Welcome to Blue Crew Diaries, an Umpire Podcast. My name is Daryl and I will be your host
as we take a look behind the mask so to speak, sharing stories, insights and experiences
from the unique perspective of the baseball umpire. In this episode, we're going to talk
a little bit about my first few games of the 2024 season, what went right, what went wrong,
and some interesting things along the way. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for
future episodes, drop us a line at bluecrewdiaries at gmail.com. So if you're ready,
grab your indicator and plate brush and let's hit the field.
All right everybody, welcome to episode five of Blue Crew Diaries and Umpire Podcast.
The 2024 season is upon us, at least up here in the state of Maine. I'm fairly certain that other
places around the country have been playing for quite a while now, but we're just finally
rolling into springtime here up in Maine and getting into some pretty good baseball so far
this year. As of this particular recording, I have worked five total games
consisting of both major and minor, little league. I started off my season with a double header,
an opening day for my local league. I worked, they had a majors game in the morning, I worked a
minors game in the early afternoon, and then the second majors game in the late afternoon.
Both of those games went fairly well. It was good to get back behind the plate. I was played
on fire for both. Just good to get back there and call them balls and strikes again.
But one thing that I noticed was those first two games on that Saturday, of course, being the
umpire, we want to go to each dugout, we want to check everybody's bats, their helmets, their
catcher's gear, make sure everything's ready to go, especially the first games of the season.
Because what can happen is the umpire for say the very first game of this team season doesn't go and
check equipment. And now they have stuff that they can't use, but they don't know that they can't use
it. Pardon me. So then the next game, that umpire thinks, oh well the the first game that umpire
should have checked everything, so I don't need to check anything. And then eventually you get to
tournament time, or you get to all stars, and now they're checking equipment and you find out that
this player has a bat that he can't use, or the catcher doesn't have a dangling throat guard on
the catcher's helmet. Well this is a bad time to try to change that, because they've been using this
quote-unquote illegal equipment all season so far. So definitely first games of the season,
you want to make sure everything is legal. The minors game that I worked,
I didn't work a lot of minors games last year, I only worked one actually.
So this year I believe there were two brand new head coaches for these two particular teams.
And right off the bat, figuratively and literally, one team I had four, okay this team had nine
players, each had their own bat. Out of those nine bats, four of them were not allowed in minors.
Three of them were a BB core, and one was a BPF, not allowed. But when I told the coaches,
hey you can't use these, they have to be majors and below, they have to be USA baseball.
The coach just kind of looked at me with this weird look on his face, like he didn't know.
And I get that, he's probably a brand new coach, he's never coached baseball before,
probably, I don't know. But he's still trying to get up on the rules just like the players are.
So plus he's got a bunch of other stuff to manage. He's trying to manage these new players,
some of them are probably coming up from Farm League or coming up from T-ball.
They don't know all these kind of rules and whatnot. He was perfectly okay with it,
he understood the rule, can't use these bats, so gonna have to get some new ones.
And that is the key, make sure that the bats are legit USA baseball.
They'll have the USA baseball logo underneath the clear coat on the bat,
or they'll be like silk screened onto the bat or something like that. I actually read a
article last year where a Little League parent had, it was either a BB Corp or a BB Corp,
and obviously their player, their child wasn't allowed to use it because their child was playing
majors, but what the parent decided to do was circumvent the system and instead of buying a new
bat, they just printed the USA baseball logo that appears on all the USA bats, printed the logo on
to a piece of sticker paper and stuck it over the other certification logo on the bat. Luckily,
as soon as the umpire picked the bat up, first thing he did was look for the USA baseball logo
and realized that no, that's not a legal bat. He was going to have to get the USA baseball logo
on the bat, but he didn't have to. So, good catch on the umpire. So, four illegal bats on one team,
the other team had no illegal bats, everything was good to go there, everybody's helmets were
good to go. The problem was the catcher's mask, or the catcher's helmet. Both teams were using
catcher's helmets, both teams had two catcher's helmets, neither one of them had a dangling
throat guard, which is required per little league. It's optional for umpires, but for catchers,
dangling throat guard is mandatory. So, one team, they just happen to have one in the bag,
they put it on the on the helmet, okay, you're good to go. The other team did not have one. Well,
light bulb went off in my head. Oh, okay, well, hold on a second. I ran back to the tower,
to my gear bag, pulled my dangling throat guard off of my old mask, my Jam Pro mask that I used
last year, and let this team borrow that for the game. They put it on the helmet,
everything was good to go. And after the game, I had honestly completely forgot about it.
