Welcome to Blue Crew Diaries and 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'll talk a little
bit about the season so far, issues that have occurred and how I deal with problem coaches.
If you have any questions, comments or ideas for future episodes, drop me 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 back to another episode of Blue Crew Diaries and Umpire Podcast.
Uh, sorry for getting this one out a little bit late. I do apologize. Obviously, baseball
season is is in full swing for most of you. I am actually just finishing up with the season.
My last game was last this past Friday. So pretty much worked a good mixture of Little
League majors and Little League minors. And then the the last week of of my season, I
got thrown into some farm league games, their their championship series, which was something
completely outside of my wheelhouse. I've never worked farm league before. So it was
a little bit different machine pitch. And yeah, I was I was I was there more more as
like a moderator. If if you want to call it that than an umpire. I mean, I was making
making calls on the bases and and things like that. You know, had a few a few things creep
up here and there. But overall, it was a good experience. I had a lot of fun doing it. Ended
up working four games total, which was their their championship series. And all of the
coaches that I spoke to, basically, first off thanked me relentlessly for being there.
And they really, they really seem to like having an an official they're having an umpire
because normally throughout the regular season, they just kind of police everything themselves.
But they said it was it was real nice. It took a lot of the decision making and things
like that off of their plate. So all in all, everything went went pretty well for that.
As far as regular season goes. Yeah, yeah, we got got some interesting things to to talk
about. I mean, started the year off didn't didn't have any problems. I mean, you hear
the normal rumbling and grumbling every now and then from from from on the other side
of the fence. Back in the in the stands, you had a lot of a lot of parents that think their
child is going to go right from the little league field into the MLB Hall of Fame and
wind up in Cooperstown and just be this great, this great baseball player. And to be perfectly
honest, there are a few of the players that also think that and and I I don't want to
talk bad about kids, but I I actually had a player say one night as he was stepping up
to the plate, because he had had a bad defensive inning, he literally walked up to the plate
and said, I'm cranking one out over the fence. And I just kind of looked at him and thought
to myself, I've been watching you for a season and a half now. And I haven't seen you hit
a ball out of the infield. And you're standing here saying you're going to crank one out
over the fence. Okay, good luck with that, buddy. But yeah, so ended up really having
my first rundown late in the season. And let's just say even the coaches had no idea why
this kid decided to to go basically hit a ground ball out into right field, kind of
shallow right, this was a minors game. So I'll give them a little bit of slack there.
shallow right. He rounds first base, the right fielder already fielded the ball and was getting
ready to just throw it back to the infield to prepare for the next batter. When for whatever
reason this runner rounds first and takes off for second. I mean, it's it's first base
takes a left and then gets about three steps towards second and realizes oops, he's already
got the ball, I probably shouldn't go turns around tries to get back to first. Now the
ball is there. And the rundown ensues. ended up the defense did what they were supposed
to do. They make great throws to each other and the runner ended up being tagged out.
The first base coach asked the batter runner what they were thinking. When this kid got
back to the dugout, the coach in the dugout asked, what were you thinking? It was it was
just a mess all around. And oddly enough, that was my first rundown. And then the very
next inning, we started getting a little bit of rain. But it was it was playable, you know,
started out as a light sprinkle. And everything was was okay. And then started getting a little
heavier, a little heavier, then a little heavier. And it got to the point where we got together
with the coaches and the coaches went, Yeah, probably not, not really able to play anymore.
Just, you know, the field condition was still fine. There was nothing unsafe or anything.
But it was starting to pour. So we called everybody to the dugouts. And yeah, the the
typical somebody opens their mouth and the opposite happens occurred. One of the coaches
that I was standing in dugout with was looking at the radar on their phone and said, Oh,
this, this, this is just one little cell, it's it's gonna be gonna be out of here within
five minutes. No sooner did he put his cell phone back in his pocket, it started to rain
even harder. So finally, after about 10 to 15 minutes, one of the coaches walked out
to the third baseline just to check the field condition, stepped on the dirt, which was
now mud, and almost fell on his rear end. At that point, the plate umpire and I just
looked at each other and went, No, no, wait. Even if this stops right now, the field is
now unsafe. So we got together with that coach, we all went over to the other dugout and and
talked to their coaches and they, they agreed, No, we can't, we can't get this game restarted.
