Episode 29 - OHSAA White Book: Base Umpires: What's the Rush?

Welcome to the umpiring fast-pitched softball podcast. I'm David. I'm Pete and today we're going to keep digging to the OSHA AA white book and today the section we're going to deal with here is bass umpires. What's the rush? So again, this is coming from Ohio but this guidance is agnostic to states. This is just some good things for umpires to think about. Think about this as kind of just a little reminder, a little journal for umpires coming in some helpful hints. So today we're going to be talking about bass umpires. Yeah, and if you are listening from a state other than Ohio and your state has something that contradicts with what you hear today, do what your state said. Alright, so in the quest for accuracy, every umpire has had that moment in which they question whether they got that call right, either by the participants' reaction or their own self-review, when a call is missed, often it is because the umpire rushed the call. Sometimes this is a result of an easy routine call becoming a much closer play. Sometimes the speed of the play, a bang-banger or the possibility of an ensuing play causes the umpire to rush. Sometimes it's because the umpire is not quite in the proper calling position and is moving while making the call. So the first objective is to get into the proper calling position. And this is the proper calling position is one in which you can see the four elements, which is what? Baseball, offensive player and defensive player. Then you have the proper angle, 90 degrees to the throw on force plays or 90 degrees to the approach of the runner on a tag play. Remember to get the angle first and then move close to the distance as possible, angle over distance. Yeah, that's right. So the four elements on the first thing there was the four elements. So you see the four elements, ball, base, offensive player, defensive player, in order to see all four of those at the same time. So we're talking about a force play. Let's just call a routine play at first base where the first baseman has to actually stretch up above her head a little bit to catch the ball. So now you need to be able to see the glove up above that six foot first baseman's head. You need to be able to see her foot on the bag, right? So that's the defensive player, the ball and then the offensive player coming in and touching the bag. You need to be able to see all of those things. And if you're too close, you can't see them all in the same frame of view. Yeah, about 18 feet away. I'll help you do that. And then on the other one, on the force play, the 90 degrees to the approach of the runner. We'll call that the leading edge also, I think, you know, so 90 degrees to the leading edge of the bag. And you want to be closer on that one, you know, everything's going to happen all kind of in the same place because this is going to be a tag play. So I need to be able to see where they're tagging the defender, where the offense has the ball when they're tagging them, right? So you need to be a little closer on that one, 10 to 12 feet, NCAA manual, the CCA manual says a little differently. It says, like, no further than. So you can actually see some, if you watch some of the major leagueers, they're on top of that call. They're right there looking down at it. And it helps, too. As you get guaranteed to men, and when you get three, you get a three person rotation. It's a little easier to be on top of that because you're not running from the position behind walking the line at first. And now you've got to be five feet from a tag play at third. Yeah, exactly. All right. Participation of and proper reaction to the play is a great asset in obtaining the proper position and is aided by pre-pitch planning. Boy, it couldn't agree with that more. Yeah. Right. Where am I doing? What am I doing? What if this happens? And some of that comes about, too. We've mentioned several times, too, as say, is the girl coming up? Is this the lead-off lefty slapper, right? That's right. You're thinking extra bases at all times. You're thinking steels are possibility. You're thinking one bobbled relay throw and she's taken the extra base, right? And that's probably going to be close. Versus the sizable first baseman who is likely to slug it over the fence in any given moment, probably not lagging out of triple, you know, on a ball in the corner. But, you know, so you think about those things as well as where's the defense position? You know, I see the fact that they're playing this person because they're expecting the ball to go to right field. And so, right fielders hugging the line, center fielders in right center, left fielders in left center. Balls hitting the left field line should be a single or even a routine double, but because everyone's so far away, maybe it's going to be a trouble. So you're reading the defense, you're reading the offense, you're reading the players, your previous playing show, including all of that and intensity to get yourself in the best position on the break. Yeah, that's really great stuff. If you are a newer umpire and you study the manual and it says base it to the outfield, right? The information that you have while studying the manual is base it to the outfield, right? Was it left field? Was it a gap or the went all the way to the fence? Was it right field? Was it, you know, it's like, uh, I don't know. And then, so take that into account that you don't have that information while you're studying. But then also the information that you just talked about, are we playing, you know, some of the best, what are they, Chicago bandits? I think, you know, back in the in the early 2000s or no. Yeah, that's even my habits. