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Welcome to Blue Crew Diaries, an Umpire Podcast. My name is Daryl and I will be your host

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as we take a look behind the mask so to speak, sharing stories, insights and experiences

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from the unique perspective of the baseball umpire. In this episode, we're going to talk

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a little bit about my first few games of the 2024 season, what went right, what went wrong,

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and some interesting things along the way. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for

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future episodes, drop us a line at bluecrewdiaries at gmail.com. So if you're ready,

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grab your indicator and plate brush and let's hit the field.

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All right everybody, welcome to episode five of Blue Crew Diaries and Umpire Podcast.

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The 2024 season is upon us, at least up here in the state of Maine. I'm fairly certain that other

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places around the country have been playing for quite a while now, but we're just finally

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rolling into springtime here up in Maine and getting into some pretty good baseball so far

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this year. As of this particular recording, I have worked five total games

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consisting of both major and minor, little league. I started off my season with a double header,

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an opening day for my local league. I worked, they had a majors game in the morning, I worked a

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minors game in the early afternoon, and then the second majors game in the late afternoon.

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Both of those games went fairly well. It was good to get back behind the plate. I was played

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on fire for both. Just good to get back there and call them balls and strikes again.

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But one thing that I noticed was those first two games on that Saturday, of course, being the

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umpire, we want to go to each dugout, we want to check everybody's bats, their helmets, their

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catcher's gear, make sure everything's ready to go, especially the first games of the season.

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Because what can happen is the umpire for say the very first game of this team season doesn't go and

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check equipment. And now they have stuff that they can't use, but they don't know that they can't use

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it. Pardon me. So then the next game, that umpire thinks, oh well the the first game that umpire

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should have checked everything, so I don't need to check anything. And then eventually you get to

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tournament time, or you get to all stars, and now they're checking equipment and you find out that

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this player has a bat that he can't use, or the catcher doesn't have a dangling throat guard on

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the catcher's helmet. Well this is a bad time to try to change that, because they've been using this

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quote-unquote illegal equipment all season so far. So definitely first games of the season,

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you want to make sure everything is legal. The minors game that I worked,

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I didn't work a lot of minors games last year, I only worked one actually.

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So this year I believe there were two brand new head coaches for these two particular teams.

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And right off the bat, figuratively and literally, one team I had four, okay this team had nine

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players, each had their own bat. Out of those nine bats, four of them were not allowed in minors.

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Three of them were a BB core, and one was a BPF, not allowed. But when I told the coaches,

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hey you can't use these, they have to be majors and below, they have to be USA baseball.

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The coach just kind of looked at me with this weird look on his face, like he didn't know.

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And I get that, he's probably a brand new coach, he's never coached baseball before,

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probably, I don't know. But he's still trying to get up on the rules just like the players are.

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So plus he's got a bunch of other stuff to manage. He's trying to manage these new players,

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some of them are probably coming up from Farm League or coming up from T-ball.

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They don't know all these kind of rules and whatnot. He was perfectly okay with it,

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he understood the rule, can't use these bats, so gonna have to get some new ones.

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And that is the key, make sure that the bats are legit USA baseball.

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They'll have the USA baseball logo underneath the clear coat on the bat,

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or they'll be like silk screened onto the bat or something like that. I actually read a

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article last year where a Little League parent had, it was either a BB Corp or a BB Corp,

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and obviously their player, their child wasn't allowed to use it because their child was playing

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majors, but what the parent decided to do was circumvent the system and instead of buying a new

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bat, they just printed the USA baseball logo that appears on all the USA bats, printed the logo on

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to a piece of sticker paper and stuck it over the other certification logo on the bat. Luckily,

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as soon as the umpire picked the bat up, first thing he did was look for the USA baseball logo

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and realized that no, that's not a legal bat. He was going to have to get the USA baseball logo

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on the bat, but he didn't have to. So, good catch on the umpire. So, four illegal bats on one team,

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the other team had no illegal bats, everything was good to go there, everybody's helmets were

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good to go. The problem was the catcher's mask, or the catcher's helmet. Both teams were using

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catcher's helmets, both teams had two catcher's helmets, neither one of them had a dangling

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throat guard, which is required per little league. It's optional for umpires, but for catchers,

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dangling throat guard is mandatory. So, one team, they just happen to have one in the bag,

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they put it on the on the helmet, okay, you're good to go. The other team did not have one. Well,

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light bulb went off in my head. Oh, okay, well, hold on a second. I ran back to the tower,

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to my gear bag, pulled my dangling throat guard off of my old mask, my Jam Pro mask that I used

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last year, and let this team borrow that for the game. They put it on the helmet,

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everything was good to go. And after the game, I had honestly completely forgot about it.