So that was a game. The really the more hilarious part was, was my my poor partner left the
windows rolled down in his truck. So he, he was a little wet on the way home. Not to mention
how wet we got just standing out there. You know, until we decided to, to call the game.
So yeah, so that was that was pretty fun. My my first rundown and my first rain called
the game all rolled into one. So really, the only other thing that happened throughout
the season was I had a couple of issues with two, two coaches in particular, but one of
them kind of resolved itself. I was working the bases for majors game on night. And I
believe it was the first time I had worked with this particular coach. He's new to majors
this year. He's not new to little league. He's not new to baseball. He's just new to
majors this year, because his son moved up from minors. And yeah, he's he is competitive.
He is Mr. Baseball. So had was over in C, and had a runner left second to go to third,
realize they weren't gonna make it turn around went back, slid in head first. The ball was
there, but the tag was not made. The I believe it was second baseman just had their foot
on the base might have been the shortstop. I don't remember. Just had their foot on the
base when they caught the ball, they never attacked the runner. Well, for whatever reason,
I called the runner out. And then I very quickly thought about it and went, No, stupid. It's
not a force. So the runner will be safe. Well, I call him out. And then this coach comes
out of the dugout and goes ballistic. Literally screaming at me across the diamond. He can't
be out. It wasn't a force. So call time, my partner and I get together. And we got it
straightened out. I went me up, duh, it wasn't a force. He has to tag him. He didn't tag
him. Okay, turn around, point to the runner, runner safe. That was all I heard from that
coach that night. Four days later, I'm at my truck at the field, getting my my gear
on putting my chest protector on all that this coach is at the field his his team's
playing. He sees me in the parking lot. He comes down to my truck. And the very first
words out of his mouth are, I am sorry for yelling at you last week. He says, I apologize.
I realize I was out of line. Sometimes, you know, I just get worked up, which I completely
understand. He says, but, you know, I, I shouldn't have done that. And I, I just wanted to say
I'm sorry. I said, Hey, I get it. People get riled up. Yeah, I initially kicked the call.
I I screwed it. But we got it fixed up. And I appreciate you coming over and apologizing.
You didn't need to do that. So we're, we're good. We shook hands. And I did not have an
issue with that coach the rest of the season. Another coach, on the other hand, I have never,
no matter what I've, I've done, I mean, I'm, I'm a little league umpire, I'm a competition
shooter and he certified range officer. I've done a lot of stuff. And I can honestly say
I have never had a person come directly after me personally from a, a verbal emotional sense.
I finally had one this year, this particular coach rode me all season long. Every single
time I worked with him, it was something he would, he would pick out something to go after
me about that game. It got to the point where I told my, my umpire in chief, I refuse to
work any more games that this coach is at. And I'll give, I'll give my UIC credit. He
did his best to work me, you know, work the, the umpires around to prevent me from working
with this guy. There were, there were three big blowups with, with this coach. First one
I was working the plate. Um, no, I was working the bases. First one I was working the bases
on a Monday night and his team was on defense. No, his team was on offense. I'm trying to
remember this on the fly. I apologize. His team was on offense. I'm over in the beast
lot. His runner is going in to second on an attempt to steal the ball, got there pretty
quick. I mean, the second baseman had the ball in his glove. The runner was still at
least three steps out. The runner slides. I see the ball hit the glove. I see the glove
come down and I see the tag applied just before the foot touches the base. I come up, I call
the runner out and this coach comes out of the third base coaches box yelling at me.
Oh, you gotta have those blue. You, you gotta have those. You're standing right there. How
could you not see that? And he's like yelling at me something about a high tag or something
like that. It's like I, I literally, I just ignored it. The runner didn't argue. The runner
stood up, dusted himself off, tried it back to the dugout. End of the inning, this coach
goes over and I see him over there talking to the plate umpire and I know what he's talking
to the plate umpire about. Well, he talks to the plate umpire for probably 30, 45 seconds.
Then he walks back to his dugout. The plate umpire comes over to me and I said, what was
that about? He says, well, he, you know, he, he told me he, he needed to let out some frustration.
