Youth Baseball Umpire Mechanics

[fiedler12345]

@ 0:46 it looks like the kid is sleeping on a baseball field and his dad wakes him up by screaming safe in his face.

[ajimedina77]

Ok, I just took a class led by Lee Batterman, a long time Little League umpire who has worked U.S. Regionals, European Regionals, and the LL World Series. This workshop was assisted by several other notable LL umpires, such as Steve Christman and Gerard Takiguchi.

This guy doesn't even take the plate stance correctly. "Helping" pitchers doesn;t go over well these days.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help your league......BE AN UMPIRE :)

[88fungo]

I like the part when laughs about cheating batters, when calls non-strikes, strikes.

Not.

This guy is no expert boys and girls.

"I don't know why folks are obsessed with touching the plate...."

Well, they score runs that way, don't they?

[critter2]

@88fungo you are told to speed the game up that way, like it or not... 9-10 years old or 11-12 years old don't have the best Constantin for the pticher.

[critter2]

@88fungo as for the plate thing i agree... its part of the rules they have to touch the plate if there coming home to score.

[Baseball5030]

i've got a question as well. pop up to the first base bag and the ball lands in foul territory right behind first base. Ball then bounces off the dirt into the air and lands in fair territory where the first baseman touches it. Fair or Foul? i would've thought fair, but it was behind the first base bag. Does that matter?

[raven3016]

@Baseball5030 it's foul. once it hits the ground past 1st it's a foul ball

[critter2]

@raven3016 so its foul; once it hits the ground past first? .... wow

[raven3016]

@critter2 problem with that? you would be surprised how many people don't know what balks are, or simple things

[critter2]

@raven3016 no i didn't read the other person asking the question so i thought you got it wrong that all. lol. in ll you don't need to worry about balks. Now getting into baberuth, high school baseball than yea you have to pay attetion. many people believe tie goes to the runner. a foul tip is a dead ball and those are wrong to.

[raven3016]

@critter2 In GA where I umpire, kids have to learn balks early. I did a 9 yr old game 2 weeks ago where I had to call balks. It was a joke. Yeah, people don't know rules like foul tip. Fun fact: the old umpire giving tips on here worked with me at our park... he died 2 years ago. Worst strike zone ever though, just for the record

[critter2]

@raven3016 Strange there nothing wrong with starting early with balks. but the kids are still trying to learn how to pitch and throw to a base. Most of the time a balk happens in ll its dead ball. ball 1 etc.... or nothing just a dead ball.

[raven3016]

@critter2 I don't mind starting teaching balks early, but young kids balk on almost every throw. They aren't trying to deceive the runner, but they still balk. Too many coaches don't know the rules either, and think that a balk is a dead ball, so if a kid balks when a kid steals, the coaches have their kids stop running sometimes

[critter2]

@raven3016 this is true 100% that why there no point in balks all the time.

[dynastar4lyfe13]

just a question but if a ball is hit and it is a line drive over the first basemens head and it curves foul but it passes the bag in fair. foul ball correct? i have had umpires call it foul but in a recent game an umpire called fair and i got confused.

[knichtrider]

@dynastar4lyfe13 FOUL, every ball starts out fair anyway so if it were a pop up bhind 1st base and landed foul its still a foul right? look at major league home runs sailing foul almost every one of those start out fair bhind 1st base too so a line drive is exacly the same :)

[dynastar4lyfe13]

@knichtrider

yeah that's what i've always thought but even in an 18u league we had an ump say otherwise.

[critter2]

@dynastar4lyfe13 it goes over the bag its a fair ball.

[Intercity101]

Good video. but when does the ump call an infield fly??

[themooseisontheloose]

@Intercity101 the infield fly rule is when there are runners on 1st and 2nd or the bases are loaded with no or 1 out. when a pop fly occurs and an infield can clearly make the catch the infield fly is then called

[CpMusicVidz]

@Intercity101 When there is a force on third base (either 1st and 2nd or bases loaded) and a ball is popped up an any area where it is possible for an infielder to catch it. The batter is automatically out

[gtglolwth]

very,very good video, especially for youth baseball, all-in-all a very helpful video

[dn157523]

dudes got a skippy brain must like the ganj

[Brammy007a]

First off... the strike zone is not from "the letters to the knees". ALL umpires (and I do mean ALL) should read "As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires by Bruce Weber".

