Umping

[Old_Style]

First game of the season is tonight; 13-14 year olds league. We'll see how it goes.

[raiders_umpire]

First game of the season is tonight; 13-14 year olds league. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck.


Remember to hustle. There is nothing worse then calling a game with another ump that will not hustle his way into position. Remember most bang-bang calls can go either way, and being in the right position to make the call will keep the coaches off your back.

[sportsaddict]

I just started umpiring this year actually for a 5th-8th grade league. I have done a few games already, and being that I'm just a high schooler, I catch a lot of crap during games about questionable calls, especially from coaches. It pays pretty well and it's actually pretty fun to do. The younger kids are god awful, and the 7th-8th graders aren't bad, and there haven't been any controversies yet so I'm happy about that

I've done just a few games behind the plate, and for the 5th-6th graders I have a pretty large strike zone. If I didn't expand the zone a little bit the games would go on forever. The 7th and 8th graders are pretty solid players though, I can call a regular strike zone for them.

[Lofunzo]

being in the right position to make the call will keep the coaches off your back.

Agreed. It's hard to have leverage with a coach if you weren't in the right position.

[DaQ]

The advice others have given here looks good.

One other thing how may want to rehearse is when you get to give an angry manger the heave-ho. You make the right call, he runs out to argue, he says the magic word, BOOM! Or if the opposing pitcher starts throwing at the batters, you warn the benches, and then he hits the batter again (with a fastball), BOOM!

I was the main ref for a young girl's basketball league for four years (6th-8th grade was the competitive level). I kept my cool, so I didn't get to toss anyone (there was a coach or two I wanted to toss, but they didn't go over the line). However, I did T a girl up once for dropping the F-bomb after she lost her dribble and it went out of bounds (she was cursing a little before too, but not the f-bomb). That was a fun moment.

[Lofunzo]

The advice others have given here looks good.

One other thing how may want to rehearse is when you get to give an angry manger the heave-ho. You make the right call, he runs out to argue, he says the magic word, BOOM! Or if the opposing pitcher starts throwing at the batters, you warn the benches, and then he hits the batter again (with a fastball), BOOM!

I was the main ref for a young girl's basketball league for four years (6th-8th grade was the competitive level). I kept my cool, so I didn't get to toss anyone (there was a coach or two I wanted to toss, but they didn't go over the line). However, I did T a girl up once for dropping the F-bomb after she lost her dribble and it went out of bounds (she was cursing a little before too, but not the f-bomb). That was a fun moment.

Do it Trump style.

[buffalobillsrul2002]

Umping is sweet... 90% of the time. I was an ump for my town's little league (10-12 yr olds) in high school (which my little brother played in). To offset this, I never umped my brother's games, and I usually umped bases, which is fairly easy.....

Anyways, one game they couldn't find an ump to do the game (ump said he couldn't make it around 30 minutes before the game), and I ended up having to ump home at one of my brother's games... not a fun situation.

Anyways, game was good for a while, until one team had to pull the pticher because of innings requirements. The next 4 pitchers literally couldn't throw strikes. So during the last inning, which was like 2 dribblers for errors and 20 walks (I remember counting literally 11 walks in a row), I began to expand my strike zone little by little. So eventually I called the coache son out on a pitch about 8 inches wide of the plate, and called my brother out on a pitch around his neck. I felt like it had to be done though, to end the inning and the game (as a note, I was slowly expanding the strike zone throughout the inning after awhile; these pitchers literally couldn't throw a stirke). Anyways, the manager got a little annoyed and came out of the dugout to talk to me. Luckily he was a fairly reasonable guy, and when I explained the situation to him, he was OK with it .

[Old_Style]

I umped a total of 4 games this weekend. So far, so good.
My first game, I was umping the bases. Like buffalo said, that part is pretty easy. There's never really a close play at the bases, it's pretty much just standing around.
The final three games I umped were behind the plate. I was stuck doing three 8-9 year old games. No offense to the kids, but they couldn't pitch. I got a passed balls to the ankle and a bat thrown at me (on accident), but it was a pretty fun time none-the-less.
I didn't have any problems with the coaches at all. Before the game, I met with them, told them the ground rules and that the strike zone may be a little bigger than expected. So if the ball is close, swing away.

Overall, pretty good time.

[raiders_umpire]

I umped a total of 4 games this weekend. So far, so good.
My first game, I was umping the bases. Like buffalo said, that part is pretty easy. There's never really a close play at the bases, it's pretty much just standing around.
The final three games I umped were behind the plate. I was stuck doing three 8-9 year old games. No offense to the kids, but they couldn't pitch. I got a passed balls to the ankle and a bat thrown at me (on accident), but it was a pretty fun time none-the-less.
I didn't have any problems with the coaches at all. Before the game, I met with them, told them the ground rules and that the strike zone may be a little bigger than expected. So if the ball is close, swing away.

Overall, pretty good time.

I had 4 games Saturday as well. We had opening day for the little leaguers so basically all kids age 15 and below were playing Saturday. Glad to hear everything went well for you on day one.