Any baseball umpires here? I have a question for you.

Here's another sidebar: What about in those games where the first pitch is supposed to be at, say, 3:45 p.m., and then the home team is having its Senior Day celebration, and then the banners have to be handed out, and Johnny's father isn't anywhere to be found, but Johnny's father has to be on the field, and then Johnny's father shows up, and then they get him on the field, and then the flowers have to be handed out, and then the balls have to be signed, and it's already 4:02 p.m. What are the umpires' privileges in times such as this?

 

Honestly, Eagle, in that situation, not much.

Parents night truly sucks for everyone except some of the parents, but what are you going to do.

When I was coaching hockey, we had one podunk town who would ALWAYS schedule senior night for our trip to town. Didn't matter if it was November or March, that would be their senior night. They were always skating two lines (and sometimes less) to our three (and sometimes more).

They'd have senior night stuff between the JV and varsity games. Then they'd have the Teddy Bear toss between the first and second. Then, they'd have their HOF induction ceremony between the second and third. Did I mention they wouldn't SCHEDULE the varsity game to start until 9 p.m.?

It was a blatant attempt to affect the outcome of the game, and it got brought up all the time at league meetings. And the bottom line was always that everyone wanted to have a senior/parents night, and so you're kind of up to the ethics of the home team.

 

Eagle,

To answer, for the umps (or officials), the home team usually checks with the officials to make sure it's OK. Otherwise, if they just do it, it's going to piss the umps off. Most umps don't have a problem with it.