He says, and then he asked me what I thought. He says, I told him I had the runner out too
because I did, you know, even standing at the plate, he had the runner out and he says,
you know, I had him out too, but ultimately it's the base umpire's call. He's, he's right
there. That's why he's the base umpire. And this manager or this coach says, yeah, I know
it's his call. The plate umpire says, so why are you over here talking to me? And I guess
the coach looked at him and said, well, cause I know you'll listen to me. So here's, here's
my, here's my, my, my little tidbit. If you are a coach and I, and I am umpiring your
game, if you have an issue with a call that I make, if you call time or if it's the end
of the inning, whatever, if you come out and calm, cool, you know, act like a gentleman
and say, Hey blue or Hey Darrell, can we speak about that call? Or I have a question about
that call something to that effect. I will talk to you and we can have a gentlemanly
conversation. But when you start raising your voice at me or you start yelling 60 feet across
the diamond at me, I am not going to listen to a word you say. And he figured that out
apparently the very next game, which was the next night on Tuesday, this particular one
I'm working as the plate umpire. His team is on defense, pass ball, uncaught third strike.
Batter runner takes off for first. I, you know, break, I clear the catcher to the left
because I know the ball went to the right of me. So that's where the catcher is going
to go. So I clear the catcher to the left catcher goes, gets the ball, fires down to
first. The base umpire is right there, has an angle, calls a runner out. Next thing I
know the offensive coach from a neighboring city, he comes out and starts asking me, did
you see the, do you see the first baseman's foot? Well, yes, I did. The throw to the first
baseman was a little high. First baseman's foot came off the base when he caught the
ball. And that's when the runner tagged the base or the runner touched was while the first
baseman's foot was off the base, clearly a pulled foot situation, but the base umpire
didn't see that. So this other coach, this also offensive coach is asking me, did you
see the foot? You know, he, he should be safe. And, and all I said was, if you have a question
about the call, you'll need to ask the base umpire and very, very politely, he says, okay,
can I get time, please? Absolutely. I call time. He juts across the diamond, goes to
the base umpire and says, can you ask your partner if he saw a pulled foot? So the base
umpire and I get together, he says, what did you have? I said, well, I saw the first baseman's
foot off the base when the runner tagged up. And it was, you know, before the first baseman
caught the ball, when he caught the ball, his foot was off the base already. So the
base umpire says, okay, thank you. Turns around runner safe. When he called runner safe, this
coach that I was already having an issue with from the night before comes on glued all kinds
of upset trying again, he starts first. He starts in on the base umpire, but somehow
this whole issue with the the pulled foot suddenly became my fault. I don't know how,
but it suddenly became my fault. And this coach starts yelling down the line at me that
I was in the way. And my, you know, my catcher had to, you know, walk out from around him
to get the throw off or something. I, like I said, if you start yelling at me, I'm not
going to listen to you. So I honestly don't know exactly what he said. I just turned around
and walked back on the plate, waited for the next batter, but it was something to the effect
of I either didn't clear the catcher fast enough when the ball got by him. Well, I didn't
clear the catcher any faster or any slower than I had been doing all night long. And
he had never had a problem with it until then. It was either that or I was standing directly
in front of the catcher when he was trying to throw the ball the first. Well, I may have
been, but I was standing a few feet up the baseline where I probably should have been
looking for runners lane violation, a pulled foot by the defense, you know, doing my usual
plate on prior duties in a situation such as that. Was I in the way? I could have been,
I don't know. But suddenly it wasn't, it wasn't a problem until the call got turned against
him. Now all of a sudden where I'm standing is an issue and he's going off on me. I'm
a very lenient person when it comes to that kind of stuff. So I didn't toss him. I probably
should have, but I didn't. I just let him have his say. And the last thing I heard out
of his mouth as he walked back into the dugout was absolute worst I've ever seen. Now I don't
know if he was talking about the call or if he was talking about me as an umpire. I didn't
hear the beginning of it because like I said, I wasn't listening. The next inning and I,
I know this one, some people are, I'm probably going to get some fan mail from you guys about
this one, but please just hear me out. The next inning, again, this problem coaches team
is on defense runner rounds, third ball is coming in for play at the plate. I've got
my mask off. I'm in position. The catcher is standing about 10 feet towards third base,
literally straddling the baseline, straddling the white line or the foul line. I should
call it not the baseline, literally straddling the line, standing there with his, with his
mid up waiting for the ball to get to him. The runner for whatever reason runs straight
towards him, had the presence of mind to stop before he got there and like destroyed this
catcher. But at that point, the catcher receives the ball, reaches out for the easy tag. I
call the runner out. Now I know for a fact that there are probably a bunch of you listening
to this podcast right now who are screaming at me. That's obstruction. Yes. Yes. By, by
rule it actually is. And that's what the, the visitor, the visiting coach came out to
tell me because it was his runner that got tagged out. He can't, you know, the catcher
can't stand right on the line. He was blocking the path of my runner and he didn't have the
ball and this and that. Before I could open my mouth, here comes the home coach flying
out of the dugout. I literally blinked and he was like the road runner just standing
right, right there beside me. It's like, where did you come from and why are you out here?
