Are All Your Players Properly and Legally Equipped?

1. Introduce yourself and your partner
2. “Are all your players Properly and Legally equipped?”
3. “Do you have any ineligible pitchers?”
4. Home Team manager take me around the field (ground rules)
5. Any division specific special rules?
6. Stress sportsmanship and pace of play
7. Ask partner if any questions
8. Shake hands and take field

Notes on each of the above:

1. The plate meeting should begin 5 minutes prior to game time whenever possible. Make every effort to get to the field early and as soon as possible, tell the home team manager that you are getting ready and the expected time of the pregame meeting.

Whenever possible, the plate meeting should take place with both teams in the dugout.

The home plate umpire should stand at the point of home plate and the field umpire should be facing the home plate umpire. The field umpire should be attentive – ideally a ‘parade rest’ position with hands behind back.

Shake hands with both the managers (and any representatives they bring out) and you should exchange first names. Do your best to remember their names throughout the game. It’s always better to say ‘Mark’ or ‘Mr. Smith’ than ‘Hey, Coach’ (same as it’s nicer for them to say ‘Brian’ rather than ‘Hey, Blue’).

1. Ask this to both managers and receive a positive verbal response of ‘Yes’. From this point forward, it is the responsibility of the managers to ensure things like jewelry, bats, helmets etc. meet standards.

1. Normally, this would be an exchange of lineup cards, but in the divisions you are doing this does not take place. Asking if there are any ineligible pitchers is more for the opposing manager than for you as umpire.

1. Ask the home manager about the field. As umpire, you should have done a quick walk around the field already (usually field umpire), but this is for such items as dead ball areas, trouble areas like fencing or puddles, etc.

1. Examples of this might be inning run rules (Minor A and Softball) or courtesy runners (Minor A).

1. Sportsmanship – remind managers that if they want to discuss something, they should properly call time out and ask permission to speak to the umpire that made the call. This should be done ONLY by the manager.

Pace of Play - Since it is a new rule, at least at the start of the season, mention that it is a point of emphasis for the batters to follow the rule of keeping one foot in the batters box. Also, teams get 5 warmup pitches or 1 minute between innings, managers should please keep them hustling on and off the field and have your battery (pitcher and catcher) on the field as soon as possible.

1. Lol, as a rule of thumb, unless something big from above was left out, the field umpire should not have anything to add. The goal is to keep the meeting short and concise and not make it a rules clinic.