[syxrzacm]

He said he likes to call strikes that are really balls to "help the pitcher out" because he walked a few people. That is disgraceful and he should never umpire another game. It's not your job as an umpire to help each team out. Your job is to call the game and that is it. He's no umpire. He is a guy with umpire gear pretending to be one. Do not listen to his advice in regards to helping a pitcher out. this is incorrect and won't be tolerated in any leagues i'm familiar with.

[LTMagic21]

@syxrzacm well they don't try to help pitchers out in my league that i ump in. but they encourage to widen your strike zone to quicken the pace of the game and encourage batters to swing more. i know its not true to the rules but in AA (the lowest level of coach pitch) so many kids go up there and never swing and the games end up with runs in the teens and twenties because so many runs are walked in.

[LTMagic21]

@LTMagic21 i meant kid pitch not coach pitch

[Drillers3498]

James recentley passed away.

[LTandlonghornfan81]

@Drillers3498 really? :( how do you no ?

[Drillers3498]

@LTandlonghornfan81 He was the referee at my gym and they told everyone

[matt31williams]

you do call balls. if your balls and strike calls are similar you may have to work on your strike mechanics.

[BAMASBOY11]

He says to call the strike as soon as it crosses the plate. Any good umpire knows that all calls should be delayed. In the case with the home plate umpire, he should see the ball into the catcher's mit before calling strike.

[Petemiester1]

If anyone can send me a link to a official little league video for umpiring, then I would be extremely grateful. Ty

[jimmtairymd]

I'd be careful using the "Little League" name. Nothing in this video is endorsed by Little League. Most of what he is saying is OK, but some of what he is saying is wrong. Yes, we do not call balls or at least that is not how we are taught. I do it only at the lower levels so the kids know what is going on, but at districts and above it is not proper to call balls.

[critter2]

it be nice if you can explain what you think its wrong.

[critter2]

litte leauge and calripken are very simliar in rules. and i seen in baberuth that they call balls.

one umpire i work with i have to listen to vrey closey cause the stirke/ball sound so fimliar

[Furax02]

Jim - while that may be your preference in your District, that's not generally accepted at Region or World Series in LL. Of the three Regionals and Two World Series that I've been fortunate to officiate - every one of them required distinctive 'Ball' calls.

[dahawkfan17]

It is not proper to call balls? That's not what they teach you at umpire school.  If you don't call the pitch, then it's no pitch.

[critter2]

Me being an umpire i do not call a ball. i call a stirke or foul and point if fair.

I do not give the locatino where the pitch is like most umpires do "low inside"

also when you do the full count its not a fist

[rollinjukebox]

This guys mechanics are all wrong.

[PettySTP4387]

As a clinician once told me, NCAA guy mind you, "Call balls balls."

[bandz90]

You ALWAYS call ball... it's not "nothing" or a strike.. it's a "ball" or a "strike".

That's how we're taught in Canada, anyway.

[moeses9030]

It's true what he says about the coaches. You really can't hear them untill their im your face.

[moeses9030]

Most of the times, when theres a ball, the umpire just says it. We usually can't hear him. He's talking to the batter.

[STRIKE2CALLED]

you are absolutely 100 percent wrong... umpires are trained to call strikes, not balls... trust me, I am an umpire. A lot of amatuer umpires do say ball though

[Furax02]

LL Umpire School (as of 2003) teaches that when a pitch is not a strike, you stay down in position, verbalize 'Ball' and then come up out of your crouch. This is done for two reasons - one, to distinguish that you actually saw the pitch and called it something and two, to distinguish a 'ball' call from a 'strike' call. By not calling a pitch, it gives the impression that you didn't see it and therefore aren't calling it a strike vs. calling it definitively a ball.

[matt31williams]

anybody can call themselves an umpire so i would stop doing this. that means nothing to me

[stater68]

2:50 that's exactly how it is

Good Job James