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I'm packing my gear up in the tower, and that coach came over and handed me that dangling

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throat guard back. He said, here you go, thank you very much. I promised I'd get this back to you,

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but really appreciate you letting us use it, which was cool. I had honestly forgotten all about it.

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If I was only a couple minutes quicker, I would have gotten in my truck and drove off and

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not even thought about it. So, yeah, just pick things to look for. Bats, make sure they're USA

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baseball bats. They're not cracked or messed with in any way. Helmets, you're looking for that Noxie

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certification, which is stamped. It's actually molded into the plastic of the helmet.

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Yeah, it's not a sticker, so don't be looking for a sticker. It's actually part of the plastic mold.

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And just dangling throat guards on the catcher's helmets.

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Let's see, other than that, that Miner's game went perfectly fine. I had, like I said,

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I was behind the plate. I had a, let's just call him a newish umpire working the bases with me.

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He did absolutely fine. I had no issues with any of the calls that he made. Then him and I ended up

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working the majors game together. That one, neither catcher's helmet had a dangling throat guard.

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So luckily they both had them. They threw them on. Everything was good there. All the bats were good.

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All the helmets were good. Had some interesting things in that game.

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We got to, I believe it was top of the fifth and one batted ball down the third base line,

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or towards third base, I should say. I've seen trick balls before, but this thing had a mind

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of its own. So kind of a bouncer to third. The third baseman squares up on it, gets the glove down.

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If this ball went where it should have gone, it would have been an easy play.

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Well this ball gets to about two feet in front of the third baseman, bounces. Well when it bounces,

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it looked like somebody punted this baseball. This thing went at least 10 feet up in the air,

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right over the third baseman's head. I'm standing there looking down the line like, what, what was

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that? Okay, I've never seen that before. So the ball goes off into the into left field. Left fielder

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comes in. I think he feels it just fine. I'm paying attention now to the baserunners and,

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you know, the potential play where this ball might get thrown back in. So it's thrown in.

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The batter ended up with a double. The next thing I know, I hear the defensive, or one of the

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defensive coaches requesting time. So I look over. Okay, everything is stopped. Okay, now it's

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appropriate. I call time and then he tells me we have an injured player. Well apparently this

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trick baseball, after it bounced and went flying over the third baseman's head, it went into left.

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The left fielder comes in, goes to scoop the ball off the ground. The ball hits the inside of the

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third of the left fielder's glove and then shoots straight up and hits him right square in the right

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eye. Oh boy. So needless to say, he ends up getting pulled because he's, he's hurting. There were ice

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bags involved and all that. So now the manager comes walking over to me. He says, so that leaves

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us with eight. Are we okay only having two out in the outfield? Yeah, I don't see why not. You know,

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local league option, you can continue the game with eight players, but if you lose another one,

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now we're in trouble. Bottom of the fifth, this same team.

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No, no, no, it's top of the sixth. Top of the sixth. I don't know why I have bottom five in my

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notes, but top of the six, this catcher. Every time he got up, he, the pitcher was starting to pitch a

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little wild. He was thrown outside a lot, a lot of balls to the backstop. So every, it seemed like

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every time this pitcher would go back to get a pass ball, he was favoring his left knee.

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And he kept favoring it a little more, a little more, a little more with every pitch. He was

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starting to have trouble getting back into position, whatnot. Finally, after a walk, I think

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walked bases loaded. I couldn't hold my tongue anymore. So when the batter got to first base,

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I called time, walk over towards the dugout. Manager comes walking out and says, Hey, what's

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up? I said, you want to go check on your catcher? Because he's, he's favoring that left knee real

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bad. In which case the coach looked at me and went, yeah, we're going to go check on the

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left knee. I'll go have a chat with him. Goes over, has a chat with him. Kid thinks he pulled a muscle

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in his left knee. The coach basically says, all right, well, we still got a lot of baseball to go

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here throughout the season. So I don't think it's a good idea to go to the dugout. I think it's

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a good idea to go here throughout the season. So I don't think it's the best for you to continue on.

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So ended up pulling the, pulling the catcher out.

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Well, now they're down to seven. So what do we do?

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So that coach, the other coach get together. They're talking about what to do.

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You know, can we swap, you know, a player over? Can we, you know, what, what can we do?

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Because this is a good game. At this point, the game was tied at 12.

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In the top of the sixth, they've come this far. Let's see if they can finish it off.

