Sectional Umpiring

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East Knox 5-vs- Mt. Gilead 3 sectional Championship.

First I want to give a shout out to East Knox HS, they did a fine job of putting the bat on the ball Wednesday Night. I have been around softball for 5 years and coached 2 of those years, grew up playing baseball and umpired and coached baseball too. With that being said...

The Umpiring crew assigned to this game was by far the WORST set of umpires I have ever seen!!!!!

#1 Father and Son team, from Knox County. Umpiring a game from their home county... Starting things off.

#2 It was 0-0 in the third inning I believe, East Knox has Runners on the corners. 1 out... Pitch... runners leave on the release... ball is hit to dead away center field... runner on 3rd, runs back the the bag.. touches and heads for home... she is off the bag almost 10 feet when the ball is caught... the throw to the plate is made, runner scores. The catcher throws the ball to the third basemen to appeal the NO TAG UP.. umpire calls her safe... "because she did return to the bag and tagged up." Mt. Gilead coach's voices his contention that yes she did.. but she was 10 feet off the bag when the catch was made. Umpires meet... son agrees with dad.. runner is safe at home.

#3 Strike Zone for Mt. Gilead pitcher is now 4 Inches wide over the center of the plate, from the Waist to the letters. Strike Zone for the East Knox pitchers 3" outside the plate from either side, middle of the shin to the eye balls.

#4 Even the fans from East Knox were commenting on the called strike outs...

It is my belief since I have been watching softball that I have not yet seen a pitcher that is able to throw a ball that has such a break on it that if the catcher has to go to one knee and back hand across her body to catch it and it be called a strike. Further more if the catcher who is about 5'6" tall has to stand up to catch the ball, again really that good of a rise ball???

Again, East Knox hit the ball!!!! But of course all the balls where right down the middle of the plate and waist high...

It was really hard to watch the umpires take the chance of two really good teams playing a really good game out of the hands of the teams... They decided it...

So that end, my question, who assigns them to tournament games?

 

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Why in the world would a father & son be on the same umpiring crew-I'm guessing the son over ruling dad may have a conflict? I have seen umpires in travel ball have a diffrent strike zone for each team if one team is inferior to the other, but School Sectional play? If this all played out the way you say then I bet you have some pretty upset girls-especially Seniors. Sounds like you got some home cooking!

 

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My 10U DD even questioned several called strikes.

 

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I want to make sure that I am perfectly clear... I'm not on here being bitter because we lost!!!!!

I was there, witnessed it. And sat in 100% complete disbelief as to how the game was called. I have been in travel softball for 5 years, and I have seen GREAT game calling, and some poor calling. But NEVER to this extreme. I truly think that the Seniors there are only two whom played the third was on IR all season, were more disappointed than hurt, my DD is a freshmen, and she was really upset for them. She said "I have 3 more years, this was their last chance."

 

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The Umpiring crew assigned to this game was by far the WORST set of umpires I have ever seen!!!!!

You listed ONE bad call and you didn't like the strike zone...and you call THAT the worst umpiring you have ever seen!

I guess you really haven't been around the game too long or you would have seen way worse that that before.

#1) I know lot's of father/son crews that do a good job. I sounds like since they are from the other county you are accusing them of some sort of bias (ie: cheating).

#2) Tag up at third is the plate umpires call. I don't know what this umpire was watching or what he thinks he saw.

#3) So you're accusing the umpires of cheating?

#4) And the fans are accusing them of cheating!

 

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I don't think he's saying they were cheating- he's saying they made some bad calls and the strike zone wasn't the same for both teams. People are human and it wouldn't be the first time an umpire was biased towards a team.

Since were picking on umps- my DD played in a game a couple of years ago where the Ump had a much different strike zone for each team and were all sitting there going what's the deal here. After the game our coach finds the Ump and team having lunch together under a big oak tree- Tournament Director is notified and Ump is suspended from tourney. It came out that the ump lived in same town as the team we played in.

 

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Bad strike zone..... seen that before.

Missed call at tag on third... shouldn't happen.

Anything else when it came to their umpiring that was off ?

Blown calls on steals ? Bad call at first on a close play ?

