Crazy call, ejections and all

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This happened to us in Muncie at the Sportsplex NSA tourney.

Girl at bat with a full count. Pitch comes in high, she check swings and the ball goes to the fence. The opposing coaches start yelling for an appeal. The home plate umpire calls ball four and point to first base and tells the batter to take her base. As she starts heading to first base the field umpire thinks the home plate umpire is asking for an appeal beacause the coaches are screaming "Appeal." Field ump rings her up. At this point the ball is being picked up by the catcher at the fence and the coaches start yelling to throw her out. Our runner takes off and is thrown out by four steps. This was the third out of the inning. We said whoa, you can't call ball four then put her jeopardy half way to first. The umps had about a 15 minute field confrence and eventually called her safe at first. The other team was already in their dugout with helmets on ready to bat. Well you can guess what happened next. It was at least another 15 minutes with the TD, the UIC, and just about every parent and coach up in arms. What really drove them over the edge is that at the time we were down 3-1. After they put her back on first base we hit back to back doubles and then scored on a pass ball to make it 4-3 us. One of the umps was threatend to get his *** kicked in the parking lot by one of the ejectees.

 

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I guess they shouln't have given up those 2 doubles and they would not have lost. It's easy to blame an umpire for losing a game, We tell our games "don't blame the umps, make an extra play in the field, get a big hit, etc etc, and good things will happen. I bet if we looked at their scorebook, we can find 3 or 4 other plays in the game that could have changed things.

And one more thing. WIN WITH CLASS, LOSE WITH CLASS!!!!!

 

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wave10U we had that same umpire in our last game on Monday and I can tell you he had no business being behind the plate. Overall the umpiring over there was OK, but with the Ohio Wave being the only three Ohio teams there we did not get any love if you know what I mean.

However I will say it was a great weekend for the Ohio Wave as we took a 1st (10U), a 2nd (14U) , and a 3rd place (12U) ?finish over there against some very good teams. When your playing the Indy Diamond Chixs, Indiana Thunder, Team Indiana, Indy Dreams, and Indy Pride you know they are coming to play.

I am sure that Bob darden will have a very good group of umpires at Beavercreek next weekdn for the USSSA State tournament.

 

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If anyone saw the Indians game last night, with the "check swing/strike" call on Casey Blake, this play is actually quite similar.

In that game, Blake was hit by a pitch while checking his swing, with the Plate Umpire initially awarding first base. But the defense appealed the checked swing by Blake, and the Field Umpire ruled a swing. That meant we had strike three and Blake was out.

The big differnce between these plays is that on the hit batter from the Indians game, the ball is dead and no one can advance. On our play the ball remains live, runners may advance and outs possibly made, which leads to a lot more confusion.

Back to our play in the first post: A checked swing on a potential ball four/uncaught third strike is a situation that doesn't come up very often, but when it does an umpire needs to be ready. And so do the players!

There is an advance mechanic taught to umpires to handle this play, but most of us will probably never see it unless this play comes up in an NCAA game.

The advanced mechanic for this play is for the Plate Umpire to immediately go to the field umpire on the checked swing, without waiting for the defense to appeal. The ball or strike call is then immediate, giving the players time to react to the call.

Since most crews we see probably won't be using this mechanic, here is what should happen:

The umpires need to react to any defensive appeals on the checked swing as quickly as possible. The Field Umpire needs to be alert and ready for the appeal request to come from the Plate Umpire. The Plate Umpire needs to make his appeal clear and understandable, so there is no miscommunication. Hopefully, if the runner is hustling down to first, and the "ball/strike" call on the checked swing is quick enough, everyone involved will be able to react in a timely manner.

The play offered has another twist. The Field Umpire mistakingly thinking that the Plate Umpire was appealing the checked swing when he was not.

The Plate Umpire is not required to check with his partner on a checked swing. If he is certain that he did not see a swing, he may stick with his "ball" call and refuse any appeal requests.

That would have probably been the best solution on the play at hand. Just because the Field Umpire thought the Plate Umpire was appealing, does not mean that he actually was. The Plate Umpire would be within his rights to stay with the base-on-balls call and place the batter on first base.

 

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Bretman,

That was basically their explanation when it was all said and done. The plate umpire was in control of the play and he called ball four. The runner was never in any jeopardy while advancing to first. The fact that the field ump signaled strike three was irrelevant because the plate ump never asked. It still did not sit well with any of their coaches and especially the fans who were actually mad at us because we accepted the call and put our runner back on first. Only in 10U!!!