THE UMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

Game # 9– June 20th, 2023

Hurtin' Units vs. The Bat Flippers.

Hurtin' Units lose 16-11

Team Record – 2-6-1

The weather for this game is perfect for baseball. The temperature was in the mid-20s and there was a soft breeze. The only thing I disliked about this game was that we had the frickin' sun in our eyes the entire game. I hate Coventry diamond #2, I would have rather played at 8:15 on diamond #3, which was not used. We really need to revisit playing games on C2 when other diamonds are available later in the evening.

At game time, the Units were down 1 player, Tom H. was the only missing body for this game.

I need to rant a little about the umpiring this season, not for calls against us, but more about the inconsistency. First off, the no new innings after... Is it an hour and 5 minutes, an hour and 15 minutes or 55 minutes ( this should be a trivia question)? Last night, on the most perfect night for baseball, with no other games on C#3 and C#2 our last inning was called after 55 minutes. There were also a couple of calls in this game that were missed, one was a foul ball and the other (which might have played in the final result) was a ball clearly caught and dropped on the transfer, I know there are missed calls in games, but this was a bad one in the open inning.

Over the last 3 games, the Units have battled to stay in the games. The SOPs beat us up by a score of 13-9 and the Master Batters tied us with a 10-10 and in this game we went down 16-11. It seems like we have gotten off to slow starts in (what game is this, oh game 9?) about 9 straight starts. Even in this game, we gave up 6 runs in the first inning (7^th stranded on third) and in the home half, we sent 6 batters up and scored a single run. The score was 6-1 after the first inning. Not a very good start again.

As the game progressed, the Units settled down and slowed the high-powered Flipper offence down a bit. The Units chipped away at the Flipper lead scoring 4 runs in the 3^rd inning, 3 more in the 4^th inning, 3 more in the 5^th inning and only allowing the Flippers 4 runs over that span. At the end of the 5^th inning, the score was 11-10 for the Units.

It was at this point the umpire struck back, calling an open inning before we were even into
an hour in to the game. Some of you would say that this doesn't matter, but it does, especially with the defence on the field. I usually put the strongest defensive team on the field for the open inning, but when the open is called way, way too early it really messes things up. It was in this inning, that the first Flippin' batter hit to left field, clearly a catch, on the transfer the fielder drops the ball and it's called a fair ball, I call bullshit. Even the scorekeeper had an outmark on the scoresheet. The Bat Flippers would go on to score 6 runs in the inning for the win. 

The Hurtin' Units are back on the field on June 22 vs. The Gruesome Devils.