Pretty In Pink – Pink Umpire Shirts for Mother’s Day

My friend Gary and I joined many umpires across the country in wearing our pink umpire shirts in support of breast cancer awareness and in recognition of Mother’s Day. A beautiful day, a good game and the shirts were very well received!

Calling a balk

See a balk, call a balk

I have to get better at calling a balk, plain and simple. I think I’ve gotten to where I recognize the balk in most cases, but I have been reluctant to pull the trigger. It’s the weakest part of my game, and it really distresses me.  Anyone can do the easy stuff – strikes and balls, safes and outs. But if I can’t call a balk, I’m not worth my fee. I will put some of the blame on the fact that in many of my big field games (and I still to as many 46/60 games as i do bigger field), we are warning pitchers, and the level of play is so bad that everyone just wants the game moving along. That’s a piss poor excuse, I know…so I take it back.

I just have to get better at calling balks, plain and simple.

Lots of new fields this year

I’ve worked a lot of games in a pretty small geographic area – but still come across new fields more often than I would think. My favorite new field so far has been Cameron Field in South Orange – simply for the fact that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig once played there.   Yesterday was my 1st game at Lidgerwood Field – former home of the Morristown High School Varsity program – big field, lots of fun.  I’ve had games at Parsippany and Rockaway Little Leagues – all great experiences.  Tonight I’m bask at Lidgerwood – it will be 70 degrees, and the field has no lights!

Little league umpire punches coach in NJ

So there’s a story in the local papers about a 21 year old umpire who, alledgedly, punched a coach in NJ during an argument. Here’s what I have to say – I’m glad it wasn’t me!

Catchers’ Interference, Regular Interference, and (not) coaches interference

Interference all over the place

I had both catchers interference and a pretty critical runner interference today (not sure if they were in the same game or in two games of the doubleheader). The CI has easy…ball rolled foul. I (again) called a deadball, which was appropriate because the ball was obviously rolling and staying foul – but i think i might have called deadball even if the ball was in play. I have to get past that. The runner interference came late in the game and killed a rally. It was pretty obvious, and i was a little slow to recognize it, but I got it. And (since this was baseball and not softball), there was not a peep from any of the coaches except to tell there kids that the call was right.  Finally, I ignored a coaches interference in a little league minors game. Every other pitch was a passed ball so every runner on 1st pretty much automatically ended up on 2nd. One one passed ball the coach tapped his runner to wake him up and tell him to go to 2nd.  aybe it makes me a bad ump – but i really didnt want to be the center of attention in a 9 yr old rec game.

Morristown National Little League

I umpire in a lot of places. I’ve done games for Livingston, Madison, Morris Plains, Roxbury and Morristown National Little League – and I always come away from Motown thinking they run a heck of a program.  The coaches seem to do a good job focusing on what’s important and not worrying about the nonsence.  This year, the level of play is down a bit – but the games are still played under control and with a focus on fundamentals. And when I tell a coach that a kid needs a dangling throat protector, they don’t act like I’m just trying to over-officiate!

Coaches Interference

I got my annual coaches interference today. Very easy. Little league minors, runner on 3rd…fly ball to left and the kid starts to run and the coach grabs his arm. Thankfully, that team was up by a ton and everyone got a good chuckle over it!