The South Asian Softball League regular season is done and over with. We have our play-in games this upcoming Saturday. These games are one game winner take all types of games. Sometimes they may come down to a single play. In that one single play a tag at home or a bang-bang play at first base it could mean your season. These types of plays happen all season long, but in the playoffs, everything is magnified.
We talk about good umpires and bad umpires. But, what makes a good umpire?
Here are ten signs of a good umpire.
1 – The umpire is willing to move!
Too many times you will find umpires who are stationary and aren’t getting the best angles to make calls at first base or second base. There are times that the ball beats the player at second base and the umpire just calls the runner out even without seeing if there was a tag
2 – Know the rules!
We get it, you ump a lot of leagues. Some leagues have custom rules. Know the custom rules of your league. In the South Asian Softball League, we care about uniforms and pitcher safety (we require a mask) make sure that you know that.
3 – Be consistent!
The black of home plate isn’t a strike at the beginning of the game, great. Don’t make it a strike in the 6th inning either. If you are calling it where the ball lands and not where it crosses, in the 2nd inning that is what needs to be done in the 7th inning. Whatever you are doing at the beginning of the game is what you should be doing at the end of the game.
4 – Don’t become part of the game!
We get it, you have been umping longer than we have been alive. If you have to justify your calls with that type of sentence, you probably messed up the call. Just admit that you missed the call and move on. Don’t let your personality become part of the game. There is no need to prove that you are right or get into long-winded debates. You are the umpire you made the call and let’s move on.
5 – Communicate!
In the ground rules, go over the safety bag, the homerun rule, the courtesy runners, the mercy rule etc…Don’t have this become an issue during the game. Let them know beforehand so that we won’t have any issues later on.
