Poor officiating once again at ASA !!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! What a terrible day at Homecoming park today. I have never experienced such poor officiating. This is an ASA college showcase tournament and what a joke. 2 games today at Homecoming with only 1 umpire on each field. My thoughts are that they picked these 2 guys up off the streets of Toledo gave them uniforms and put them on the field. It was just unbelievable! I understand that it is not always easy to call a game alone from behind the plate but come on you have to make some effort to get your butt out from behind the plate and on the field to see the plays and try to make the proper call. First game our team got 1 runner out 3 times and she ended up scoring! The second game 2 infield flies were never called.... runner interference where contact was even made 2 times was never called batter reaches base on a walk off a foul tip ball, runner hit by a batted ball and not called out and I could continue to go on and on. This is not a cheap tournament to play in and this kind of officiating is just not acceptable. This tournament has been filled up for months there is absolutly no excuse for not having sufficient umpires to man these fields!

in a hundred years who going to care!!!!! ;D

Toledo is historically notorious for fielding bad umpires. We played in the Tune-up three years ago at 10u and these two ALL RIGHT NOWS! one looked like he was 95 and the other like Rallo from Sanford And Son were absolutly the worst Daddy's ever seen! >

softballlover...Sorry to here that... We were at CYO and had some of the BEST umps I have seen in Year`s ....As for the one ump It is tough and hope it gets better...
As for the toledo umps I think we have some good ones...but that is JMO.....

When you have tourneys with a field as big as this with this many games you get nOOb umps. We had a ump call visual interference on a runner then went from 2nd to third when the SS booted the ball. That call cost us 2 runs lol, didnt matter but he told our coaches to look it up, so they did. The ump was wrong lol, then he said oh sorry its a high school rule. At that point you just drop it and move on.

Sounds like you had a tough one Boyd hang in there.

Let's just say that it isn't limited to ASA. We had an NSA game tonight. I was sitting behind the backstop. I swear this ump gave them [highlight]every[/highlight] corner and gave us [highlight]none[/highlight]. It was ridiculous. >

We will be at CYO tomorrow nice to hear there were good umps over there thanks for the encouragement! As for Toledo having good umps some are MUCH better than others. Honestly though if there are not enough umps around to run a tournament of this size maybe someone should be rethinking the amount of teams they are accepting.

Good luck and hope to see u there We play at 2:15......great feilds....

"...you have to make some effort to get your butt out from behind the plate and on the field to see the plays and try to make the proper call."

Agree 100%. Standard umpire mechanics dictate that the plate umpire leaves his position and comes into the field to a prescribed spot on most all plays. One exception: When there is a runner advancing toward home and a potential play at the plate.

"First game our team got 1 runner out 3 times and she ended up scoring! The second game 2 infield flies were never called.... runner interference where contact was even made 2 times was never called batter reaches base on a walk off a foul tip ball, runner hit by a batted ball and not called out and I could continue to go on and on."

Those all sound pretty bad, but in all fairness they are just your opinion. And your opinion is that of a participant with a biased emotional interest in the outcome of the game. You offer no details that would even begin to let us decide if the calls were truly "blown" or just calls that didn't go your way.

Any one of those calls could involve umpire judgment that might just happen to be different from your own, or a particular rule that you do not fully understand. Unfortunately, we'll never get to hear the "other side of the story" (what the umpire called and why he called it). It's entirely possible that the right calls were made but you just didn't happen to like the calls.

Sorry if that sounds harsh. But I get complaints all the time about calls that were the absolute right call, just not the call that the player or coach expected or wanted.

On the other hand, some umpires are just plain bad and don't have any business being on the field for certain levels of play. And I will be the first to criticize them if that's the case. You have offered nothing concrete that would possibly allow us to make that determination one way or another.

Here's hoping that you have top-notch umpires for all the rest of your games!

nice Sanford reference, Dice

"I'm ready to join you" clutching your small heart after every bad call...so is wgman Grady (good goobly goop!)? ?I could be Julio, the guy with the goats in his yard, i'm sure ringer could be Ah Chew

So which lucky OFC poster gets to be Aunt Esther? ?

bretman said:

So which lucky OFC poster gets to be Aunt Ester? ?

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Thats easy, Katbenjoemom of course!!! ;D

I've been told there's some resemblance.

But Bret, we know your calls are always wrong, that you pick the teams wearing your favorite colors and if the sky is grey you call more strikes on full moon days...

They are only human, will make great calls, bad calls, have fun with the girls, maybe teach the girls a few things, but if people haven't noticed lately, there are less and less getting into the umping side of the game.

We may be in trouble as some of these experienced ones start retiring...