I'm packing my gear up in the tower, and that coach came over and handed me that dangling
throat guard back. He said, here you go, thank you very much. I promised I'd get this back to you,
but really appreciate you letting us use it, which was cool. I had honestly forgotten all about it.
If I was only a couple minutes quicker, I would have gotten in my truck and drove off and
not even thought about it. So, yeah, just pick things to look for. Bats, make sure they're USA
baseball bats. They're not cracked or messed with in any way. Helmets, you're looking for that Noxie
certification, which is stamped. It's actually molded into the plastic of the helmet.
Yeah, it's not a sticker, so don't be looking for a sticker. It's actually part of the plastic mold.
And just dangling throat guards on the catcher's helmets.
Let's see, other than that, that Miner's game went perfectly fine. I had, like I said,
I was behind the plate. I had a, let's just call him a newish umpire working the bases with me.
He did absolutely fine. I had no issues with any of the calls that he made. Then him and I ended up
working the majors game together. That one, neither catcher's helmet had a dangling throat guard.
So luckily they both had them. They threw them on. Everything was good there. All the bats were good.
All the helmets were good. Had some interesting things in that game.
We got to, I believe it was top of the fifth and one batted ball down the third base line,
or towards third base, I should say. I've seen trick balls before, but this thing had a mind
of its own. So kind of a bouncer to third. The third baseman squares up on it, gets the glove down.
If this ball went where it should have gone, it would have been an easy play.
Well this ball gets to about two feet in front of the third baseman, bounces. Well when it bounces,
it looked like somebody punted this baseball. This thing went at least 10 feet up in the air,
right over the third baseman's head. I'm standing there looking down the line like, what, what was
that? Okay, I've never seen that before. So the ball goes off into the into left field. Left fielder
comes in. I think he feels it just fine. I'm paying attention now to the baserunners and,
you know, the potential play where this ball might get thrown back in. So it's thrown in.
The batter ended up with a double. The next thing I know, I hear the defensive, or one of the
defensive coaches requesting time. So I look over. Okay, everything is stopped. Okay, now it's
appropriate. I call time and then he tells me we have an injured player. Well apparently this
trick baseball, after it bounced and went flying over the third baseman's head, it went into left.
The left fielder comes in, goes to scoop the ball off the ground. The ball hits the inside of the
third of the left fielder's glove and then shoots straight up and hits him right square in the right
eye. Oh boy. So needless to say, he ends up getting pulled because he's, he's hurting. There were ice
bags involved and all that. So now the manager comes walking over to me. He says, so that leaves
us with eight. Are we okay only having two out in the outfield? Yeah, I don't see why not. You know,
local league option, you can continue the game with eight players, but if you lose another one,
now we're in trouble. Bottom of the fifth, this same team.
No, no, no, it's top of the sixth. Top of the sixth. I don't know why I have bottom five in my
notes, but top of the six, this catcher. Every time he got up, he, the pitcher was starting to pitch a
little wild. He was thrown outside a lot, a lot of balls to the backstop. So every, it seemed like
every time this pitcher would go back to get a pass ball, he was favoring his left knee.
And he kept favoring it a little more, a little more, a little more with every pitch. He was
starting to have trouble getting back into position, whatnot. Finally, after a walk, I think
walked bases loaded. I couldn't hold my tongue anymore. So when the batter got to first base,
I called time, walk over towards the dugout. Manager comes walking out and says, Hey, what's
up? I said, you want to go check on your catcher? Because he's, he's favoring that left knee real
bad. In which case the coach looked at me and went, yeah, we're going to go check on the
left knee. I'll go have a chat with him. Goes over, has a chat with him. Kid thinks he pulled a muscle
in his left knee. The coach basically says, all right, well, we still got a lot of baseball to go
here throughout the season. So I don't think it's a good idea to go to the dugout. I think it's
a good idea to go here throughout the season. So I don't think it's the best for you to continue on.
So ended up pulling the, pulling the catcher out.
Well, now they're down to seven. So what do we do?
So that coach, the other coach get together. They're talking about what to do.
You know, can we swap, you know, a player over? Can we, you know, what, what can we do?
Because this is a good game. At this point, the game was tied at 12.
In the top of the sixth, they've come this far. Let's see if they can finish it off.
