Umps - Blown calls that have made you laugh, cry, scratch your head, or pop a gasket!

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To me, if a team gets robbed by a bad call, ripped off by something entirely not their own fault, then restricting their right to protest strikes me as the unsportsmanlike thing to do! Are teams just supposed to bend over, grab their ankles, smile and enjoy it?

Bretman--- Bringing a little deliverence to OFC! :lmao:

 

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I got this call in Orville last weekend in a 14u game...Since I've never seen or been in that situation I had no clue whether it was the correct call. Honestly, I think that the runner likely would have scored on a tag up but who knows. I didn't argue because I honestly had no clue what is correct.

!00% correct call. This is commonly refered to as a "catch and carry". So long as the fielder makes the catch before stepping into dead ball area, the batter is out. When the fielder enters dead ball area, the ball is dead and any runners on base will be awarded bases (assuming that the catch wasn't the third out).

The base award if the fielder unintentionally carries the ball out of play (as when her momentum just happens to take her there) is one base for all runners.

If the fielder were to intentionally carry it out of play (as if she thought that doing so would stop any runner from advancing), then the award is two bases for all runners.

 

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Bretman--- Bringing a little deliverence to OFC! :lmao:

I hear banjo music...

 

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My gut feeling on why they like to restrict protests is rooted in yet another lack of rule knowledge. I suspect TD's fear being inundated with protests against judgement calls which of course are not protestable. That can be handled by simply restating what the rules are for a valid protest in the tournament rule package.

Seems to me, in most cases a protest could be heard and ruled on in minutes.

Doesn't help that OHSAA does not allow protests either.

 

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Oooh ... I forgot all about that OHSAA rule ... and you're right that many coaches and probably even some umpires would not understand what is protestable and what's not ... good points ExxWhy ...

 

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I was thinking it had more to do with keeping tournaments on time than getting a lot of protests over judgement calls. I would hope most coaches know the difference. But a protest early in the day could be time consuming and throw the entire schedule off.

 

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I watched several other games the past two weeks that had some questionable calls. Not that I am siding with all the umpire calls here but; I have to believe the temperatures have had an impact on some of these games.

At the Buckeye Showdown our one umpire in the third game...(the other passed out just before our game) had been calling 6.. yes 6 games behind the plate.... all in a row..We seen her Sunday and she said she was sick all night from the heat. TD need to make sure the umpires get rest in-between games or rotate every other game or something when it is this hot. There were a couple plays I could have questioned but with one umpire and I could tell the fatigue on her face we just played...

 

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Who is going to waste game time by protesting any call to a TD. I have been involved in TB for over a decade and have only seen the TD brought into one game and that was when the umpire crew got into a dispute with each other. Almost all coaches, players and parents would rather see the kids play and let a bad call stand, than sit around while the adults talked and talked and talked.

 

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Who is going to waste game time by protesting any call to a TD. I have been involved in TB for over a decade and have only seen the TD brought into one game and that was when the umpire crew got into a dispute with each other. Almost all coaches, players and parents would rather see the kids play and let a bad call stand, than sit around while the adults talked and talked and talked.

It might not seem like such a waste if your team is the one losing the game because of a bad rule interpretation.

 

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Who is going to waste game time by protesting any call to a TD. I have been involved in TB for over a decade and have only seen the TD brought into one game and that was when the umpire crew got into a dispute with each other. Almost all coaches, players and parents would rather see the kids play and let a bad call stand, than sit around while the adults talked and talked and talked.

It might not seem like such a waste if your team is the one losing the game because of a bad rule interpretation.

Fortunately, bad rule interpretations are fairly rare and generally fixed without a protest. I only recall one instance where it had to be escalated and that was in an elim game that had gone to ITB - the other team convinced the umpires we should place the "last out" on 2nd instead of the player scheduled to bat last (previous inning ended with a runner thrown out at home). It was more about the principle than being disadvantaged because the 2 players were comparable base runners. The umpires were obviously unsure about it, so they got the correct ruling with a phone call to the UIC.

Most protests can be resolved with a phone call to the UIC and consequently TDs should establish a streamlined process so they can be handled quickly. This would also allow them to reduce the associated protest deposit/fee to a reasonable amount. I think most coaches would lose far more protests than they'd win.

It would be very interesting if the umpires had some skin in protests too - maybe they should forfeit their pay for that game if they're overruled. Similarly, if it wasn't worth protesting, I'd rather establish a friendly wager and resolve it afterward.

 

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this morning at 12:05, Blue tells our catcher, "your pitcher needs to throw the ball down the middle of the plate to get a strike call because you are so far up"

 

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yesterday district championship. Girl slides into home, catcher goes to tag and ball falls from her glove and ump calls runner out with the ball laying on the ground at her feet, we lose by 1 run. That third out stranded girls on 2nd and 3rd with our clean up hitter who had hit doubles in her last two at bats coming up.