Hilliarddad3 said:

But Bret, we know your calls are always wrong, that you pick the teams wearing your favorite colors and if the sky is grey you call more strikes on full moon days...

They are only human, will make great calls, bad calls, have fun with the girls, maybe teach the girls a few things, but if people haven't noticed lately, there are less and less getting into the umping side of the game.

We may be in trouble as some of these experienced ones start retiring...

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Great point..I have some good friends that are umpires and they told me the "well may be dry in a couple years when these old timers retire" He also told me there are less coming through the classes alot has to do with the parents...go figure but I also believe there are still some good young ones out there ....we as coaches and parents need to understand that they are not perfect...just as a coach and a parent I AM NOT perfect either.....
BTW nice picture KJBM.......How is your summer going......

Great reply Bretman. There are always two sides to the story, and without explanation of what both sides saw it can't be determined what actually happened. One thing is for sure though, what the umpire called stands and has to be lived with. Let's not forget, these are kids games and, despite the emotional and financial investment involved, will always be so or the kids will stop playing.

As for the future of umpiring, let's face it, the people that umpire do so for two basic reasons, love of the game, and to make a few extra bucks. Parents and coaches constantly ragging on them about this, that and the other thing make it an impossible job to do. That said, the umpire that does not learn how to correctly do his/her job and not communicate with those involved in the games, is in trouble. They have to know the rules and make an effort to explain themselves when questioned. The fans just need to layoff and accept their judgement as part of the game. Only then will we be able to keep qualified and competent umpires in our game.

After talking to some umpires that call baseball games, baseball may be in more trouble than softball in the future. I'm told those coachers and parents get waaay out of hand and umpires are now turning down baseball games.

Bretman, I know that umpiring can be and sometimes is a thankless job. I have an ASA and USFA umpiring card and know how difficult a job it is when you have no one to help you on the field. When an ump makes little or no effort to move from behind the plate and says that " It's to far away to always get the call right." then you have got to say that either they need glasses to see the play or they need to get out into the field to get a better view. I don't tend to give the umps a hard time cause I've been there. I don't tend to complain to them or about them but this was seriously the worst I've ever seen one do.
643dp, You were right, the umps were two per field at CYO and they were much better at their jobs.
By the way we lost both today as we did yesterday, but today the girls lost for themselves and yesterday they didn't stand a chance.

Actually I've had pretty good umpiring up here this weekend at the Great Lakes Invitational (same diamonds and umpires as the ASA States). ?The only real issue I've had is with a team from the far North. ?Other team is home team, close game, they got up 3, we came back and tied it, they went up by 1 in the bottom of the 5th and go into slow down - nothing really bad, but definitely not in a hurry - we tie it in the top of the 6th, they come into bat and with a 1 - 1 count on the batter time runs out. ?Scorekeeper for the northern suddenly announces that she has them ahead 4-3 (this after my scorekeeper has checked every inning with the opposing coach as to the score he has). ?After some discussion the coach finally tells his scorekeeper and both umpires that the score is 4-4 and tells his scorekeeper to correct the book. ?Scorekeeper is furious, but walks away. ?We resume play and strike out the side. ?Umpire tells us that we are now in ITB, and we place our runner on second when the first base coach and the scorekeeper come back out arguing that because they are the home book the game is over and they win. ?After much discussion the Asst. TD asks the Head Coach if he agreed to the score in the 6th - he states that he's done with the discussion and walks away without answering leaving me and the umpire trying to explain how we even played out the 6th inning. ?

Long story short, the ATD ruled that the home book was the official book and even though everyone (including a couple of college coaches) stated that the northern scorekeeper was wrong, and we would have to accept the score as they presented. ?I told the girls good game (and several of them apologized), but informed the head coach that I no longer had any respect for him as he had not proved himself worthy and refused to shake his hand. ?His response "With that attitude I will play you anywhere, anytime", my response "Let's finish this game then!" ?He declined and stomped off the field. ?Makes you wonder why the team spent $30,000-$35,000 to come play a tournament if they don't want to play it out to a legitimate conclusion.

On a good note, it really doesn't affect my seeding for brackets Sunday. ?So maybe we'll meet again and I'll be the home team - think I'll say the score is 99-0 after the first, run rule, game over.

TheBearMay said:

On a good note, it really doesn't affect my seeding for brackets Sunday. ?So maybe we'll meet again and I'll be the home team - think I'll say the score is 99-0 after the first, run rule, game over.

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;D ;D That's funny

Statman Ray said:

nice Sansford reference, Dice

"I'm ready to join you" clutching your small heart after every bad call...so is wgman Grady (good goobly goop!)? ?I could be Julio, the guy with the goats in his yard, i'm sure ringer could be Ah Chew

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tHE BEAR CAN BE OFFICER SMITTY!