Know the Rules!

I have to say, there have been several occasions when I have come across coaches and umpires who do not know certain rules. I'm not talking about really obscure rules that you have to hunt down in the Federated High School rule book, I'm just talking about ones which most people should know by now. Especially in the case of coaches, who are the ones teaching and enforcing these rules to their players. It's important to remember that the rules used in the Majors are different from high school rules. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case.

A perfect example is this - several weeks ago I was umpiring a 10 year old tournament game. My partner was working the field and I was behind the plate. The batter hits the ball in the gap between the center fielder and the left fielder. The batter/runner (BR) rounds second and is heading to 3rd. The throw comes in to the 3rd baseman and beats the BR by about 3 steps. The BR tries to avoid the ensuing tag by hurdling the 3rd baseman, is never tagged, and grasps on to 3rd base without leaving the base path. The coach and parents are ecstatic by the jump, until my partner calls out the BR. 

Let me just say it was a fantastic jump and he was never tagged. However, in the rule book, it specifically states that the runner may never jump or hurdle a fielder to avoid a tag unless the fielder is laying flat on the ground (which in this case, he wasn't.) The parents flip out - the coach flips out and wants to know why he was called out. My partner goes on to explain this to the coach, who vehemently disagrees and says it is completely legal. I walk towards my partner to back him up on his call and explain to the coach that in little league, you cannot hurdle a player. The coach continues to argue, saying that in "all 10 years I have coached, that has never been called an out!!" My response: "Then in all 10 years you have coached, the play has been called wrong every time." Anyway, you don't see that play happen very often - that was my first time seeing it and I've been doing games for 14 years.

In the end, someone showed the coach the rule and that ended that brouhaha, though the parents still thought we were "cheating" and were just terrible umpires. 

Though this is a specific example, this kind of thing happens all the time - not just with coaches and parents, but with umpires too. I have sat in on several meetings where umpires have admitted to not opening a rule book in over 10 years. I hate to break it to you, but there have been "several" rule changes in 10 years. I have worked with guys who don't know certain rules, and refuse to admit they are wrong. My advice - if you have a question about a call during the game, look it up in the rule book afterwards. It's okay to be wrong, at least you will know better next time. In some people's cases, go buy a rule book. 

It's bad enough when there are enough bad umpires out there who make the rest of us look bad. I'm not say I am the greatest umpire out there, and even though we are doing little league games, at least make the effort to show that we know what we are doing and talking about.