So then the, one of the league admins comes over and says, Hey, what's up? So the three of them
are talking and basically what they decided was there was another player. It was actually
the league admins son who was on one of the other major teams. He just happened to still be there.
He was out beyond the outfield fence playing pass with a couple of his buddies.
Didn't have any gear, you know, cleats or anything like that with him,
but he was there. He was physically able to play. So the league admin and the two coaches
agreed, okay, if he wants to, we'll bring him in, put him at second and we'll just,
you know, take the second baseman or whoever and throw them behind the plays to catcher.
So they told me of the plan and I thought to myself, well, I'm really not a hundred percent
sure on the ruling for that. But the way I see it, if both coaches and the league admin all agree to
it, then I'm cool with it. So that's what they did. And of course, very first, very first pitch
straight to the second baseman. He ended up not getting it. It was, he was just, he was just
out there. He doesn't have his cleats or anything. He's wearing Crocs. So of course somebody in the
crowd, well, if he had his cleats on, he would have caught that. You know, just, just one of
those deals. Everybody was laughing. It was just fun. So, I think that's the way it was.
So, that was pretty much it for, pardon me, pretty much it for opening day. A couple of days later,
I worked another miner's game and found two illegal bats. They were both, they were both BB
Corps bats. So, took care of that. Coach didn't have a problem with it. One, one of the assisting
coaches kind of took issue with, with one of the bats. And she said, well, you know, I think this
said you were a bad player. And I said, well, I'm not a bad player. And she said, well, I'm not a
bad player. And she said, well, you know, I think this said USA on it too. And I'm thinking to myself,
no, maybe, maybe it was a BPF. I don't remember. But it was either a BP, a BB Corps or a BPF.
But over the top of the logo, it said USSA, which is typical. It still doesn't make it a USA bat.
But she's saying, well, no, I think it said USA on it. Well, maybe, maybe it's under the grip tape.
We just put this grip tape on. So the logo might be under the grip tape.
And I just looked at her. I said, well, I said, 99 times out of 100, a bat does not have two
certifications. So I can clearly see, I think it was a BB Corps. I can clearly see the BB Corps logo
right here. A bat is not going to be a BB Corps and a USA. That's, that's not how things work.
And I'm trying to explain this to her. The head coach, he fully understands the rule and what's
going on. And he's trying to explain this to her simultaneously. And finally, she, she more or less
gave up. No, ma'am, it's not a legal bat in this division. When you get up to junior ball,
then you can use it. You know, and I understand people, people tend to spend a lot of money on
these bats. And, you know, they, they spend a lot of money on it, and then show up at the first game
and find out, oh, well, this bat that you bought can't be used. So you go buy another one. That
sucks. That game, that game went fairly well. I did have a couple of couple of bouncers down the
left, down the third base line. And the problem was the field that we were playing at, to be
perfectly honest, the field sucks. Everybody knows the field sucks. But there were no lines,
no foul lines. So I'm trying to base my fair foul calls off of the bag. And, you know, the third base
bag off of the plate and off the foul pole, trying to imagine a line there. So I, I had a few calls
that I kicked. It is what it is. We had a few kids that just flat out didn't know what they were
doing. I had one kid, I called ball four. Then it was clearly ball four. I said ball four.
And I took my mask off. I kind of walked to the side of him and I pointed to first base.
I said, go ahead, buddy, go take your base. And he just looked at me. And then he looked back and
he's standing there waiting for the pitcher to throw the next pitch. It's like, no, buddy,
you, that's, that's ball four. That's a walk. You get to, you get to go to first base.
And he just looks at me and then looks back at the pitcher waiting for the next pitch.
So finally the head coach, he's, he yells down to me from third base coaches box.
He was talking to his runner he had on third. He yells down to me, what,
what's going on? Did it hit him? No, it didn't hit him. He just took ball four. Oh yeah,
go on down to first base, buddy. Yeah. He looks over at the coach and then finally drops the bat
and goes trotting down the first. Then I had another kid who comes up in the box, swings,
fouls it off almost straight to the backstop right over the top of my head.
Okay. That's foul. So I, I call foul, not, not too loud because it was obvious.
