More umpire excitement

Before I launch into this particular rant, I have to make a couple things clear. #1 - We won both games we played tonight. #2 - The umpire that has sparked this rant is a guy I have a "history" with this year. He's the guy who "didn't see a tag" when a baserunner ran straight through my glove so hard I thought I was going to drop the ball, if you remember that rant. #3 - Furthermore, as I understand it, this was the umpire that, at a game I had to miss, reversed his call on what should have been a game ending triple play. Our outfielder made a great shoetop grab, they doubled off the runner at 2nd and tripled off the runner at 3rd, only to have the umpire rule "no catch", after making the other out calls and as our guys were coming of the field. And finally, #4 - the ruling that was made in the situation that really got me boiling tonight was the correct call.

But seriously, the umpires association needs to put this guy out to pasture. He's got to be at least in his 60s, he can't move particularly well, which causes him to miss calls he could get right if he could get into position, and he's got a chip on his shoulder if you question him even a bit. All you should need to know about his skills as an umpire is what occured in #3. Whether it was right or wrong, you can't change your call on a catch/no catch after the play has already played out like that.

Anyhow, so here is what happened tonight. We dominated our first game, winning 19-2 in 5 innings. However, our opponent's came out strong in Game 2, and we were quickly down 9-2 after the first. As we batted in the 5th, we were down 17-5 and on the verge of being mercy ruled ourselves. Our bats came alive and we had scored 6 runs, and had a runner on first, when there was a slow ground ball to 2nd base. The second baseman picked it up and threw to the shortstop. Upon catching the ball at 2nd, the shortstop immediately took 2 pretty large strides directly down the baseline towards first, and collided (very hard, I might add) with our runner from first, who had been running very hard initially to try and beat out the play, about 6 feet or so in front of the bag. There was nothing dirty about it, it just happened. The rule is that in that instance, the runner from first has to slide or get out of the way, so interference was the correct call, the batter should also be out as the other team is awarded the double. The ump didn't make the call right away, and the other team argued (correctly). This is another contention I have with this particular ump, he either is (or very much appears to be because of how he hesitates on certain calls) influenced by the benches. Anyhow, after a few seconds, the umpire pointed over to me (as our coach) and asked me to come out. He tells me he's going to call the runner at first out on the interference. My only point of contention with the whole situation was that given how far the shortstop came down the line, there would have been some sort of contact even if our runner had slid (he would blown the shortstop up in the air and probably hurt himself in the process) or stopped, so I wanted to know at what point you can fault the fielder for the contact. And so I began to express that, at which point the umpire snapped at me and told me that was the rule. Seriously, man, if you don't want to discuss it (which is fine), just make the call and be done with it, and let me argue if I feel so inclined. Calling me out onto the field from the bench kind of implies that there's to be a discussion.

Anyhow, the right call was made, we won the game anyhow, no real harm here. But we keep having bad run-ins with this same guy, and this was the first of the 3 that didn't have a significant impact on the outcome of the game. And having this guy tonight seemed particularly bad, because we played on Tuesday night and the guy who I think is the best umpire that works our league games was working the game. He's one of the younger umps, he's probably in the best shape of any ump we have regularly and thus very mobile and active, he's personable, he's knowledgeable, he's decisive, and he's willing to acknowledge he;s not perfect. All in all, a very nice skill set for an umpire to have.

So, now I feel better for having gotten that off my chest, and you can all resume your daily lives.