Him and the visiting coach stood there for an easy 45 seconds in front of everybody screaming
at each other. The away coach is saying he can't stand there. The home coach is saying,
yes, he can stand there. He was waiting for the ball to get there. It's in the rule book.
Look it up. These two are just yelling at each other across the foul line. And I'm just
standing there with my mask tucked up under my arm, just waiting for them to finish. Now,
yes, should I have tossed both of them and sent them both home at that point? Yeah, I,
I should have. Why I didn't. Well, you'll find out that here in just a second. But the
visiting coach was right. Now, like I said, hear me out. I did not change my out call.
I did not change my alcohol. And here is why. If I had turned around and said, you know
what? He's right. That was obstruction. Erase the out runner home plate. If I had done that,
the home coach probably would have lynched me right then and there. Right now, all his
heat is on the visiting coach. I've already gotten heat from this guy once tonight and
I got heat from him last night. If I had flipped my call and called, you know, and told the
runner you score, come touch the plate, you score. You might as well have dropped a nuclear
bomb on the field that night because that's what this home coach probably would have done.
That is the only reason I did not eject either one of them because that wouldn't have been
good. And that's the reason why I didn't change my original call. And I think the visiting
manager kind of knew that because the rest of the night he didn't say a word to me about
it. So he probably figured, yeah, I get it. The play dump doesn't want this kind of heat.
So at that point, after the game, went to my truck, sent a text message to my UIC, told
him the game was complete and I am all done working with this dude. Like, period. If you
put me on a game where he's coaching, I'm probably going to refuse the game and I hate
refusing games. Absolutely hit it. So a couple of weeks go by and I find out I'm working
a game on a Friday night with this coach. I found out later, found out the next day
after the game that I was not supposed to work that game. But the partner that I ended
up having for that game, a real great guy. He's been around as an umpire. I absolutely
love working with him every single time we work together. I learn a ton. I just, if I
could work every game with this, this umpire, I absolutely would. We get along great. I
learn a lot from him. We work pretty well together. Apparently he told the UIC, I want
to get Darryl another game to help him get more experience out there. And maybe this,
this coach has cooled off. It's been, it's been a week or so. Maybe he's, he's cooled
off. We'll be fine. So I ended up working that game and after the second inning, I see
this coach over talking to the plate umpire. I'm on the basis. So the plate umpire comes
over to me and says, well, you know, he, he wants you to, he wants you to move more. Apparently
he didn't think I was getting in into position to make calls that I was making every call
I had made up to that point. I may not have been in the 100% exact position I should have
been, but I still had a pretty clear view of every single call I made and was 100% sure
of every single call I made. So anyway, but I thought, okay, I'm going to show a little
bit more hustle. I'm going to get into, I'm going to work on trying to get into position.
We'll see what happens. So I'm, I'm hustling. Um, I'm working my tail off out there and
yeah, yeah, apparently that was not enough for him. Had a runner going into third and
I was in the infield grass working my way around to the third base side. There was a
lot of other stuff going on at this point. We had a ball in the outfield that was being
thrown in there trying to throw the batter runner out at first. So my, my partner is
keeping an eye on that. So he, he yelled to me, I got first. So he's got that call. I'm
trying to work my way over to third and I had a perfect angle. Yeah, I was further back
than I really wanted to be. I had a perfect angle. The runner slides in the foot touches
the base. The glove with the ball is still at about chest height on the third baseman
when the foot touches the bag. Safe. Easiest safe call I think I've ever made on the bases.
I stop, I look, I see the runner is safe. I come up, give the safe, the safe mechanic.