I mean, you could hear the ting off the bat. So foul and the kid, the batter turns to me and says,
do I run now? Uh, nobody. It's only strike one. It's strike one and it's a foul ball. No, no,
you, you stay right here. Then there was, there was one kid that, you know, the majority of the
reason that I, I do what I do is for the kids. Just, you know, let them have fun and let them
have fun. And there was one kid on this team. Every single time he came up to the plate,
he had the biggest smile on his face that he was out there getting to do this.
And that just put a smile on my face. You know, that, that's what I love to see.
Uh, so other than that, that, uh, that game went, went fairly well for, for a minor's game,
especially first game of the season. Uh, moving on to Tuesday had another majors game.
This one had some, uh, had some interesting pieces to it. I had one batter, uh, get hit by a pitch
pitch was so far inside. He got hit by it, but he also swung at the same time. Okay. So it's like,
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
in my head and luckily my partner was, uh, is very experienced. I kind of lean on him sort of as a
mentor. And, uh, so I just like called time and I walked out to him and he just said, yeah, it hit
him. So it was dead ball strike. Okay. Good enough to turn around and walk back to the plate. I just
kind of had a, kind of a stupid moment there where I, the rule book kind of froze in my head,
kind of, kind of buffering there for a second, trying to remember what, what the call is here.
Okay. Dead ball strike. Um, and then we had an instance where runner on second,
he takes off after the pitch, go to third, trying to steal. He waited till the pitch reached the
batter and then he took off. The catcher gets the ball, pops up, goes to throw to third, but the
batter is standing right there. So the catcher has to kind of take a half a backstep, throws to
third, was not in time. That's when the catcher turns around and looks at me and says, that's
interference. I said, what's interference? Well, the batter, he has to move out of the way. No, he
doesn't.
I didn't say that, but the catcher says, yeah, he, he, he, he has to move. He didn't move. That's
interference. And in my head, I went, no, the batter, literally his feet never moved, but the
hands were still on the bat. He was still almost in his, in his stance. He did not move. He did not
commit any illegal action by trying to move. Now, if he had tried to move or if he had stepped out
of the box or done something in the way that he was supposed to, he would have been able to move.
So the catcher says, no, he didn't move. He didn't move. He didn't move. He didn't move.
And, and he would have done something intentionally and unintentionally. And, and he would have done
something intentionally or unintentionally to try to interfere with the catcher's throw to third.
That would be interference. But the batter staying perfectly still in the box, that is not
interference. That's the batter doing what they're supposed to do.
So, needless to say the catcher got no call on that one.
Really, those were the only two things in that game.
Then I was supposed to work a game on Wednesday, that one ended up getting rained out.
So I was scheduled to have Thursday off, which I did.
And then back on the field on Friday for another majors game.
This one just kind of goes back to rules again, and rules knowledge of the players.
Two outs, runners on first and second.
And we have an uncaught third strike.
The batter takes off to first.
The catcher literally standing there with the ball in her glove, or in her mitt.
Not doing anything.
Everybody's yelling at her to throw to first.
And she's just standing there with the ball in her mitt.
Like, what's going on here?
So needless to say the batter made it to first.
So now our base is loaded.
The catcher turns back to me and says,
but it's not drop third, first base wasn't empty.
I said, well, correct, first base wasn't empty, but there's also two out.
So two out, it doesn't matter if there's someone on first or not.
Uncaught third strike still applies.
Clearly she didn't realize that.
She just thought first base had to be empty.
So there's that.
That was another thing.
Going back to that first minors game way back on Saturday,
their catcher came out with a regular fielder's glove instead of a catcher's mitt.
Somehow I missed that.
I don't know how I missed it, but I missed it.
It was actually my partner in between innings that came over and said,
hey, that catcher is using a fielder's glove.
And I looked over, he was taking warmup catches.
I looked over and I went, huh, you're right.
So I went over to the coach.
I said, hey, coach, he's got to have a catcher's mitt.
And the coach just kind of looks down and goes, oh, well, let's fix that right now.
He runs over, grabs catcher's mitt out of the bag, runs out, gives it to the kid.
He says, hey, might as well get him using it now.
Well, yeah, I see him.
He has to use it.
Anyway, so yeah, that's pretty much my first week.
Obviously, I'm probably going to be working a lot more games
before the next episode of the podcast comes out.
Yeah, we'll see what happens.
I'm sure I'll have some more horror stories for you by the next episode.
Again, if you have any questions, comments, ideas for future episodes,
send me an email on blucrewdiaries at gmail.com.
As always, thank you very much for listening, and I will see you on the diamond.