I've posted plenty of examples of the umpires around here who don't care at all about doing a good job, aren't interested in knowing/learning the rules, and who are looking to leave ASAP. After today's game, I've decided to start a running thread of all the times this year umpires demonstrate they just don't know the rules. No judgment calls.
I'm not doing this in an effort to bury all umpires. The umpires who post here are great. We've actually had some good umpires so far this year, but we're about to start playing teams that use the bad umpires, so I expect I'll be updating this frequently.
For our umps who post here: This is what I deal with at the high school level year in, year out, and Illinois has absolutely no interest in making sure umps are good. There's no protesting of games, no process for reeducation or removal of bad umpires. There is a rating system, but it's only a small part of the formulas used for playoff games. The special report system is designed for egregious situations, like if an umpire shows up drunk or gets physical with a player or something like that. In short, my only recourse is to complain online.
Two calls from today's game. Our JV team was playing a weak varsity team (we lost 10-9).
First call: Uncaught third strike. Our batter froze in the box for a solid two seconds as we're all telling her to run. She starts to run. The umpire calls her out and says she didn't try to go to first immediately, so she's out. When I told him that wasn't a rule, he said "look it up." I, exercising self control, didn't tell him to go jump in front of several moving vehicles.
Second call: Girl swings and misses a pitch that hits her. He calls the strike, but he allowed one of their runners to advance to third. Again, when I told him that should be a dead ball because it hit her and the runner had to return, he said once she swings it doesn't matter. His words, it was "fair game" and then named a bunch of stuff a ball could hit (fence, catcher, etc.). He again said I need to learn the rules. He actually invited me to show him in the rules where it says it's a dead ball, which I would've done after the game, but he left before I could.
Neither call ultimately affected anything. Our hitter wasn't going to beat the throw, and the runner who advanced would've scored that inning no matter what. Still, I had to explain both calls to our girls, 11 of whom have not played before this year, since the umpire was loudly yelling about how I didn't know what I was talking about.
He also ended the game after three innings, less than 90 minutes into the game, because "it was getting dark." Sunset was literally exactly one hour after the time he called the game.
To be continued...
I'm not doing this in an effort to bury all umpires. The umpires who post here are great. We've actually had some good umpires so far this year, but we're about to start playing teams that use the bad umpires, so I expect I'll be updating this frequently.
For our umps who post here: This is what I deal with at the high school level year in, year out, and Illinois has absolutely no interest in making sure umps are good. There's no protesting of games, no process for reeducation or removal of bad umpires. There is a rating system, but it's only a small part of the formulas used for playoff games. The special report system is designed for egregious situations, like if an umpire shows up drunk or gets physical with a player or something like that. In short, my only recourse is to complain online.
Two calls from today's game. Our JV team was playing a weak varsity team (we lost 10-9).
First call: Uncaught third strike. Our batter froze in the box for a solid two seconds as we're all telling her to run. She starts to run. The umpire calls her out and says she didn't try to go to first immediately, so she's out. When I told him that wasn't a rule, he said "look it up." I, exercising self control, didn't tell him to go jump in front of several moving vehicles.
Second call: Girl swings and misses a pitch that hits her. He calls the strike, but he allowed one of their runners to advance to third. Again, when I told him that should be a dead ball because it hit her and the runner had to return, he said once she swings it doesn't matter. His words, it was "fair game" and then named a bunch of stuff a ball could hit (fence, catcher, etc.). He again said I need to learn the rules. He actually invited me to show him in the rules where it says it's a dead ball, which I would've done after the game, but he left before I could.
Neither call ultimately affected anything. Our hitter wasn't going to beat the throw, and the runner who advanced would've scored that inning no matter what. Still, I had to explain both calls to our girls, 11 of whom have not played before this year, since the umpire was loudly yelling about how I didn't know what I was talking about.
He also ended the game after three innings, less than 90 minutes into the game, because "it was getting dark." Sunset was literally exactly one hour after the time he called the game.
To be continued...