 

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Tonight dd hits 14th hr of the year and the next time up some how a punkin ball got thrown into the game and she hit a smashing shot (joking) to the second baseman.The ball was clearly a dud..The umpire said he did not know where it come from.After a couple foul balls the other team threw the dud out to the ump instead of one of the balls that had been fouled off. What is the call on something like that? Our coach was pretty upset over it. Of coures blue didn't want to hear any of it. Also, our game was badly officiated. We won but still................

 

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To the Umps that replied... as it was a fairly close game, 0-0 til the third... they scored 1, on the "tag up" play, and yes the home plate ump (father) made that call... Like you said, what he was looking at I have no idea, maybe the USA flag waving in center field? After that inning is when they strike zone changed. Thats when our pitcher had to throw everything right down the middle waist high. Which of course is not much different than hitting off a T and they Tattered those balls, Scoring 4 in the 4th.

The fans that were talking were from East Knox and they were like wow, he called that a strike. I heard that on the way to get the DD a drink, I mean they did a fine job of hitting!!!! But when the balls are coming right down the middle, waist high, they should, i mean it only takes one time through the line up to get the timing down for those.

The base umpire (Son) did a pretty good job calling plays at first and second since most were pretty bang bang, and it would have been pretty bad to call a girl safe 10 feet before she reached the fist base. Most of the other balls hit were line drives, a few pop ups and routine grounders.

Cheating... Nope NEVER said they cheated... Biased Without ANY doubt. Bretman, I have been around the softball for 5 years of travel ball. since DD is only 14. However I have been around Baseball since I was 7 years old, (42 now) playing travel little league from Age 10-12, (about 200 games in those 3 years) Pony league (2 years) and HS Ball, I coached Baseball for 4 years and softball for middle school for 2 years (until DD moved to HS Ball). Not saying that I am an expert, nor am I saying that your "old" since most of you have been around since the early 90's.

However, I am saying that I find it very hard to understand, why in Travel Ball, HS ball or any level, why it is so hard to be consistent. If you want to make the zone narrow, fine, do it both ways... if you want to widen it... fine, do it both ways.

I have heard more this year, about how inconsistently inconsistent the umpiring has been from Div 1, to Div IV in HS Ball. Granted this is my first year at HS Ball. I was born in the morning, but it wasn't yesterday morning.

 

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Tonight dd hits 14th hr of the year and the next time up some how a punkin ball got thrown into the game and she hit a smashing shot (joking) to the second baseman.The ball was clearly a dud..The umpire said he did not know where it come from.After a couple foul balls the other team threw the dud out to the ump instead of one of the balls that had been fouled off. What is the call on something like that?................

There actually is a rule and guideline for this. Our directions are that all balls coming back into the game must go through the plate umpire. We're not supposed to let just any ball come back in the game, or be thrown in from the sidelines, without first inspecting it. Ball could be the wrong ball, one in bad condition, have cuts or broken stitches, etc.

If it was my judgment that a team was intentionally throwing in bad balls to gain an advantage, they get a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.

 

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Cheating... Nope NEVER said they cheated... Biased Without ANY doubt.

But an umpire intentionally showing bias toward one team IS cheating! It shows a lack of integrity and violates our number one directive to be an impartial observer.

You didn't say they were "cheating", but if they were showing bias then that is exactly what they were doing. I don't know- I wasn't there. I'll let the people that were there and saw the game be the judge of that.

Sometimes though, when a few calls don't go your way it isn't automatically due to the umpires being biased. Sometimes, the calls just don't go your way. All I can really say is that AN UMPIRE SHOULD NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SHOW BIAS FOR ONE TEAM.

 

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There actually is a rule and guideline for this. Our directions are that all balls coming back into the game must go through the plate umpire. We're not supposed to let just any ball come back in the game, or be thrown in from the sidelines, without first inspecting it. Ball could be the wrong ball, one in bad condition, have cuts or broken stitches, etc.

If it was my judgment that a team was intentionally throwing in bad balls to gain an advantage, they get a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Overall this year I saw a lot of questionable calls.Lots of late calls as if they just were not sure how or what to call. Should the girl be allowed to get another pitch after they relized there was an illegal ball in the game? This game was definitely bias.

 

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We just played EK again last night, guess who showed up to umpire the game... same Father / Son team from last years Sectional Playoff game. Despite some eager pleading by the EK people, the umpiring was MUCH Better this team... I do realize that the Sectional Championship was not on the line... but none the less it was better last night!!!!