Maybe a first in baseball

[adminbaberuth]

Received a call from a jv game tonight. It wasn't our local chapter but a team in our local district.

The umpiring was so bad for both teams that the varsity head coach went on the field and had the umpires switch postion from home plate to field.

[xsv010]

Lol thats pretty funny....where was this at?

[Gabe]

Gotta love baseball 

[CoachB]

I have seen this happen a few times in baseball...For instance, maybe there was a glare from the lights where the umpire behind the plate couldn't call a good game, or maybe one of his appendages was hurting so bad where he was forced to switch.  I am sure there is more to it, then just the head coach telling them to switch.  Especially in a JV game.  If that was the case, I am sure the jv coach as some explaining to do to his head coach.

[Roughrider]

Funny  ;D

[Guest beat-em_deep]

WOW lol thats funny!! ;D

[silly365]

personally have never before  witnessed it but have seen plenty of times where it needed to be done !!

[MrUmp1]

I don't care what position I would have been in, but there would have been some paperwork on that !!!!!!  Some coach would have received a trip to Austin  lol

[FlatsMaster]

Mr Ump...you bring up a point that has irritated me as a fan of baseball since they put this into effect....I don't understand why these coaches have to suffer and make a trip to austin because some umpires are just completely wrong or just bad or to lazy to get in position to make a call.  Not to rant but I just wanted to get that out there.  Now don't get me wrong if the Coach is in the wrong then he should have discipline action

[MrUmp1]

The whole key to that is, there is a line that a coach shouldn't cross when arguing his point. That's what gets them in trouble. Most umpires are only going to listen to so much about a strike zone mainly because it plainly states in the rule book that arguing balls and strikes is an ejectable offense. I have my way of handling coaches that for the most part works fairly well. One thing also is, just because a coach is thrown out of a game, that means reports are written and then the UIL board brings the coach in and makes a decision about what happened. Last I heard from the UIL, about 95% of ejections were upheld. So in 5% of the cases the coach was found that he was wrongly ejected and such was not disciplined or his name mention in the UIL leaguer for a violation or possible probation. So there are checks and balances to the system to try and make sure that a coach is not falsely accused of mis conduct.

[24 over par]

seems like a conference call could handle this instead of driving to austin

[vidor pirate]

i find this mildly hilarious, i agree with mr.ump, but also think that a coach having to drive all the way to austin is mildly rediculous on smaller offenses

[MrUmp1]

In this day and age I think some sort of conference call does sound right. Great suggestion. Who knows why it is done that way. It's the UIL's thang.

[Rockin A]

seems like a conference call could handle this instead of driving to austin

As a former umpire, I can say that most of this should be handled on the field between professionals.  However, because too many coaches cross the line, UIL had to do something.  It should make a coach think twice before he continues to argue a judgment call, likes balls and strikes.  Judgments calls are just that, the umpire's judgment...no matter how bad the coach believes the umpire's judgment is wrong. 

[Guest patriot117]

In this day and age I think some sort of conference call does sound right. Great suggestion. Who knows why it is done that way. It's the UIL's thang.

The UIL wants to make it as much of an inconvenience as possible. That way you are less inclined to "cross" the line. They also require your principal and AD accompany you on that trip to Austin.

[Jasperfan]

Mr. Ump1, not trying to open a can of worms because I agree with everything you have said, but I have seen a few cases where umpires clearly have had a direct impact on the result of the game because of their lack of knowledge of the rules or are to bullheaded to ask for help on questionable calls. We, as fans, just want you to get the call right(whether it is for us or against us). My question is this, what type of evaluation system is used on umpires to determine whether they are qualified to call a high school game. I'm not trying to bash, I'm just curius.