Strike called on Practice Swing in Batter's Box

Ideally you should find out his assignor is and report this idiot. There is no such rule, he is making it up and he makes all umpires look bad.

Dear God, where do some of these guys get these ideas? It makes real umpires sad to hear of idiots like this.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael S. Taylor:
Dear God, where do some of these guys get these ideas? It makes real umpires sad to hear of idiots like this.

LMAO.... I often think the same thing... WOW!!!!

Other day I saw a nearly perfectly done jump split pick off move to first called a balk. The explanation was the pitcher has to step back to throw to a base. Only thing I can figure is the blue didn't understand the jump split or something.. LOL heck he tried to tell us all that he used a High School Varsity strike zone which he claimed was from the waist to the knees.I asked him if he realized there was no difference in strike zones from varsity and JV, and asked him why he only calls the lower half of the strike zone when the rest of the umps in the very least call a bit above the waist.

these things......phantom swings/strike zone/balk stuff are what make umpire trainers and those who have had training cringe....

I know MST and I have spent a great deal of time over the years training umpires and when these myths/bad interps and yes, down right bizarre rulings are brought to light it just makes us shake our heads in disgust....

The hardest part somtimes is breaking these habits/beliefs....sometimes the more bizarre the mechanic or belief the harder they cling to it.....

Men's League game last week. I'm BU in A. Pitcher pitches, F2 catches, then begins to stand to throw back to F1. Batter takes a practice swing.

F3 turns and says, "Isn't that a strike?" I reply, "No, BU said it was a ball; looked outside from here." He says, "No, that swing he took. Isn't that a strike?"

I had to hold my composure.

Yesterday at a tournament a coach told me that a thrown ball lodged in a fence was live because it hadn't gone past the fence.

There are idiots throughout baseball.

Playing on a field with a short LF porch. Behind the fence is a large net (think golf driving range) that was probably 60 ft high. It was pretty obvious it was to protect the neighborhood. Between the fence and the net was a batting cage. During the plate meeting, PU ump says walks us through "out of play" down the LF line and then says "anything off the net is in play - play it live". I held my breath, and was working on letting him finish. Then he said "any ball that lands in the sagging net will be a ground rule double". Now I am puzzled, but not ready to cut him off. Fortunately the BU stepped in and says "Pete, any ball over the fence is a home run, so if it hits the net or lands over the fence we'll award the HR or a ground rule double if its on a bounce". PU actually says "oh, we are playing that way?". (note: we were the 2nd game on that field, so who knows what the first two teams agreed to, but the BU saved me a few questions). Yeesh....

Couldn't find a brick wall to beat my head on.

During a pregame meeting while shaking hands, the opposing coach and I were told "this is your first warning, anyting you say to me from here on will result in ejection". I'd never seen the umpire before but knew the opposing coach. We exchanged glances and went about our business (later we determine neither of us had a "past" with him).

First inning, we have a batter foul a bunch of pitches to our side of the field and then get called out on a pitch three feet outside. I have four balls in my lap and yell, "Blue, balls in" before I get to "balls in" he ejects me for arguing balls and strikes.

I explain I wasn't arguing, I just wanted to return the foul balls. He says I was arguing about the call. He wasn't very bright, so I after a few minutes, I get him to admit I was ejected for returning foul balls. I tell him then I won't as an example to my kids that I can be corrected, admit my mistake and move on. I put the balls in my bucket and proceeded to leave.

They didn't have any more balls so the league director comes out of the stands and asks why I'm leaving with his baseballs. I explain I was just ejected for attempting to return them, so I didn't want to risk suspenson or something worse by trying to return them.

After a delay, I was unejected if I agreed to give the balls back. The rest of the game was one of the most horrific games I've ever seen officiated. I don't remember the outcome other than it was horrible, both ways. At one point the other coach offered to just flip a coin at the end of the game to deterimine the real outcome.

To this day I have never seen that umpire again.

Moral of the story, the bad ones are bad but they don't linger. The good ones stick around. You'll see a lot more good ones than bad ones.