OT: NJ high school baseball game in controversy

[colbert17]

Watching the video it appears that the first runner jumped over home plate. When it happened the ump immediately looked at the Mt. Olive bench to see if the coach saw it.

Umpire waves off tying home run, ends NJ high school baseball game in controversy

A New Jersey high school baseball has one team up in arms after a controversial call ended a state tournament game between Northern Highlands and Mount Olive on Wednesday.

nypost.com

 

[jtung230]

What’s the controversy? He missed the plate. I was at my daughter’s flag football game (U12). This girl pulled a D Jackson and dropped the ball at the 1. The ref spot it at the 1.

 

[Scarlet4Shore]

He missed the plate. It's the right call.

 

[Rutgers Chris]

He missed the plate. It's the right call.

Agreed, doesn’t look like he came within 2 feet of the plate

 

[Plum Street]

He missed the plate. It's the right call.

That video wasn’t definitive.
No way in hell should that umpire have made that call

 

[Ronnie_B]

That video wasn’t definitive.
No way in hell should that umpire have made that call

Why not?

 

[jtung230]

That video wasn’t definitive.
No way in hell should that umpire have made that call

It was a good thing the ref was standing right there and didn’t need the video.

 

[Arizona Knight]

That video wasn’t definitive.
No way in hell should that umpire have made that call

Good thing you’re not an umpire. That wasn’t close.

 

[colbert17]

That video wasn’t definitive.
No way in hell should that umpire have made that call

The ump was looking right at the plate as the kid jumped over. That's one of those calls that you are ABSOLUTELY sure that you're right if you're going to call it. He's not going to call it if he thinks he missed the plate or he might have missed the plate.

 

[Mr_Twister]

The Mount Olive HS baseball coach is former Rutgers baseball’s Pete Zoccolillo. 3 times All-Big East first team. Milwaukee Brewers, briefly.

 

[newell138]

Why did they wait until the next batter took a pitch to end the game?

 

[Rutgers Chris]

Why did they wait until the next batter took a pitch to end the game?

Pitcher had to step off and appeal at the plate to get the call from the ump

 

[Rutgers NJ]

Holy crap, that kid will never live that one down!!!

 

[jtung230]

All of his teammates were right there and no one said a word

 

[hankee18]

The Mount Olive HS baseball coach is former Rutgers baseball’s Pete Zoccolillo. 3 times All-Big East first team. Milwaukee Brewers, briefly.

I randomly ran into Pete about 20 years ago in my drug rep days in a doctors office, he was repping for someone too. I remembered the last name from reading about him in the Targum. Nice guy

 

[rubigtimenow]

I watched the replay like 5 times. No way you can definitively say he did NOT touch home plate with even just the tip of 1 of his cleats.
I think it was a bad call.

 

[zappaa]

I watched the replay like 5 times. No way you can definitively say he did NOT touch home plate with even just the tip of 1 of his cleats.
I think it was a bad call.

This makes absolutely no sense bigtime?
What does the fact you can’t tell from the replay have to do with the umpire watching the kid miss the base home plate from 3 feet away.

I understand tag plays, ball beating the runner etc are split second difficult calls.
Watching every player touch home plate is not difficult.

 

[Chanticleer108]

honestly hard to tell from a video, but I slowed the video down to .25 speed and froze the frame. To me, it looks like his right foot is on top of the plate before he goes to jump- I mean almost clearly his right foot is on the plate and his gait changes to step on it. Obviously umpire is staring at the plate from 2 feet away so he can clearly see better. I encourage anyone viewing to slow the video down and freeze the frame.

 

[Luvscarletknights]

I watched the replay like 5 times. No way you can definitively say he did NOT touch home plate with even just the tip of 1 of his cleats.
I think it was a bad call.

It looks like he clearly touched it with his trailing foot when he turned.

Total BS. IMO the kid would have retouched if he felt he missed and his team would have said to retouch.

 

[JayDogSmooth]

25 year baseball umpire here, there’s no way anybody but the catcher and the umpire, and arguably the runner himself, knew if he touched a plate or not.

Either way, the angle of the camera was far and even zoom in was hard to tell

to make that call at that juncture of the game, The umpire had to be 1000% sure and he must not have come close to touching it

Admittedly, even even if I thought he missed a plate, unless the kid literally jumped over the plate and missed it by 10 feet, I don’t think I would’ve had the balls to make that call at that juncture of the game

 

[Luvscarletknights]

25 year baseball umpire here, there’s no way anybody but the catcher and the umpire, and arguably the runner himself, knew if he touched a plate or not.

Either way, the angle of the camera was far and even zoom in was hard to tell

to make that call at that juncture of the game, The umpire had to be 1000% sure and he must not have come close to touching it

Admittedly, even even if I thought he missed a plate, unless the kid literally jumped over the plate and missed it by 10 feet, I don’t think I would’ve had the balls to make that call at that juncture of the game

Should the umpire look to the bench to tip off the coach that he potentially missed the plate.

I have an issue with this action if that is not common.

 

[rubigtimenow]

This makes absolutely no sense bigtime?
What does the fact you can’t tell from the replay have to do with the umpire watching the kid miss the base home plate from 3 feet away.

I understand tag plays, ball beating the runner etc are split second difficult calls.
Watching every player touch home plate is not difficult.

I should have prefaced my earlier comments with…. Ya’ll crazy that say you watched the video and can see that he definitely missed the plate.

 

[zappaa]

25 year baseball umpire here, there’s no way anybody but the catcher and the umpire, and arguably the runner himself, knew if he touched a plate or not.