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, are we playing them or are we playing, you know, the community wreck team from down the street and, you know, what, where are they positioned and that kind of thing? Those things are important to your pre-pitch planning as well. And those will come to you, you know, as you, especially if you study the game and the more, the more you have the same teams in the area, your coaches will always take the extra base. So their coaches are playing. What's the score of the game? Is it 20 and nothing? Exactly. Is it tight? Are we in the bottom of the seventh? And the run matters? I had one position wise pre-pitch planning runner at second, no, I'm sorry, runner at second and third and I'm in the sea. I'm in a clinic and CWA clinic. And I am not shaded over the right hand or over the right shoulder of the shortstop. I'm probably a good four feet, past your right shoulder. I'm four feet closer to third base. And my clinician asked me about it. Right? So they didn't say I was doing it wrong. They said, why did you do that? Well, this is late in the game. The catcher has not even attempted to throw out the girl's stealing first base. So she's not going to attempt a back pick. But she has thrown to third base to try to get people. And so I've paid attention to that. And my call, if it's not a bad at ball, my call is going to be over here at third on the snap throw to third baseman. And so I'm kind of cheating a little bit to make sure I'm here. And he went, you win. Good job. So you know what? But you pay attention to the game. I didn't know those two teams, but we're late in the game and that's the same catcher. She doesn't have a super strong arm. She's not, she's not a snap throw to the second. If she is, that base run is going to be standing on the back when it happens. So I'll be all right. All right. The two umpires system presents the base umpire with the challenge of covering a lot of field and a lot of potential plays. Additionally, players, particularly those less experienced, we get some of those in high school. Don't always attempt the normal plays, which can create unusual situations for umpires through statement. A lot of great statement, yeah. So the key elements to keeping umpires from rushing calls and hence giving the call right is, and that's way up here, the three step process for making calls. Okay. The first process. Number one, stop. Like a camera that is moving when you attempt a snap of photo, the view of the play can be distorted by being in motion. When the play, whether that's a tag or catch, et cetera, is going to take place, stop and be stationary while observing the critical action in addition to giving you a clear picture. This will help slow down your call like it says with the camera, you take a picture where you're moving a camera, it's going to be blurry, you're moving your heads bouncing up and down while you're running whatever's going on, you need to sit still, you can have that clear as possible. Yeah. Couldn't agree more. See the whole play, observe all four elements, the tag, possession, contact with the base, et cetera. Give them a chance to mess up the play, drop or lose possession of the ball, lose contact with the base, whatever. This eliminates the potential of the outsafe that we'll call. We talked about this a little bit back with the mechanics, when we did the mechanic miscus to avoid this piece, you know, let's not rush what you're doing. See the whole thing, give, like it says, give them a chance to mess up. I like that. Like you said, there's no, the girl's safer out whether she's safer out, you know, your call there. We're not saying an hour later get around to make it, but see it, make sure she had the ball, she had control that because all that captured her foot, stay on the base the whole time. Nobody's going anywhere. Yeah. And in fact, you know, it's kind of, they both might be looking at you, right? The defense is going, what's he going to say? What's he going to say? And the brother's laying on the ground because she's lit in there and she's looking and going, she might be going, I was safe, I was safe, I was safe. I just saw a NCAA clip today from yesterday's ballgame. She couldn't sliding in, awesome hook slide at home play. She had a sliding mid on, but I'm not sure I feel about those, but and she got tagged on the on the back of her thigh. What's that called? You're hamstring. Is that what's back there? Sure. Okay. So, anyway, above the knee, you know, but below the bum, if you will, she got tagged there and, well, the umpire, he was in the, he was in the wedge and he banged her out. Unfortunately, they didn't have replay, but the, you know, of course, we replayed the video, you know, and slowed it down and it's like, oh, yeah, no, she was, she was safe. But she came up going, safe, safe, and he goes, bang, oh boy, she went very happy, but anyway, and that was actually earlier in this piece that says, you know, something makes you think you might have made the wrong call. Yes, she was pretty upset, right? So it's like, oh, did I get that one, right? You know? And I think I talked about this. I'd mentioned this in an episode last year when we did these, but I had a call where I was working a game and girl goes into second, player plays the tag and I'm making no call because the ball is actually snow-cooned on her mick, but it's trapped against the player's body. So I can't tell if the ball is being held to touch the mick, like, if someone moves slightly with the ball falling around, I need to see if she's trolling it. I want her to lift it up and like kind of show it to me and I'm waiting and no one's moving, no one's doing anything. And I was like, we see the ball and she picked it up and she was able to control it, snow-coats, and I boom, she's out, and then some of the third base coach comes out and she wants to know why I make the call while I was waiting on. And so I explained it and she was happy to hear it. She was like, I mean, she wasn't happy with the way the call went, but she was happy enough to get the explanation that there was a delay in a call, not because I'm sitting here going, which fans are going to be