.To me, in the games that I was at they were just not that professional. In our last game Sat. night there was a ball hit down the 3rd base line nobody knew if it was fair or foul. The ump never signaled fair & never said foul, so all the girls & coaches just kind of stopped to see what call he was going to make. We have taught our girls that if the umpire doesn't yell foul ball to play the ball. Most every ump that we have had will signal ( point into fair territory) if the ball is fair & YELL foul ball if it is foul. They never heard nothing nor did they see a signal from the plate ump. so they were confused on what the call was.

I rarley seen to many good umps in NSA. Some of the worst calls I have seen have been at the NSA World Series. NSA is a good organization but they need to get a grip on their umps.

 

Umpires

First let me say, I very seldom say anything abour Umpires as they have an extremely tough job but one plate umpire at the Statesville tourney was horrible. He called one of my kids out on strikes and only three pitches were thrown, one was over the catchers glove and struck the back stop, we tried to talk to him but he would not hear of it. He also called the outside very liberal, as someone has said earlier, we could not hit it with a 40 inch bat. Called no letter high strikes and was inconsistent on low pitches so my young pitchers struggled. The rest were not bad but did not really hustle to get in a spot to make the right call. Overall, the tourney went well except we played for 11 hours straight, ha ha. Our fault we got in losers bracket.

 

I traveled back and forth between Rock Hill and Statesville from Friday through Sunday. I don't guess I stayed put long enough to have anything to complain about? I enjoyed both tournaments very much. Just wish our teams had done better.