Great video as always, Patrick! I would like to add the following: Check with your assigners/supervisors...I am not an attorney but, I do NOT take the field more than 10 minutes prior to the scheduled game time. The reason for this is it's not officially our field until the ball is put in play but, if anything happens before the game (a fight, someone getting hit with a bat or a ball, etc.) we are going to get a phone call. If something happens before the 10 minute mark, the conversation ends with, "My crew and I were waiting outside the fence to take the field." #2, a new pitcher entering the game gets no more than 8 pitches. When I work the plate, I let F1 and F2 take the first pitch without getting behind F2 because that first pitch has the highest rate for being wild. I then take a look at the next 4 pitches, 2 from each side. After the 5th pitch, I will move to the dirt circle on the visiting team side and wait for the net pitch. Then I will turn to F2 and tell him 2 more with 2 fingers up and then also turn to the hitter and say and do the same.
After a long time, finally found something to disagree with you on. You say not to suspend a game right after the start since the home coach has said that the field is playable. Umpires are legally and ethically responsible for the safety of the players and our partners. If the first batter face plants on on a muddy baseline and is injured, we cannot say that the coach said it was safe. We must use our own judgement. I have never had to end a game right after saying "play" and I would try to find a way to avoid having to do it. However, under the right circumstances, I certainly would.
I think Patrick is just saying "Don't be a male organ about it". Saying "Play!" and then immediately calling the game would be a very bad look. The home team head coach is an experienced baseball professional, and probably has a better feel whether his field is initially safe for play than you. At least if this is a varsity game with the actual head coach... If it's JV or frosh it might be a different story. So as long as no one is being obviously ridiculous, give it a chance for at least a couple batters until you get clear evidence the field is or is not safe.
Love your weekly quizzes and videos. In this video you mention watching the pitcher to make sure he isn't delivering from the hybrid. The hybrid is now legal (at least in Louisiana). The pitchers position is determined by his pivot foot alone.
In this day of the interwebs, and referring to home team initially making call "ya field is all good" and to avoid as much controversy as possible if visiting team raises no issue and assuming ground rules talk has taken place, visiting team makes no mention, then after a few innings, visitor will slip trying to catch a ball and immediately want game called, umps should be aware of any conference or association field rules that cover ground conditions. To avoid this, ask captain for visiting team "any concerns before play begins" then when a field related gaffe occurs, ump can be better suited when real issues of field require play to be suspended.
I know, not NFHS, but at a Jim Evans camp, his advice for a two umpire crew was that PU stand IN the right hand batters box and U1 IN the left hand batters box. I will adjust my positioning accordingly.
... and the pistol shall be carried in a holster next to PU's ball bag, along with a backup mag for game management purposes. Remember in Naked Gun how everyone got all kinds of agreeable after PU pulled out his gun?
oh, bummer, I posted a link to a youtube clip of the classic moment when Plate Umpire Frank Drebben aka Enrico Palazzo pulled out his .38 at -Angel- Dodger stadium but alas it's gone
As a practical and maybe a legal matter, should umpires allow the game to even get to the point of the home team warming up on the field, the pitcher taking 8 warm up pitches and the batter getting in the box ready for the first pitch and the umpire call "Play" when the umpire or umpires already know and have agreed the field is unsafe to play? If the umpires have jurisdiction as soon as they enter the field, even before the plate meeting, why would they let it get that far? What would be the reasoning of the umpire(s) allowing it to get that far?
Been there, done that for sure...I typically arrive at the ballpark 60 minutes in advance. If I have any reason to suspect there is a question with the field, I will go down and find the home team manager and just ask him how are things. Sometimes there will be people working the field to get it ready, even...and I will ask, "Coach, do you want my assessment of the field now?" and if he says yes, I will give it to him. Remember at this point by the time I have walked down there, it might be 45-50 mins before game time. I have had situations where the manager has called it right then and there, and other times he will say he will have it ready by game time. By rule, it's his field so, if he tells me he wants to try and work to get it ready, I have to let him do that. I will then return my vehicle, conduct my pre-game and return to the field with my partner. I'm not going to lie...there have been times where the field is not ready and I will put the ball in play, we play one pitch and I will suspend the game because in my judgement the field is not safe. This is a very rare occurrence but, in the end player, coach and umpire safety are always the most important thing. I would rather have hundreds of parents upset with me for doing my job and suspending a game on an unsafe field then to have to speak with one parent of a player who got injured on a field where I allowed the game to play in dangerous conditions.
