e2 ready
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[00:00:00] But if you're capable enough of making that, or think you might be able to, to make that mechanic, really work on that. Really focus on that because it'll make you stand out when we're evaluating you for deeper rounds into the playoffs.
Hey, I'm on vacation. If you don't like your life, then you should go and change it. Vacation. Hey, everyone, we're coming back from spring break here in Georgia, and that means we've got games today. So, with today being my first game in about a week, I already know that I'll be working the bases, which is great.
I'm still recovering from a knee surgery towards the end of December, and it's been a slow recovery. There's no physical therapy for it, but it's just taken a while to get the healing process completed. I'm definitely feeling stronger every week, but we're still not 100 percent yet. So, today, doing the bases.
My goal is really going to be working on [00:01:00] coming in from the A position, pivoting properly, and taking the batter runner to second, or possibly bouncing back with them to first base. Now what I want to talk to you about for a minute is the importance of coming in from the A position and pivoting to take the batter runner around the bases.
This is a mechanic that is honed in in the minor leagues, and it's very important in the minor leagues and at umpire school. It's something that we try to teach new umpires at lower levels. But a lot of them get into the mechanic of not doing the pivot and just coming in and looking over their shoulder.
And while I get that based on physical ability, and certainly we're not all young athletes in our 20s and 30s umpiring professional baseball, but we need to do a better job at lower levels of baseball explaining the pivot mechanic and why it's so important. We see a lot of lower level umpires come in and just look over their shoulder to see the touch while going to B or C position, but that's really breaking the point of the mechanic.
The reason we come in and pivot is not just to see the touch of first, because we can pivot before the batter runner even [00:02:00] reaches first, and then we're going to keep moving to second, but we're going to look over our right shoulder to see the touch of first. The importance of the pivot mechanic is that it gives us a good parallel running path, so as our batter runner comes around first and starts heading towards second, getting a good pivot put us in a position parallel to the batter runner, anywhere from 6 to 8 to 10 feet.
But that parallel line allows us to go into second with a great angle for that play, or to go back into first, drop stepping open, and getting a good angle and distance for a play back into first. So while I understand that it's a mechanic that does require more physical ability, And if you're working four games a day on a travel field, I also understand you're probably not working it at 100 percent because you gotta survive the day, but what's great about most high school baseball is that we're usually working just one game a day, possibly two if it's a doubleheader, so I want you to be able to work that game going 100 percent at it.
Take all that energy you might need for four games on one day in the summer and put that into one game and [00:03:00] work it as hard as you can. I can tell you when I watch base umpires in a crew of two, How they react when coming into the infield for batter runner responsibilities is a fast and easy way for me to gauge their skill level and effort.
Even if you're not making a pivot, you should not be on the infield dirt when the batter runner rounds first. It looks lazy and bad when I watch umpires more or less slowly going directly to the B position from the A position. It shows they don't understand the importance of the mechanic, the importance of seeing touches, or any preparation for a play to develop back to first.
So while I'm going to be working on this in my game today. I encourage all of you working the bases today or this weekend, focus on getting in fast, getting to that parallel position, and at a minimum, you should not be on the dirt when the batter runner rounds first. So following up on that, I want to give y'all some insight to what I look for when I'm evaluating umpires at the high school and youth levels.
Anytime I get to [00:04:00] evaluate umpires, I'm going to give them two different levels of feedback. The first is simply going to be, what's the next level in their development? What is something that takes 10 percent being better at for them to really improve their performance on the field? For most umpires who have never worked in professional baseball, it's usually not asking too much for them to get that extra 10 percent better or to take that next step.
Often, really the issue that I find is that they simply had never heard of the proper way to perform that mechanic or how to improve that situation on the field because it was just never taught. Which is not surprising because many of you did not go to 5 weeks of umpire school. Some of you went, like me, who went twice, so, really 10 weeks of umpire school.
That's my advantage that I have, but I try to give that back to you guys for their performance on the field, as the first standard for my evaluations. That being said, the second standard I evaluate umpires to is that of an umpire in professional baseball working in a crew of two. [00:05:00] Now, we're not all, as I've said before, we're not all athletes in our 20s and 30s, but I'm looking for at least that understanding of the mechanics, that understanding of the effort and look needed to be successful as an umpire.
And that standard isn't going to necessarily keep someone from working a varsity game in the regular season. It's absolutely going to impact where I evaluate umpires when it comes to determining playoff seating and how far they can go into the playoffs. So, circling this back to my discussion on the mechanic of taking a batter run around the bases, really use that as an opportunity to show your effort, to show your physical ability, Look, I understand we can't all be that fast, and we still need you to umpire, don't get me wrong.
We absolutely need everybody to umpire that can, because we're all hands on deck. But if you're capable enough of making that, or think you might be able to, to make that mechanic, really work on that. Really focus on that, because it'll make you stand out when we're evaluating you [00:06:00] for deeper rounds into the playoffs.
In this next section, we're going to review a play that was sent to me by one of our umpires, And a couple questions they had about how to properly rule on the situation. Last night, in a freshman game, we had a pitcher throw to second base with no fielder covering. It hit the runner in the face as he was getting back to the bag.
The ball lacerated the runner's lip, and he came out of the game. The offense only had 10 players, so when the injured runner came out, the offensive head coach asked if he could place his last batted out to run in place of the injured player. We agreed on that, and so did the other coach. We also decided on a balk from the pitcher and advanced the runner to third.
Our reason being the pitcher threw a pick off throw when no fielders were covering. Obviously, it was not intentional since it was a tied game and players were behaving great, so we saw no reason to warn or eject anyone. As both the Plate Umpire and I are in our first season, we made the decisions we believe to be correct.
