Umped an 8U rec game last night

[SoCalDad]

One of the coaches on my DD 14U travel team asked if I could cover an 8U rec game that he was assigned to ump last night. He has a younger daughter playing rec ball and the rec coaches in his league are responsible for umping the 8U games. Monday is our off night so I jumped at the chance. Here are my thoughts/observations/insights:

1. 8U rec players must watch a lot of rugby. That is the only reason I could think of for the scrum in center field. A batter hit a ball up the middle and the Left, Left Center, Right Center, Right, SS and 2nd all converged on the ball. Meanwhile the batter is still running. After a beautiful scrum, where I am convinced a couple of elbows were thrown, the SS comes up with the ball. By that time the runner had scored.

2. 8U pitchers are inconsistent. Between the 1st and 2nd inning I was standing at the right end of the backstop chatting with a parent. I was at least 10 feet behind the plate and 6- 8feet to the right of the plate. In the middle of our conversation he yells duck. Too late, RIF ball hits me in the temple. For the first couple of batters was seeing double. Just called the balls/strikes on whichever ball was closer to the strike zone.

3. I have had umps with postage stamp strike zones. Last night I met a batter with a postage size strike zone. 6 YO. Her dad coaches the team and her 8 YO sister is on the same team. She is playing up. Girl can't be more than 38" tall. The pitcher was throwing well but couldn't get near her strike zone.

4. Parents. This is rec ball. Telling them not to swing and wait for coach pitch is just wrong. I had a couple of parents yelling at their girls not to swing. My strike zone was much more liberal after that.

5. Coaches. This is rec ball. These are 7 and 8 YO. Yelling and coaching are not the same thing. What were you thinking? is not the same as What do you think you should have done?

6. The fastest the players ran was to the snack bar after the game was over. Made me think if we put a snack stand at each base we could probably build faster base runners...

7. 1:20 min. 3 innings. Definitely a slower pace game at this age.

8. Umping an 8U game is fun.

 

[stephanie]

9. Coaches of 8U teams need to bring kleenex. There is never a game without SOMEBODY shedding tears....PLUS, sometimes the players cry...

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

This 8U rec league has some similarities to my DDs rec league but there are also many differences. Let me share with you my experience at this age level.

Every team (8) has one decent pitcher who can throw consistent strikes, at a pretty fast pace. These pitchers could probably pitch at 10U but the rest of their game is not at that level, so they cannot / do not play up. Its obvious these pitchers frequently see a PC and practice pitching weekly. The rest of the pitchers struggle because they either just started pitching or they only do it occasionally and do not improve much over the season.

I have not seen a scrum in the outfield since t-ball (6U) and rarely even at that level. If the coaches allow this in practice, it will happen in games.

We have one home plate blue assigned by the league to ump the game.

We coaches tell the hitters to swing at anything in the strike zone so they start learning how to hit off girl pitch. If they strike out swinging, that is ok as long as the pitch is somewhere close to being hittable. We want them to start recognizing the area of the strike zone and not to be afraid to stand in the box.

The coaches can get animated during the game but mostly its to get the players attention "Sally, softball ready" or "a lefty is up, rotate the infield" etc. Some coaches believe you should say very little to the girls at this age during the game, but on defense I like talking to them constantly so they remember the play is a first or so they are paying attention and watching the batter in case the ball is hit to them.

The games can be long, ours go at least four innings and sometimes five at 1.5 hours.

We continually praise the girls after every half inning, if they make a good play, and after the game. They (and we coaches) love the game at this level and all of our girls come back the following season. If they have grown as a softball player and enjoyed the season, we have done our job.

 

[Ken Krause]

I have often thought that whether it's baseball or softball, you could make a lot of money selling cocktails at these under-10 games. They definitely take a long time, and not much happens of note. A cocktail would help pass the time.

 

[MVLA Softball]

SoCalDad,
GREAT post. Sorry to hear of your getting hit, but everything else was good.
Postage-stamp umpire changed to postage-stamp batter. Good stuff. I hope to find a place where I can steal your line someday.

 

[3'sDad]

Ken: Genius idea. Call the business "the Red Cup Rescue" and franchise it to every youth league in the country. You could retire.

 

[SoCalDad]

...Sorry to hear of your getting hit...

Appreciate the sympathy. Guess if I was to get hit in the head by a pitch it was best that it was an 8U. If my DD hit me in the temple with a pitch I don't think I would be getting up.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

I have often thought that whether it's baseball or softball, you could make a lot of money selling cocktails at these under-10 games. They definitely take a long time, and not much happens of note. A cocktail would help pass the time.

It's funny, two different world's watching a game vs. coaching a game. There is so much going on and its exciting if you are inside the fences, but sometimes I feel the parents on the bleachers are bored out of their minds and have no idea (or even care) what is going on in the game.

 

[Lozza]

. 8U rec players must watch a lot of rugby. That is the only reason I could think of for the scrum in center field. A batter hit a ball up the middle and the Left, Left Center, Right Center, Right, SS and 2nd all converged on the ball. Meanwhile the batter is still running. After a beautiful scrum, where I am convinced a couple of elbows were thrown, the SS comes up with the ball. By that time the runner had scored.

I coached boys T-ball at 15 and that was pretty much my games. No matter what I did with the boys, they would all try and get the ball. Drove me crazy. For seven years and under I find that pretty normal.

 

[sluggers]

I assumed that you were going to say:

A riot broke out between the parents. A knife fight between the coaches ended when both were rushed to the ER. The players didn't get involved because they didn't want to drop their snow cones.