maddered by this or there are any cute moms that are going to have one way or another. No, no, there's nothing outside of the play that was affecting my decision I was just trying to see. And I thought maybe it's pretty normal for someone to make a tag and show you the ball. Right. It was coming and no one did anything so I was like, all right, I've got to prompt you that I want to see that. And the whole time it wasn't five minutes later that we're talking four or five seconds, you know, whatever happened, but it's a good idea to make sure that you got what's there. I didn't hurry to make a call because you know, what happens if I make that call, boom, call her out and she picks your ball and her glove up and the ball rolls in the center field. Oh, good rolling away. Yeah. It's like, yeah, that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. That's a tough one. And the fact that you saw it snow-coated and wasn't sure if it was trapped right against the body. That's the key. Because if it wasn't trapped against the body, but just snow-coated, then it's like, no, that's uncontrolled. And we're stopped. Nobody's moving. The ball's not moving. And it's not trapped between the two players. So it's an out. But no, I'm not sure. It might be just be trapped there. So yeah, great call. Okay. So first was stopped. Second, see the whole play. Third, make your call. After observing all the action, process what you saw. This is a big piece. Think about it. Right. Especially on really close ones. Make your determination. Then utilize the proper calling mechanics. That involves rising to a full standing position, then giving a firm, safe, or out-signal accompanied by your verbal call. After making your call, return to a ready position for a possible ensuing play. Because right now, the ball is still live. You got to run or lay it on the ground, and you got a defender with the ball. And this kind of, you know, our little makeup scenario here. And the defender's going to throw the ball to the pitcher, hopefully. Yeah. If that girl had been safe, and she did a ball to the pitcher, and it went over the pitcher's head. It wasn't ensuing play. Yeah. It might be on like Donkey Kong. Yep. We've had stopped. See the whole play. Make your call. There's some considerations, Pete, you want to run us through those? Yeah. So consideration regarding the timing here. We've got players, coaches, inspectators, watch the play. And then they look to the umpire for the call. If the umpire has rushed the call, the call may occur before the shift in focus occurs. The uncertainty this creates can begin the process of questioning the call. Timing in the use of proper mechanics reinforces the confidence in your call and in your judgment. Remember, it's fast pitch, not fast, I'm piring. Perfect. Two things. That's gold. Yeah. I've got to love that. But I like the part where, you know, this is an excellent point about the spectator's shift in focus. So it's, we're sitting here thinking that if we wait a second or two, that we've created there's so much dead time, but in reality, they watch the play and then they look to you. So what? They're not. It's not as fast as all that. So if you were trying to be Mr. Cool guy and like, he's like, hey, as fast as you can, everyone's looking at you because you don't stretch right up and they're like, what happened exactly? I don't. Yeah. And I didn't see what? What? How did you get to that? Yeah. That's such a good argument in favor of allowing the timing. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about this one. Jerry gets some credit for too. I don't know if he ever listens to the podcaster. He even knows about it, but I don't want to, I don't want to take credit for things that aren't mine. I want to give that out where they are. So Jerry gets credit for this one as well. So let me ask you this. If we're at a football game, we're getting ready to start the football game. We've got the captains out on the field and I've got a coin and I'm going to flip that coin. And how often does the calling captain get that right? 50% of the time. Right? So let's change it up a little bit and I flip that coin and let it land on the ground and then let the captain call it. How many times does he get it right? I'm, I guess, close to 100. Close to 100% of the time. So if we wait until the action is done and we've seen what happened and we see the outcome, we get the call right. That's good. Not bad. That's Jerry. So he's been doing this a long time and he got something really cool stuff to talk to us about. So he shared that with us. I shared it with you. And just that there's a box on the page. So for a quick recap of what we talked about in the base umpires, what's the rush? Calling the play elements. Here they are. It's position. Make sure you get angled in distance. On force plays, get 90 degrees to the throw, on tag plays, get 90 degrees to the approach of the runner. Also sometimes said 90 degrees to the leading edge of the base they're going into. Make sure you see all four elements. To the ball, the base, the offensive player, the defensive player, stop. Be stationary to see the play. See the play. Watch the whole play. Let the coins stop on the ground and then make the call using the proper signals. The only thing we didn't talk about too much when we say proper signals, you know, there was a stand up, make the safe call, make a forceful safe call. Remember that you do have a routine safe, a routine out. You have a cell safe and a cell out, pick the right one. You know, if it wasn't close at all, you know, you know, there's no reason to punch the girl out. You know, if she was out, you know, she just, yep, she's out, you know, low arm up in the air out, you know, but man, if it's close, show grandma and left field that you were there and it's exciting and she's out, you know, so I think that's what we have for you today. That is it. Thanks guys. Until next time. Thanks for listening.