And then I look straight through the base and I see this coach down on one knee in the
coach's box and he looks up at me and I'm going to try to imitate the, the tone that
he used. You weren't in a position to see it anyway. That's exactly what he yelled to
me from probably 40, 50 feet away. You weren't in a position to see it anyway in a response
to my safe signal. That was the one, pardon me. That was the one that got to me. Cause
now I know he is personally attacking me. I'm getting wound up sitting here thinking
about it. Got through the game. I came home that night. I pulled into my driveway. And
of course I have about a 25 to 30 minute ride home from the field. Pulled into the driveway,
shut the truck off. And I just sat there for a minute trying to keep hold of myself. I
got out of the truck, grabbed my gear bag, walked in the house, closed the door and lost
it. I literally, I closed the door and I just broke down in tears in the kitchen. And of
course my fiance, she comes out wondering what's going on cause she can now hear me
crying. Usually when I come home, first thing I do is walk in the living room, give her
a kiss. And I didn't do that. And she could hear me, hear me bawling my eyes out in the
kitchen. So she came to see what was wrong. And I, I just told her, I said, I've never
had somebody personally attack me like this. I, I've never had it happen. I don't know
what I did to this man to make him hate me so much. I honestly don't know. That night
I told my UIC that I was probably going to be done for the season. And if that coach
is still a part of that league next season, I'm going to be looking for another league
to umpire for. So the next day I get a message from my UIC who was not happy and not happy
at the fact that a coach is on the verge of driving out an umpire. He, he wasn't mad at
me. He completely understood where I was coming from. Well, he had a chat with the league
president and that afternoon the league president called me and basically said, I apologize
on behalf of the league. He says this, this whole situation is not right. It's, it's basically
a hostile work environment. He says, and if, if you just want to be done with, with us
and go umpire for another league, he says, I, I would not blame you one bit, but I'd
really hope that you would just think about it. He says, because I spoke with this particular
coach today and the vibe I got from him was he is probably not going to have anything
to do with little league at all next year. He's, he's going to be, you know, moving up
from majors. Both of his boys are going to junior ball next year. So if anything, he's
going to be up in juniors. So you won't have to, to deal with him. You know, and if he
said, if you want to just work minors, you know, work minor games for us, we can do that
too. What, you know, whatever you want to do, but just please, you know, don't make
a decision yet. And he says, I, I am personally sorry that you've had to go through this.
Which, which I appreciate. Um, but it was, it was kind of a, he's just going to let the
problem alleviate itself instead of grabbing the coach and saying, you're done because
now you're screwing with our umpires and people don't want to umpire for us anyway. I mean,
this whole season, we've only had really two reliable full-time umpires and that's myself
and my friend, Darren, the one that I, I absolutely love working with. We're the only two umpires
that the UIC can send out a text and say, Hey, I've got a game tonight and I don't have
an umpire for it. Can anybody work it? And Darren and I will usually jump and say, yep,
I'm in. So, I mean, I, I, I appreciate the league president calling me. We had a good,
a good conversation. We talked probably 15, 20 minutes. You know, we had a good chat,
but I, I just, I don't know how I feel about the way that the situation was handled because
it wasn't even really handled. It was just, Oh, well, he's probably not going to be around
next year anyway. So you're not going to have to worry about him. Well, that's great. But
what if next year, another coach does the same thing and starts riding me every game?
Are you just going to sit there and hope that they're not part of the league the next year?
Anyway, I'm getting off on a, on a rant here. Um, so yeah, again, um, if, if you're a coach
listening to this, basically be nice to your umpires. If you have an issue with a call,
go up with a calm voice, calm demeanor and say, Hey blue, Hey ump, Hey, whatever their
name is. Can we, can we just have a chat about that? Or, Hey, I have a question about that
call that you made. You know, you do that to me. We can stand there and have a conversation.
Not a problem. But when you start yelling at me, calling me the worst umpire you've
ever seen and stuff like that, I'm honestly not going to listen to a word you say. I'm
just going to turn around and walk away from you. So that is it for this edition of the
blue crew diaries and umpire podcast. Uh, sorry, this one ran a little bit long, but
sometimes I just get off on a tangent and it's hard to shut me up. So as always, thank
you very much for listening. Be sure to check out all the other episodes, uh, here on the
podcast. Also be sure to check out the YouTube channel where, uh, podcast episodes are also
listed. Um, at some point I might put out some videos to who knows, we will see what
happens, but hope you all had a great season. Enjoy the off season. If it's that time for
you, if not, keep plugging away at it and I will see you on the diamond.