Umpire Missed Call

[Agcy]

I've seen video of it, but NEVER in person.

D2 game.

Runner at first, LH Batter. First pitch, the batter takes a weak full swing; looked like it was supposed to be swing/steal, but the runner didn't go.

Umpire called a ball.

Our catcher stops and asks the umpire what he called. He said ball. She asked to appeal to the field umpire. She signals safe. Our coach comes on the field and verbally questions them across the diamond. Finished with " you cannot completely miss a full swing!". The FU snipped back "I made my call and that is what it is!"

That is a really good way to get all the fans to question EVERY call the umpires make.

The umpires got together between innings and talked quite a bit (that was the only time they did that). The next inning the plate umpire 'apologized' to our catcher if he missed it.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Confession is the start of repentance.

 

[canyonjoe]

What's the problem. They missed one and later admitted they might have. These guys do 6-8 games a day with hundreds of pitches. I don't blame you coach for asking but if they missed it they missed it and can't just take his word for it.

 

[MoJo]

Don't worry, there will be many more crazy calls to keep DFP going. From 8u ball to MLB.

An interesting game last fall had one of those "quiet" umps. 12u softball. Other team batter was trying to bunt. Pitch one missed bunt, pitch two missed bunt, pitch 3 swing and a miss. Ump signals 0-1 count. At bat continues without any coaches or score keepers getting the count corrected. Thats PU, FU, Coach A, Coach B, both assistants and both teams paper score keeper and game changer operator. 9 people stayed quiet.

Batter got 7 pitches for a count of 2-5.

 

[Agcy]

What's the problem. They missed one and later admitted they might have. These guys do 6-8 games a day with hundreds of pitches. I don't blame you coach for asking but if they missed it they missed it and can't just take his word for it.

Honestly, in all the games I have ever watched (all levels), I have never seen an umpire missed calling a swing as a strike let alone at a college game.

I think the problem is that if you're getting paid several hundred dollars to do a job, coaches and players should expect for you do one of the simplest things right.

 

[marriard]

Honestly, in all the games I have ever watched (all levels), I have never seen an umpire missed calling a swing as a strike let alone at a college game.

I think the problem is that if you're getting paid several hundred dollars to do a job, coaches and players should expect for you do one of the simplest things right.

One of the things we teach and learn in higher end umpiring is avoidance of 'blatant mistakes' and 'unforced errors'
Something that separate the levels of umpires is the number of blatant mistakes and unforced errors. That comes with a combination of experience, knowledge, training, temperament, focus, problem solving, people skills and a whole bunch of other things.

But even the best have moments - and also you absolutely can't see everything so sometimes the game or rules let you down. You make thousands, and thousands and thousands of calls - a blatant mistake is going to come up sometimes because you lose focus for a second or you just didn't see it (and if no one saw it, then you can't call it). No different than everyone else involved in a game - everyone had done something stupid for whatever reason.

So we also talk about strategies around what to do when it happens. How you handle this is also one of the things that separate good and great officials from others. Game management skills are essential.

 

[Gags]

for a count of 2-5.

Just reading this is making my brain hurt - the fact that this situation even occurred risked tearing apart the space-time continuum!

 

[Northball]

Don't worry, there will be many more crazy calls to keep DFP going. From 8u ball to MLB.

An interesting game last fall had one of those "quiet" umps. 12u softball. Other team batter was trying to bunt. Pitch one missed bunt, pitch two missed bunt, pitch 3 swing and a miss. Ump signals 0-1 count. At bat continues without any coaches or score keepers getting the count corrected. Thats PU, FU, Coach A, Coach B, both assistants and both teams paper score keeper and game changer operator. 9 people stayed quiet.

Batter got 7 pitches for a count of 2-5.

Put it down as an out; umpire's choice? Or was she safe on the dropped strike 5?

 

[dbronstein]

Don't worry, there will be many more crazy calls to keep DFP going. From 8u ball to MLB.

An interesting game last fall had one of those "quiet" umps. 12u softball. Other team batter was trying to bunt. Pitch one missed bunt, pitch two missed bunt, pitch 3 swing and a miss. Ump signals 0-1 count. At bat continues without any coaches or score keepers getting the count corrected. Thats PU, FU, Coach A, Coach B, both assistants and both teams paper score keeper and game changer operator. 9 people stayed quiet.

Batter got 7 pitches for a count of 2-5.

I was coaching 13U baseball a few years ago and we had a kid who had a shoulder injury but was cleared to play by ortho except he couldn't swing, so he had to bunt. With two strikes, he fouled one off, should've been strike 3. The ump just called foul. The next pitch was a WP a runner scored from third. Then another ball. Finally the other coach calls time to say the batter should've been out two pitches ago. The ump is a deer in the headlights knowing he blew it and had no idea what to do. I argued that the last pitch was a ball and you can't call him out on a ball. The ump finally decided that he couldn't call him out on that pitch so he kept batting. He eventually struck out anyway.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Honestly, in all the games I have ever watched (all levels), I have never seen an umpire missed calling a swing as a strike let alone at a college game.

I think the problem is that if you're getting paid several hundred dollars to do a job, coaches and players should expect for you do one of the simplest things right.

Fixed it for you.

I wondered if the umpires were going to say it wasn't actually a swing since it wasn't an attempt to strike at the ball. I've never seen it either, but I have people argue that theoretical.