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So then the, one of the league admins comes over and says, Hey, what's up? So the three of them

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are talking and basically what they decided was there was another player. It was actually

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the league admins son who was on one of the other major teams. He just happened to still be there.

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He was out beyond the outfield fence playing pass with a couple of his buddies.

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Didn't have any gear, you know, cleats or anything like that with him,

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but he was there. He was physically able to play. So the league admin and the two coaches

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agreed, okay, if he wants to, we'll bring him in, put him at second and we'll just,

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you know, take the second baseman or whoever and throw them behind the plays to catcher.

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So they told me of the plan and I thought to myself, well, I'm really not a hundred percent

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sure on the ruling for that. But the way I see it, if both coaches and the league admin all agree to

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it, then I'm cool with it. So that's what they did. And of course, very first, very first pitch

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straight to the second baseman. He ended up not getting it. It was, he was just, he was just

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out there. He doesn't have his cleats or anything. He's wearing Crocs. So of course somebody in the

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crowd, well, if he had his cleats on, he would have caught that. You know, just, just one of

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those deals. Everybody was laughing. It was just fun. So, I think that's the way it was.

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So, that was pretty much it for, pardon me, pretty much it for opening day. A couple of days later,

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I worked another miner's game and found two illegal bats. They were both, they were both BB

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Corps bats. So, took care of that. Coach didn't have a problem with it. One, one of the assisting

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coaches kind of took issue with, with one of the bats. And she said, well, you know, I think this

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said you were a bad player. And I said, well, I'm not a bad player. And she said, well, I'm not a

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bad player. And she said, well, you know, I think this said USA on it too. And I'm thinking to myself,

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no, maybe, maybe it was a BPF. I don't remember. But it was either a BP, a BB Corps or a BPF.

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But over the top of the logo, it said USSA, which is typical. It still doesn't make it a USA bat.

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But she's saying, well, no, I think it said USA on it. Well, maybe, maybe it's under the grip tape.

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We just put this grip tape on. So the logo might be under the grip tape.

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And I just looked at her. I said, well, I said, 99 times out of 100, a bat does not have two

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certifications. So I can clearly see, I think it was a BB Corps. I can clearly see the BB Corps logo

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right here. A bat is not going to be a BB Corps and a USA. That's, that's not how things work.

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And I'm trying to explain this to her. The head coach, he fully understands the rule and what's

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going on. And he's trying to explain this to her simultaneously. And finally, she, she more or less

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gave up. No, ma'am, it's not a legal bat in this division. When you get up to junior ball,

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then you can use it. You know, and I understand people, people tend to spend a lot of money on

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these bats. And, you know, they, they spend a lot of money on it, and then show up at the first game

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and find out, oh, well, this bat that you bought can't be used. So you go buy another one. That

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sucks. That game, that game went fairly well. I did have a couple of couple of bouncers down the

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left, down the third base line. And the problem was the field that we were playing at, to be

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perfectly honest, the field sucks. Everybody knows the field sucks. But there were no lines,

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no foul lines. So I'm trying to base my fair foul calls off of the bag. And, you know, the third base

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bag off of the plate and off the foul pole, trying to imagine a line there. So I, I had a few calls

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that I kicked. It is what it is. We had a few kids that just flat out didn't know what they were

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doing. I had one kid, I called ball four. Then it was clearly ball four. I said ball four.

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And I took my mask off. I kind of walked to the side of him and I pointed to first base.

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I said, go ahead, buddy, go take your base. And he just looked at me. And then he looked back and

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he's standing there waiting for the pitcher to throw the next pitch. It's like, no, buddy,

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you, that's, that's ball four. That's a walk. You get to, you get to go to first base.

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And he just looks at me and then looks back at the pitcher waiting for the next pitch.

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So finally the head coach, he's, he yells down to me from third base coaches box.

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He was talking to his runner he had on third. He yells down to me, what,

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what's going on? Did it hit him? No, it didn't hit him. He just took ball four. Oh yeah,

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go on down to first base, buddy. Yeah. He looks over at the coach and then finally drops the bat

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and goes trotting down the first. Then I had another kid who comes up in the box, swings,

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fouls it off almost straight to the backstop right over the top of my head.

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Okay. That's foul. So I, I call foul, not, not too loud because it was obvious.

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I mean, you could hear the ting off the bat. So foul and the kid, the batter turns to me and says,

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do I run now? Uh, nobody. It's only strike one. It's strike one and it's a foul ball. No, no,

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you, you stay right here. Then there was, there was one kid that, you know, the majority of the

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reason that I, I do what I do is for the kids. Just, you know, let them have fun and let them

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have fun. And there was one kid on this team. Every single time he came up to the plate,

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he had the biggest smile on his face that he was out there getting to do this.