However, we would [00:07:00] appreciate your feedback on whether these were the appropriate calls. No one contested the decisions, but we are eager to learn from this experience. So let's break this down and I want to remind everyone this is a freshman game, so we're not necessarily following all the standards we would in a varsity game.
Now in Georgia, now in GHSA, we do allow for teams to bat 10 players using an extra hitter when playing sub varsity baseball. We also allow free substitutions Which doesn't actually mean free substitutions. What GHSA actually means by that is that we allow unlimited re entries. But we don't allow free substitution if just anyone can bat wherever, or if you're thinking of like, you baseball.
Instead, it just means you can bring a player back into the game as many times as you want, but they have to enter into the lineup legally, just like they would during a normal substitution in a varsity game. So, all that being said, let's talk about this play. [00:08:00] First of all, when a player gets hit on the bases by a ball, so an offensive player gets hit and potentially gets injured or does get injured, if you see them not attempting to advance and can tell it definitely hurt, think of a pickoff at first base hitting the runner in the side, go ahead and call time.
We don't need to wait for the defense to request it or the offense to request it. If the player is no longer making an attempt and no other players are attempting to advance. Go ahead and kill it, call time, so that the player can get checked on, and certainly not result in a cheap out because they got hit in the side of the head and are suddenly not touching the base when a runner, because they get hit in the side of the head and aren't touching the base when a fielder goes, grabs the ball, and then runs all the way back to tag them.
Now in this scenario, I think that's great to go ahead and let the offense just put the last batted out on base. You've got a good competitive game. It's still freshman baseball, so. We're not looking to get cheap outs here because the defense pegged a kid and he got hurt. [00:09:00] You know, technically it's not by the book, but a general sense of good sportsmanship and fair play, which the umpires used here, would result in doing something like putting the batter runner onto second base and letting him take over running responsibilities.
Now what I do want to talk about is the decision to balk the pitcher and advance the runner to third. With the reason being that they threw a pickoff throw when no fielders were covering. Now I want to tell you there's a big difference in this BAC rule between professional baseball and high school baseball.
The NFHS rule we're going to be looking at is 6 2 4B. If there's a runner or runners, any of the following acts by a pitcher while touching the pitcher's plate is a B. Failing to step with the non pivot foot directly toward a base occupied or unoccupied when throwing or fainting there in an attempt to put out or drive back a runner or throwing or fainting to any unoccupied base when it is not an attempt to put out or drive back a runner.
Now, the second part of that applies to throwing or [00:10:00] fainting to any unoccupied base. Which, this is not an unoccupied base, so we're going to move past that part and just focus on the beginning. Failing to step with the non pivot foot directly toward a base, occupied or unoccupied, when throwing or feinting there in an attempt to put out or drive back a runner.
So in this play, we don't have a failure to step with the non pivot foot directly towards a base, because the pitcher does in fact step towards second, and he even throws and it's an occupied base. And what's the reason for that throw? Well, he's attempting to either make an out or at least drive back a runner.
Obviously, that's not likely to happen with no fielders there, but he is making an attempt to drive back a runner. Now, let's go to 6 2 4E, which continues what is a balk, And includes taking a hand off the ball while in a set position unless pitching to the batter or throwing to a base or stepping towards and feinting a throw to 2nd or 3rd base.
So let's talk about this for picking off to 1st base before talking [00:11:00] about 2nd. As you know, the set position is going to have the pivot foot parallel to the rubber And he has to have his hands together to be in the set position. From this position, taking either his hand or his glove off of the ball will require that he's either pitching or throwing to a base or snipping towards and feinting a throw to 2nd or 3rd base.
So when it comes to 1st base, if he takes one hand off of the ball, he needs to be picking off to 1st or pitching to the plate. But, if it's to 2nd or 3rd, just stepping towards and fainting towards that base would not be a balk. Now, it would be a balk if he was throwing or fainting to an unoccupied base when there's not an attempt to put out or drive back a runner at that base.
So with a runner on 1st only, if he stepped towards 2nd and then fainted or threw to 2nd and R1 was not attempting to get to 2nd, then that's gonna be a balk because it's not an attempt to retire a runner. But in the play, the umpire is [00:12:00] described It is an occupied base, so picking off to second base is legal.
Even feinting a throw to second is legal, because that base is occupied. And note that 6 2 4e, taking a hand off the ball while in a set position, unless pitching to the batter or throwing to a base or stepping toward and feinting a throw to second or third base, Note that rule does not say anything about whether or not it's a legitimate opportunity or effort to retire the runner.
It simply says you have to throw or feint to second base. So in this play, we still had a throw directly to second, and even though there wasn't a fielder there, I believe that was a legal throw. I don't think we have a balk on this play, so we probably should just leave the runner at second base. So that's going to be the end of our episode today.
Thank you for sending in your questions as well as some of the name recommendations. We're definitely weighing our options and we'll be making more decisions as we move forward. As always, let me know if you have any feedback or thoughts on the podcast you can reach. It's always great to hear from all of you.
I'm not [00:13:00] necessarily always able to respond to every email immediately, but I certainly do read them and appreciate hearing from y'all. So as we get ready to go onto the field this weekend, make sure you have something that you're focused on improving. Every game we need to have something that that game we're working on, whether you're on the plate or working the bases.
And for your games you work on the bases, definitely this next couple of games, focus on making a good clean pivot and getting that right distance and parallel to the runner going to second. Other than that, if you have any interesting plays or videos from this weekend, be sure to send those my way. And as always, thank you so much for listening, and I look forward to seeing you on the field.
