Need an opinion.

[vanmol]

I am old school and have gotten a lot of flack for calling out a manager and a player during their last two games. First, the manager from the dugout and then the player from the on-deck circle was calling the pitches flat or illegal, or high before the pitch crossed the plate and the Umpire had a chance to make his call.
I have always considered this, for a better word, unsportsmanlike, or at the least, improper. To me, it is ok to jabber to your heart's content before the pitch or you can chirp at will after the pitch, but not before, while the game is in motion.
Haven't had this come up but I also do not approve of the catcher trying to verbally induce the hitter to go after a bad pitch by hollering out swing batter swing. Seems to be bush league at best. Am I being too picky?

In my defense, didn't Houston get hammered and charged with cheating by banging on a trash can to alert the batter what pitch was coming? Kinda the same thing to me.

 

[stang7222]

Let them call it out all they want. If they get their teammate to lay off a pitch the umpire calls strike 3, how would that be a bad thing? Unless the umpire is influenced by them, in which case its on the umpire not the guys shouting.

 

[hitless45]

There is nothing illegal about helping your teammates out while he/she bats especially if they are not particularly good at pitch selection, we have a couple on one of the teams I play on. I can see where it may become annoying if it is done with every single batter but as stang states they do run a chance in the ump calling the pitch opposite what they think it is. As far as the catcher idk our umps say they can talk if they want as long as they don't not talk to the batter. The whole Houston think is totally different as it is mlb and was about sign stealing.

 

[ImminentDanger]

There can be verbal interference. It's the umpires call whether this kind of verbal interjection meets that definition.

I would not expect an ump to find these calls 'to their own batter' to be 'verbal interference'.

I have successfully lobbied for such a call when tracking down a pop fly - between me & the catcher, we could not see where the other was. When the other team called 'I Got It' we both stopped & the ball fell to the ground. Batter was out over verbal interference.

We all know, every ump is different, and you have to lobby them for the call when it happens.

%%%

 

[vanmol]

I was hoping to get some feedback from actual umpires and not just players with self-interest.

 

[hitless45]

You may get an umpire response in the ask the umpire forum. I would assume you get similar response as I do not believe there is a rule for team members calling out what they think the pitch should be called. Or perhaps chance the title to your thread to need an umpires opinion.

 

[stang7222]

I was hoping to get some feedback from actual umpires and not just players with self-interest.

The bulk of my umpiring is little league and girls fastpitch but I have done a little men's slowpitch. I dont have any issues with the guys on the bench saying "flat" or "high" I try my best not to let it influence my decisions. If it gets out of hand, I'll say something. @UncleMosk was catching a game I was umping with this exact scenario.

 

[blakcherry329]

The umpire will let you know when it's getting out of hand.
People always try to influence the umps. This isn't tennis or golf. No reason to stop talking because the pitch is in the air.
And, to answer your question, yes you are being too picky.

 

[ilyk2win]

Done to their own team at bat, no issue. You asked for opinions and mine is that you're being overly sensitive without cause. My credentials = player for over 30 years + umpire for about a decade.