Either way, the angle of the camera was far and even zoom in was hard to tell

to make that call at that juncture of the game, The umpire had to be 1000% sure and he must not have come close to touching it

Admittedly, even even if I thought he missed a plate, unless the kid literally jumped over the plate and missed it by 10 feet, I don’t think I would’ve had the balls to make that call at that juncture of the game

I’m going to amend your statement JayDog.
I’m just going to assume you’re ah honest guy and a good umpire.
If you knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that runner missed home plate, you would have called him out, or you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself.

 

[zappaa]

I should have prefaced my earlier comments with…. Ya’ll crazy that say you watched the video and can see that he definitely missed the plate.

From that video i have no clue if he touched the plate😊 or missed

 

[vic_torre42]

25 year baseball umpire here, there’s no way anybody but the catcher and the umpire, and arguably the runner himself, knew if he touched a plate or not.

Either way, the angle of the camera was far and even zoom in was hard to tell

to make that call at that juncture of the game, The umpire had to be 1000% sure and he must not have come close to touching it

Admittedly, even even if I thought he missed a plate, unless the kid literally jumped over the plate and missed it by 10 feet, I don’t think I would’ve had the balls to make that call at that juncture of the game

No way he should have made that call.

-vic

 

[jaydogsmooth1]

Should the umpire look to the bench to tip off the coach that he potentially missed the plate.

I have an issue with this action if that is not common.

No, that would directly impact the integrity of the game

 

[jaydogsmooth1]

I’m going to amend your statement JayDog.
I’m just going to assume you’re ah honest guy and a good umpire.
If you knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that runner missed home plate, you would have called him out, or you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself.

IDK man
That call will stick with that kid for the rest of his life

Unless he literally missed it by 10 feet I probably would have given him the neighborhood courtesy in that instance

 

[jaydogsmooth1]

No way he should have made that call.

-vic

It took balls, that's for sure

 

[tico brown]

I’m 80% sure that he hopped over the plate. But luckily that ump was right there and you can’t really argue the call if his angle was 100% clear.

Now my question for the umps on this board: is it common for an ump to look over any or both dugouts right after a play like this? Don’t know if it’s a requirement, common courtesy, or home cooking for an ump to do that. Or is an ump required to look at the plate, or whatever he is required to look at?

 

[jaydogsmooth1]

I’m 80% sure that he hopped over the plate. But luckily that ump was right there and you can’t really argue the call if his angle was 100% clear.

Now my question for the umps on this board: is it common for an ump to look over any or both dugouts right after a play like this? Don’t know if it’s a requirement, common courtesy, or home cooking for an ump to do that. Or is an ump required to look at the plate, or whatever he is required to look at?

It's home cooking
You don't tip off anyone
Go about your business like normal

 

[vic_torre42]

It's home cooking
You don't tip off anyone
Go about your business like normal

Did this umpire look over to the Mt Olive dugout because their coach called for his attention?

If not, he lacked integrity.

-vic

 

[jaydogsmooth1]

Did this umpire look over to the Mt Olive dugout because their coach called for his attention?

If not, he lacked integrity.

-vic

Hard to tell
But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that's why he did it

 

[Luvscarletknights]

It's home cooking
You don't tip off anyone
Go about your business like normal

You can see the other coach run right out to the mound after getting the look.

The pisser is that he hit a home run over the fence. Is there a need to have a rule that you touch all bases when it left the field. Should this be changed.

I truly understand an in the park home run but it was out.

 

[MURF87]

You can see the other coach run right out to the mound after getting the look.

The pisser is that he hit a home run over the fence. Is there a need to have a rule that you touch all bases when it left the field. Should this be changed.

I truly understand an in the park home run but it was out.

What is so difficult that a player can't touch all bases no matter the hit?

 

[zappaa]

You

You can see the other coach run right out to the mound after getting the look.

The pisser is that he hit a home run over the fence. Is there a need to have a rule that you touch all bases when it left the field. Should this be changed.

I truly understand an in the park home run but it was out.

why?

 

[jtung230]

What is so difficult that a player can't touch all bases no matter the hit?

LOL. Change the rule because people are too stupid to complete a simple task.

 

[vic_torre42]

LOL. Change the rule because people are too stupid to complete a simple task.

In an arc ball softball league I played in, the batter and all base runners didn’t have to continue running on a home run over the fence.

On this play, the ump had to be 100 percent sure the runner missed home plate.

-vic

 

[Luvscarletknights]

What is so difficult that a player can't touch all bases no matter the hit?

Apparently umpires cannot call it correctly.

If it is over the fence what does it matter.

To me it looks like he drags his toe on the middle of the plate as he turns.

In addition, why does the ref move to three different locations for all 3 runners.

 

[RUInsanity]

This makes absolutely no sense bigtime?
What does the fact you can’t tell from the replay have to do with the umpire watching the kid miss the base home plate from 3 feet away.

I understand tag plays, ball beating the runner etc are split second difficult calls.
Watching every player touch home plate is not difficult.

LOL. Change the rule because people are too stupid to complete a simple task.

It was caused by over jubilation of an improbable scenario - not stupidity. Unless of course you think that 16 year olds are robots.


Also - by rule Chris Chambliss would have been ruled out for his dramatic game winning walk-off Home Run in 1976 since he never touched home plate. TBH - sometimes you just have to live in the moment given the situation and not be black and white about rules.

 

[zappaa]

It was caused by over jubilation of an improbable scenario - not stupidity. Unless of course you think that 16 year olds are robots.


Also - by rule Chris Chambliss would have been ruled out for his dramatic game winning walk-off Home Run in 1976 since he never touched home plate. TBH - sometimes you just have to live in the moment given the situation and not be black and white about rules.

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No he wouldn’t be called out because the crowd prevented him from running in the base line or touching home