A Week in High School Baseball: Rules, Management, and One Ejection
The Pregame: An Umpire Classroom Podcast · Umpire Classroom
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Show Notes
High school baseball gives umpires a steady stream of situations that challenge both our rules knowledge and our game management.
In this episode of The Pregame, I break down three recent high school games I worked over the course of a few days. Each game brought a different set of lessons, from partner communication and positioning to rules interpretations and managing coaches when tensions start to rise.
We walk through several interesting moments that came up during those games, including some subtle rules questions, the importance of clear communication with your partner, and how small situations early in a game can influence how things develop later.
The final game of the stretch eventually resulted in an ejection, which gave me the opportunity to walk through how situations escalate, how warnings and restrictions fit into the process, and what a clear, effective ejection report should look like.
These are the kinds of moments that make umpiring both challenging and rewarding, and they provide great learning opportunities for anyone working high school baseball.
If you want to read along with the report discussed near the end of the episode, you can view a redacted version of the ejection report here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cfqbEvnlDokSbqjUTXVI0GRUNjCnpmvGDWDTT5c0kSw/edit?usp=drive_link
Topics covered in this episode include:
• Working with a partner you’ve never worked with before
• Communication and crew dynamics
• Interesting rules situations that came up during the games
• Managing coaches and keeping a game under control
• How situations escalate toward an ejection
• What makes an effective ejection report
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https://join.naso.org/NAS/?f=DISCAFF&S=C25PFN
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We do not own the rights to the game footage used in this video. All clips are used under fair use for educational purposes to improve officiating knowledge and contribute to the baseball and umpire community — a community that is often under-appreciated and underserved in training resources. This video and channel are not sponsored or endorsed by Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), or the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).