7/4/2011 11:59 AM
Jimmy Fox wrote:
Whewww, I don't feel so bad now about losing a count last week in a close 9 y/o tournament game ! One of the very first things that I learned my first year officiating was to NEVER, EVER, ANYWHERE, TRUST A SCOREBOARD BEING RUN BY ANYBODY! Not balls/strikes/outs, anything. When it gets late in a game, I always double check with both scorekeepers and have them verify their books with innings and score and, if they're different, have the scorekeepers audit their books together immediately. Call it preventative umpiring, call it doing your job, whichever. Yeah,sure, we have schools who do a great job of keeping their scoreboards correct, and you guys know who they are--you could name them on one hand and have a few fingers left over probably. Most are pretty good usually at the varsity level and JV's as well. I UIC'd a varsity game years ago and the scoreboard operator started punching numbers, changing the score on the board during an inning, and a dispute broke out at the scoring stand. We continued to play and I noticed after a few runs had been scored by the visiting team that the scoreboard had stopped changing anything, score, inning or the counts..I went to the home team to verify the inning and score but no one was running the board or the home team scorebook. When I checked with the visitor's scorebook, they showed a 2 run difference. I knew they hadn't score enough runs to overcome a run deficit to where they were now 2 runs AHEAD of the home team, the head coach was indifferent to any of the proceedings, no one could agree with the proper and correct accounting of the game, so I had no choice but to declare the visiting scorebook the official book. I wasn't sure if the visitors had score 4 or 5 runs to tie or go ahead by one, but in the end, that 2 run difference ended up being the final score of this conference game. I learned right then, never to trust a scoreboard and to always have the books audited every couple of innings especially in a close game! If you are working with a good partner, when you signal a count from behind the plate, your partner will ( or should - one thing that makes him/her a good partner) discretely give you a nod or shake of the head reverifying the count that you have or if you are different. I remember having Cam Maybin at bat with bases loaded on a 3 - 2 count in a 4 -3 game once and he looked at a beach ball right at the knees on the outside corner - and acted like he couldn't believe he had gotten rung for it! Reply to this
7/4/2011 7:43 PM
Ron Horgan wrote:
Sad to say, I confess to having committed the exact same sin as the major league crew did. I let the scoreboard convince me my clicker was wrong. But unlike the situation presented, I was the only one who deferred to the scoreboard. The fans and opposing coach went "nuts" (and rightly so). I'm fairly confident that I'll never let that happen again. Reply to this
Whewww, I don't feel so bad now about losing a count last week in a close 9 y/o tournament game !
One of the very first things that I learned my first year officiating was to NEVER, EVER, ANYWHERE, TRUST A SCOREBOARD BEING RUN BY ANYBODY! Not balls/strikes/outs, anything. When it gets late in a game, I always double check with both scorekeepers and have them verify their books with innings and score and, if they're different, have the scorekeepers audit their books together immediately. Call it preventative umpiring, call it doing your job, whichever. Yeah,sure, we have schools who do a great job of keeping their scoreboards correct, and you guys know who they are--you could name them on one hand and have a few fingers left over probably. Most are pretty good usually at the varsity level and JV's as well.
I UIC'd a varsity game years ago and the scoreboard operator started punching numbers, changing the score on the board during an inning, and a dispute broke out at the scoring stand. We continued to play and I noticed after a few runs had been scored by the visiting team that the scoreboard had stopped changing anything, score, inning or the counts..I went to the home team to verify the inning and score but no one was running the board or the home team scorebook. When I checked with the visitor's scorebook, they showed a 2 run difference. I knew they hadn't score enough runs to overcome a run deficit to where they were now 2 runs AHEAD of the home team, the head coach was indifferent to any of the proceedings, no one could agree with the proper and correct accounting of the game, so I had no choice but to declare the visiting scorebook the official book. I wasn't sure if the visitors had score 4 or 5 runs to tie or go ahead by one, but in the end, that 2 run difference ended up being the final score of this conference game. I learned right then, never to trust a scoreboard and to always have the books audited every couple of innings especially in a close game!
If you are working with a good partner, when you signal a count from behind the plate, your partner will ( or should - one thing that makes him/her a good partner) discretely give you a nod or shake of the head reverifying the count that you have or if you are different.
I remember having Cam Maybin at bat with bases loaded on a 3 - 2 count in a 4 -3 game once and he looked at a beach ball right at the knees on the outside corner - and acted like he couldn't believe he had gotten rung for it!
Reply to this
Sad to say, I confess to having committed the exact same sin as the major league crew did. I let the scoreboard convince me my clicker was wrong. But unlike the situation presented, I was the only one who deferred to the scoreboard. The fans and opposing coach went "nuts" (and rightly so). I'm fairly confident that I'll never let that happen again.
Reply to this