Three classroom sessions, 1 day of field training and a methodical read of most of the rule book on a flight to and from Palm Springs—Play Ball!

I picked up a suspended game from earlier in the week in the Coast league. Our divisions start at AAA, then Coast, and finally Majors. It was the Yankees vs. the Cubs. I was fortunate to be paired with a veteran 25 game umpire on the bases and he walked me through a lot of the pre-game. He identified dead-ball areas and confirmed how the coaches wanted to play them. We did the equipment checks and got ready to start.

With the practice game backing me up, I felt pretty good calling the pitches this time. It's still difficult to identify a good and fair strike zone, but I felt I was pretty consistent. I did notice when I took a little extra time to think about a pitch, the parents would often call out encouragement to the batter on whether they were right to swing or watch and at one point I wondered if they were trying to sway me. I think it was just encouragement to the batter. I purchased a pair of plate shoes (New Balance MU450MK) which protect your feet nicely, so I did a much better job staying in the slot for pitches.

At this level, the kids are probably throwing 30-45mph which is roughly 45-67fps. The pitching rubber is 46 feet from home which means the ball travels less than a second between the pitcher and batter and even less time traveling through the strike zone. One pitch came in high and I blinked my eyes just as it crossed the plate and I called it a ball. The catcher looked back at me and said, "But he swung at it." I pointed to my partner and he called a strike. I was surprised what I could miss during that short blink.

Both teams were really good on defense and offense. Lots of good hits and smart running and good fielding. The home plate umpire is responsible for calling the pitches, fair/foul, catch/no-catch plays and plays at home. One batter hit a long shot down the left field line and it bounced fair and then went into foul territory and past the home run fence. My partner had confirmed with the coaches that the ball would remain live in this area and in this case, the ball just kept going (artificial turf) to probably the 75 yard point on the overlaid soccer field. I believe the batter had a "in the park" home run on that.

Contrast that with a later hit where the ball sailed into left field over the fielder. Once I saw it hit the ground I felt my duties completed and glanced around the bases, missing the fact the ball bounced over the fence allowing only a double for the batter. Fortunately my partner saw it and we rolled the runners back to their position. Here's an interesting rule note. Runners are awarded bases when the ball goes into dead ball territory. A home run is a special case of this rule where the ball goes into dead ball territory beyond the fence and the runners are awarded 4 bases.

We had another incident with runners on first and second with 1 out and a high pop-up to the short stop. I watched the ball into his glove and called the out. The runners had waited to tag-up and were safe on their bases. The offensive coach asked me if I had known they were playing the infield fly rule to which I responded, "Now I do."

The most controversial play of the game came when one of the batters hit the ball into the ground, it bounced and I heard it hit the batter and then rolled fair, but I allowed the play to proceed. I knew we had covered that in training, but I couldn't remember the ruling. Something in my head said the batter was protected in the batter's box, but the fact it hit him meant it was some sort of interference. The catcher was quick to the ball and put the runner out at first to end the inning. As the teams left the field, the third base coach asked about the ball hitting the batter. I paused and seeing my uncertainty, the coach asked me to check with my partner. We had a quick chat and I told him I heard it hit the batter and he said then I should call it. We conferred with another umpire in the stands and decided to reverse the call. The other coach approached us to ask what the ruling was and I explained that the ball had hit the batter. He complained that the other coach couldn't appeal whether I saw something to which I responded that he wasn't appealing whether I saw it, I saw it, but didn't call it because I didn't know the rule. The offensive coach thanked me and the defensive coach walked back to his dugout and explained to his players in a loud voice, intended for me I assume, the mistake that had been made and something something something.

I discovered at this point that if you concentrate on calling those pitches, you really don't hear a lot of the chatter from the stands and dugouts.

A ball is determined fair or foul within the infield by where the ball comes to rest without contacting a player or foreign object. If it does contact a player or foreign object it will be fair or foul based on the position of the object. The batter is typically in foul territory within the batter's box and therefore, if a ball hits the batter it should be a foul ball.