Umpire hits Abreu with bat

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May 16, 2012
97
18
Missouri
Ok. I’m 45 years old and this was back when I was 19 to 21 years old and umpiring at West Hills Little League here in Southern California. Pretty competitive league and I was a decent ballplayer recovering from reconstructive shoulder surgery. Kicking a bat out of the way from a kid barreling into the plate just seemed sensible. Maybe Covid garbage has changed things???

Jim Wolfe actually umpired some games there and taught us a thing or two. Just before he started umpiring in the show.
19th year umpiring and was always taught to never touch players equipment, period.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
That’s terrible. Coaches should have apologized. I know I would have and got on our girls!

Only time I might ask an umpire to touch a bat is if there is a play to the outfield and it turns into a possible play at the plate where they walked by a bat laying on the third-base line in front of home plate. Just kick that one out of the way. Just me???

Appreciate that Nate!

As for kicking it out of the way ... it is not just you, but it is NEVER me. See the video that kicked this whole thread off. I hate to play the USA Softball card of "here are 23 things freak things that will get you sued" (I have never found any verification for any of those stories) ... but, the catcher is moving to make a play, I kick the bat, the bat rolls back, catcher rolls an ankle ...

Nope. Just not touching it ever. It's like jewelry, IMO ... the answer is just NO. I'm not making any judgments, it is just NO.

Kicking a bat out of the way from a kid barreling into the plate just seemed sensible. Maybe Covid garbage has changed things???

Lots of things that make sense don't make sense. Not COVID related at all. I was always taught this.

Jim Wolfe! That's awesome!
 
Jun 3, 2021
157
28
I get your point. It makes sense. I was never taught that. But then again I just umpired little league for under three years. Maybe two. Been a while. Anyway it was very entry level. Heck, I am very well may have been told and just ignored it. LOL

About three weeks ago we were trying to work with our on deck batters to get the bat out of the way when we had a runner coming to score from second. Got warned for interference and then it got called twice costing us two runs. One was understandable but neither altered the outcome at the plate in our favor in our eyes. Friendlies and we got a warning so no compliant. Just had us scratching our heads a bit.

This was back when Jim was in the minor leagues. He was famous in the minors for his black book. Lol. He and his brother were always good people in the times I hung around and out with them. Jim helped give some pointers we tried to pick up on. He was the guy we all tried to be like when we umpired.
 

Tex

Sep 13, 2011
46
8
Never touch the equipment (bat). What are you going to do with the bat during the play? If you move the bat to another area and the play continues to where the umpire moved the bat and causes player injury, the umpire is Liable.
 

softgabby

Gear Empress
Mar 10, 2016
1,073
83
Just behind home plate
I saw the clip of Abreu being hit with that bat. I could imagine how something like that would have played in Philadelphia and it happened to a Phillies player. Our media would have lost their minds.

But, in my years of playing, I've never seen an umpire pick up a bat unless the bat is going to cause a problem and I can count those times on one hand and still have p-lenty of fingers left over.

It just doesn't happen.
 

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