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And that just put a smile on my face. You know, that, that's what I love to see.

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Uh, so other than that, that, uh, that game went, went fairly well for, for a minor's game,

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especially first game of the season. Uh, moving on to Tuesday had another majors game.

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This one had some, uh, had some interesting pieces to it. I had one batter, uh, get hit by a pitch

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pitch was so far inside. He got hit by it, but he also swung at the same time. Okay. So it's like,

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he swung at it, but he was out of the box. It hit him. And I'm, I'm trying to go through the rules

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in my head and luckily my partner was, uh, is very experienced. I kind of lean on him sort of as a

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mentor. And, uh, so I just like called time and I walked out to him and he just said, yeah, it hit

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him. So it was dead ball strike. Okay. Good enough to turn around and walk back to the plate. I just

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kind of had a, kind of a stupid moment there where I, the rule book kind of froze in my head,

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kind of, kind of buffering there for a second, trying to remember what, what the call is here.

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Okay. Dead ball strike. Um, and then we had an instance where runner on second,

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he takes off after the pitch, go to third, trying to steal. He waited till the pitch reached the

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batter and then he took off. The catcher gets the ball, pops up, goes to throw to third, but the

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batter is standing right there. So the catcher has to kind of take a half a backstep, throws to

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third, was not in time. That's when the catcher turns around and looks at me and says, that's

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interference. I said, what's interference? Well, the batter, he has to move out of the way. No, he

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doesn't.

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I didn't say that, but the catcher says, yeah, he, he, he, he has to move. He didn't move. That's

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interference. And in my head, I went, no, the batter, literally his feet never moved, but the

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hands were still on the bat. He was still almost in his, in his stance. He did not move. He did not

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commit any illegal action by trying to move. Now, if he had tried to move or if he had stepped out

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of the box or done something in the way that he was supposed to, he would have been able to move.

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So the catcher says, no, he didn't move. He didn't move. He didn't move. He didn't move.

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And, and he would have done something intentionally and unintentionally. And, and he would have done

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something intentionally or unintentionally to try to interfere with the catcher's throw to third.

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That would be interference. But the batter staying perfectly still in the box, that is not

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interference. That's the batter doing what they're supposed to do.

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So, needless to say the catcher got no call on that one.

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Really, those were the only two things in that game.

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Then I was supposed to work a game on Wednesday, that one ended up getting rained out.

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So I was scheduled to have Thursday off, which I did.

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And then back on the field on Friday for another majors game.

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This one just kind of goes back to rules again, and rules knowledge of the players.

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Two outs, runners on first and second.

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And we have an uncaught third strike.

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The batter takes off to first.

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The catcher literally standing there with the ball in her glove, or in her mitt.

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Not doing anything.

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Everybody's yelling at her to throw to first.

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And she's just standing there with the ball in her mitt.

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Like, what's going on here?

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So needless to say the batter made it to first.

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So now our base is loaded.

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The catcher turns back to me and says,

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but it's not drop third, first base wasn't empty.

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I said, well, correct, first base wasn't empty, but there's also two out.

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So two out, it doesn't matter if there's someone on first or not.

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Uncaught third strike still applies.

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Clearly she didn't realize that.

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She just thought first base had to be empty.

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So there's that.

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That was another thing.

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Going back to that first minors game way back on Saturday,

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their catcher came out with a regular fielder's glove instead of a catcher's mitt.

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Somehow I missed that.

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I don't know how I missed it, but I missed it.

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It was actually my partner in between innings that came over and said,

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hey, that catcher is using a fielder's glove.

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And I looked over, he was taking warmup catches.

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I looked over and I went, huh, you're right.

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So I went over to the coach.

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I said, hey, coach, he's got to have a catcher's mitt.

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And the coach just kind of looks down and goes, oh, well, let's fix that right now.

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He runs over, grabs catcher's mitt out of the bag, runs out, gives it to the kid.

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He says, hey, might as well get him using it now.

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Well, yeah, I see him.

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He has to use it.

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Anyway, so yeah, that's pretty much my first week.

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Obviously, I'm probably going to be working a lot more games

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before the next episode of the podcast comes out.

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Yeah, we'll see what happens.

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I'm sure I'll have some more horror stories for you by the next episode.

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Again, if you have any questions, comments, ideas for future episodes,

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send me an email on blucrewdiaries at gmail.com.

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As always, thank you very much for listening, and I will see you on the diamond.