Here's a new one for ya...

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Our team was playing this weekend and are off warming up as they should be....21 minutes before game time the umpire starts yelling that is our team is late and that we are going to forfeit if we don't get right over there. That we needed to be 15 minutes early which is fine....when it is 15 minutes prior to game time. What a joke he was. I guess he was arguing with a grandparent from our team over the issue. Not sure if he needed glasses or a new watch...LOL!

 

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HaHa! Wow. I've never heard an ump tell a team that they had to be there 15 min. before a game. But still you had 6 more minutes to pack and go. Hopefully you got to play and everyone was fully warmed!

 

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birdmoken321,
About three weekends ago, at Buckeye Showdown Tournament, in Columbus, we had a similar problem. We had a 8:30am game and we had to warm up away from the diamond we were to play on. We were walking up to the diamond and we were ten minutes from game time, when some of our parents came running out to us and screaming that the umpire was starting the game. I ran up to the diamond and the umpire was behind the plate in position to call the game. He had already made the other team take the field,declared them home team since we weren't there yet, made the catcher do her throw down to second and was repeatedly yelling batter up.
I also had to break up an argument that was going on between one of our parents this jerk umpire because of this show he was putting on. The jerk umpire even acknowledged that it was ten minutes before the game was supposed to start, but he was detirmend to try to start the game.
I understand an umpire wanting to keep the games on schedule and many times, I've had the umpires ask me if we could start games early(if both teams were ready). This was the first game of the day though and for this guy to take everyone through this drama that he orchestrated was rediculious. He was detirmened to make it all about himself and his ego.
We lost the game because we deserved to, not because of his calls, but he was still a jerk!

 

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We had a tournament this year on a Saturday (not Sunday) where we started at 9:30 am and played four games back-to-back. we finished up the fourth game just before 4:00pm and the girls were starving. While we were eating, the umpire come by and wanted to start the next game early at 4:30 instead of the 5:00 scheduled time and I told them that the girls needed a break and time to eat something and we weren't starting 1/2 hour early. We showed up at 4:55. I have never seen anything like that in all my years of coaching. It would have been different if it was on Sunday when you play till you lose; that's expected

 

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It was quite an interesting situation. He said that it was in the rules that we had to be there 15 minutes early, which ok so even if that was the case we still had plenty of time. That was the first in 3 years I have ever had anything even close to that happen. Yes, they did get to play (someone informed the coach and the girls finished up and came down). It's funny the power trip some of thes guys try to get on...

 

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What is the real reason these umpires call girls games? I believe it is only for the money. There are maybe a handful that take umpiring serioulsy no matter what age group the team is 10u, 12u, etc.. They especially do not like to call 10U games. They should be required to take a course in public relations as well as be consistent on calling balls, vs strikes.

 

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We might have had the same ump at All Sanctions. It was definitely all about him and not about the girls or the game.

 

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We had a situation that was similar, but not the same outcome this weekend in Sterling. All the umpires were trying to start the games early on our fields because the rain was coming. However, I told him that our pitchers had a routine that they followed to be warmed up, and he said to just let him know when she was ready, and he started the game then (It was still about 15 minutes before game time). My wife wasn't happy, because she was coming at game time, and she missed the first inning, but we also beat the rain!