A lot of cases, even before ump is in a spot to make playable determination, visiting team will squak and that is where applicable conference or association rules/condition rules will come into play. When that happens, ask Home coach what is this Field's "Rain Out #?"
Firing at starting pistol to start the game would, admittedly, be pretty awesome. BTW, what rule/case play specifically states that only the batter and on-deck better can be warming up? I've been enforcing this for a while, but I'm not sure the section of the rule book I get this from is the correct one.
I thought hybrid stance is now allowed in 2024? Pitchers are either set when pivot foot is parallel to pitcher’s plate or in windup when pivot foot is in contact with pitcher’s plate and not parallel to it.
Correct. We more or less took away the term hybrid to say they are windup or set and hybrid falls into either one or the other. That's all symantics though and the important thing is we know what we're looking for!
Patrick said in this video that if the mound is not covered the rule is that bullpen mounds must be uncovered as well. Can someone point me to that rule?
Regarding the last case play (#12), it seems outfielders are excluded as players who need to be "in position" before the start of the game. Other than the pitcher and catcher, is it not a requirement that the other seven fielders must have at least one foot in fair territory? For instance, would we start the game without a right fielder because, perhaps, he's using the restroom and nobody noticed?
So, that is a weird part of this rule and it's kind of a contradiction but kinda not. I guess the theoretical difference is if he is off the field entirely or in foul territory.
I thought this was amusing too, the notion that we'd actually start a game with no outfielders... But if the defense declines to put 9 in the field and wants to start, ok, good luck then. This was a rare case where I actually did look up this rule while taking the quiz, my first reaction was that you only truly need a pitcher, catcher and batter so it was interesting to learn the rule requires infielders but not outfielders.
For the "beer league" types i.e. all teams play for same community type program, also would apply to little league type youth organizations, and to avoid not being paid, a call to org director should be first attempted before telling both teams to go packin'
This brings up another question having to do with umpire authority. In most baseball leagues the umpires are the official representatives of the league and probably the national baseball group, association, etc. I don't remember seeing wording like that in the NFHS rule book. What does the following mean in rule 10-1-2: The game officials retain clerical authority over the contest through the completion of any reports, including those imposing disqualification, that are responsive to actions occurring while the umpires had jurisdiction. I notice that the following rule in Offical Baseball Rules is missing, I think, in the NFHS rule book: "Each umpire is the representative of the league and of professional baseball, and is authorized and required to enforce all of these rules." The wording would be a bit different but similar. This was about the first thing I learned about umpiring when I first started a long time ago. Each umpire in Little League is the official representative of Little League Baseball and the local league. And that's the way it has to be in any baseball organization. Most people don't think about it but now a days most people don't start out with just a rule book and no clinics and all. Some coaches think you are there simply to call balls/strikes, safe/outs and fair/foul. I had a coach tell me that in my first HS game this year. I warned him. I didn't explain our role as umpires to him. Can you imagine if the coaches thought they were the official representatives of NFHS or the conference or section or whatever. It would be chaos. Umpires would be under the authority of the coaches. I had a coach tell me that he was the official representative of NFHS or something like that. I immediately got down on my hands and knees and bowed down with my arms outstretched. LOL.
@@davej3781 I bet you liked this part. Do you do this in your games but no joke? (I forgot, are you an umpire?) I immediately got down on my hands and knees and bowed down with my arms outstretched. LOL.
@@robertbrown7470His point was, most HS baseball umpires wear hats with their local umpire association’s logo and not the NFHS logo. Meaning they do represent NFHS.