 

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This was an 8u game... Runner on 2nd. Ball hit to the outfield. Runner goes past third and tries to get home. Relay from outfield was great. Catcher was standing in front of home plate gets ball in her glove 3 steps before runner arrives. Catcher goes low to tag and runner actually tries to jump over her. Catcher goes up and makes the tag (and holds on to the ball). Runner does a flip and lands hard. Umpire calls catcher interference runner safe.

 

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An ASA Tournament....
The hour alarm goes off during a pitch and the field umpire shouts out 'No-pitch' as the pitcher releases the ball... both teams stop and wait for an illegal pitch call or something really important....The field umpire informs us 'finish the inning and play one more.' Why he couldn't wait for the play to be concluded is still beyond me.

 

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This was an 8u game... Runner on 2nd. Ball hit to the outfield. Runner goes past third and tries to get home. Relay from outfield was great. Catcher was standing in front of home plate gets ball in her glove 3 steps before runner arrives. Catcher goes low to tag and runner actually tries to jump over her. Catcher goes up and makes the tag (and holds on to the ball). Runner does a flip and lands hard. Umpire calls catcher interference runner safe.

(Sarcasm turned up to 11):

If she would have dropped the ball upon contact would blue call her out due to obstruction?

 

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Probably lol.

 

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Here's one from a major tournament last year in the 14U consi finals: Hard shot to first base which ricochets off the first baseman's leg and goes into foul territory. The fielder retrives the ball and steps on the orange bag before the runner reaches the base (out right, nope). In fact the runner stopped and went back towards home plate (out right, nope). Chaos ensues and the runner changes directions again and runs past first base and misses it. Fielder who is still on the right side, touches the orange base again (out right, nope). In the mean time the umpire has taken a very nice atheltic position and is staring at the base and makes no call and does not move. The runner finally steps on the base and the umpire signals safe. In the chaos, (three umpire system at this stage of the game), the home plate umpire abstained, the 3B umpire was overheard telling the 1B umpire that the play was incorrect and he told her to 'back off..., it is my call' (that's a quote). Then after the protest, the committee upheld and said no imminent collision, fielder must use white bag. Well we call that the 82M4 rule. Moral of the story, bring your book and know where the rule is in th book! BTW, we lose 1-0 in ITB. The call was in ITB and was the third out!

 

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Berliner this weekend....Runner on 1st, 1 out. Batter hits ball to right-center, OF throws straight to pitcher in circle(got ball about 10 feet from infield). Batter stops about 20 feet past 1b towards second, and then starts to "dance"-takes about 2 steps back and forth multiple times. Pitcher has ball in glove, in circle, and looks at runner. Then runner leaves 3b, and starts to run home. We are all yelling bloody murder due to lookback rule......runner from 3b scores, batter goes back to 1b. Umpire first tells our coach that the pitcher "made a play" by: Looking at the runner! then, after the idiocy of that is pointed out, including the thought that this will be posted by one of the parents on Youtube, he says it was all ok because the pitcher...NEVER STEPPED ON THE RUBBER?!

 

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Berliner this weekend....Runner on 1st, 1 out. Batter hits ball to right-center, OF throws straight to pitcher in circle(got ball about 10 feet from infield). Batter stops about 20 feet past 1b towards second, and then starts to "dance"-takes about 2 steps back and forth multiple times. Pitcher has ball in glove, in circle, and looks at runner. Then runner leaves 3b, and starts to run home. We are all yelling bloody murder due to lookback rule......runner from 3b scores, batter goes back to 1b. Umpire first tells our coach that the pitcher "made a play" by: Looking at the runner! then, after the idiocy of that is pointed out, including the thought that this will be posted by one of the parents on Youtube, he says it was all ok because the pitcher...NEVER STEPPED ON THE RUBBER?!

Wow! That fits in the "Pop a Gasket" category.

 

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ASA, double-elimination tournament. Our first game in the loser's bracket. We are down 1 run after 4 innings and time is running out quickly. We "re-enter" our 9-hole batter but forget to report it. She takes one ball and the opposing coach calls time and informs the plate ump that we have the wrong batter at the plate. I turn to the field ump and say, "Oops, forgot to re-enter her; we'll take our warning." Before she can respond, I see the plate ump signal that our batter is out. WHOA. In we go and are told, "Once the wrong batter takes one pitch, she is automatically out."

I?m no rules expert but I've read the book and don't remember seeing that rule anywhere. We make the argument for it being a warning and the plate ump asks the field ump. She agrees with him and he states, "I have a book in my truck but I'm not going to go get it. Since we both agree then the batter is out." We had a book right there but decided that since time was running out we needed to get back to playing and took our lump.

I continued to talk with the field ump and said, "Blue, that just doesn't make sense. Besides, as a coach you would wait to see the outcome of the at bat before you would even raise the question of "wrong batter" anyway." She had an epiphany and said, "OMG, you are right. That is the wrong call. I am soooo sorry. If you end up losing this game I am gonna feel really bad." I'm glad she admitted her mistake but... that didn't set it straight.

Our next batter hit a HR to tie the game and we scored the winning run in the bottom of the last inning. Whew.