Feedback from HS V umpires and area assignors please...
game yesterday - important league game, we're on defense, batter fouls a ball back. Opposing team asks for CI (saying bat hit catcher's glove on swing. Umpire asks my catcher if it did and makes the call only after he gets an answer from my C. I went to ask and he told me he thought it hit the glove. I said, that's fine but you made the call based on the answer from my C instead of what you thought/saw/heard. No way to call a game. He just shrugged.
Am I wrong to think this is wrong? I don't care about a call. I don't expect terrific performances from the usual HS crew and I'm usually the coach that leans hard on the tolerant side. This just rubbed me as really unprofessional. Thoughts?
Same game, we're on defense again, rundown between 2nd and 3rd, runner jumps around a tag and retrieves safely. I don't think I've ever come out twice to discuss calls in one game before. I asked calmly what he saw as the basepath. He said "where the cleatmarks are". There were, in fact, two clean sets of cleatmarks. One was in the basepath and the other was clearly 6-8' outside of the first set. The only possible scenario was the one in the path was fielder and the other was runner. I pointed them out and asked how he saw that as being in the basepath. Changed his tune... "all I know coach is he didn't leave the basepath". Huh?
Rough day at the office. Just want opinions on how these were handled from the guys who know how it's supposed to be handled.