You are a very experienced senior umpire having done hundreds of games behind the plate but today you will not be working will an official from your association but instead you are working with an official from another association in a special tournament. You haven't been nervous before a ball game in years but today you have doubts and again pray that nothing will go wrong. What will be your biggest mistake?

In these and other instances, your biggest mistake will be neglecting to have a pre-game conference with your base official! A five minute discussion with your partner is the most important thing you can do to calm your nervousness and to prevent mistakes during the game. The discussion should include:

(1) who will call fly ball outs with no runners on: plate umpire unless base umpire goes out into right field in which case plate umpire takes runner around bases

(2) who will call fly ball outs with runners on: base umpire if ball hit in "V" between left field and right field, plate umpire for ball hit down lines with fielder moving toward foul line

(3) who has which runner on tag ups: plate umpire takes lead runner (2nd or 3rd), base umpire takes trailing runners.

(4) who watches missed bags: plate umpire has 3rd, base umpire has 1st and 2nd.

(5) what to do on overthrows: plate umpire chases ball, base umpire takes runner. Exception: base umpire in foul territory making call at 1st

(6) what signals are we using: infield fly, number of outs, balls and strikes, etc.

During this pre-game conference, you will discover that your nervousness has magically disappeared as you have begun to get into the game even before the first pitch has been thrown. This is reason enough to conduct a pre-game conference. But beyond tension relaxation, the pre-game conference can help prevent officiating mistakes. So why don't more umpires do it? In the case of the rookie umpire doing his first game behind the plate, he probably has forgotten, or more likely is too embarrassed for fear that he will conduct the conference improperly. Embarrassment also explains the junior umpire neglecting the conference when working his first game with the senior umpire. If you are the base umpire and your plate umpire appears to be overlooking the pre-game conference, remind him to do it or start the conference yourself - you will save yourself and your partner embarrassment during the course of the game.

Now for a personal story - an embarrassing situation that I needn't have placed myself in if I had been more careful during the pre-game conference.

During a varsity softball game, I was the plate umpire and a friend was on the bases. Although I had never worked a softball game with my friend, I had officiated numerous volleyball matches with him and knew him to be an excellent and conscientious official in volleyball. I therefore assumed he was thoroughly knowledgeable about softball (my first mistake) and therefore quickly reviewed the pre-game discussion simply saying "with no runners on base, you make the call in the outfield between left and right". At this point he said "Good" and I thought we were on the same page. In a 2-1 ball game during the top of the last inning, the first batter on the losing team lashed a line drive to left center. The left fielder got a tremendous jump on the ball, dove and nearly caught the ball. I say "nearly caught the ball" since I saw grass between her glove and the ball hitting the ground and I immediately yelled "No Catch, NO Catch, NO CATCH" while simultaneously displaying the safe signal. Unfortunately, over near first base, my friend was signaling Out. Obviously the defensive coach came to me to discuss the play and asked me to consult with my fellow umpire. I told him that there was no need since I saw the play and it was my call. Fortunately, the coach did not make a federal case out of it and I did not have to compound my embarrassment by tossing him out of the game. But the game was being broadcast on local radio - hundreds or thousands of people know that the two umpires made different calls on the same play.

There is NOTHING in baseball more embarrassing.

A second example of a poor pre-game conference was less embarrassing.

Again I was the plate umpire but this time I thought I had done a pretty good job of discussing all the potential issues. But I had neglected to discuss the exception to item #5 above. With no runners on base, the ground ball was hit between the 1st baseman and 2nd basemen. As the 1st baseman covered 1st, the base umpire swung into foul territory to make the call from near the coaches box. Dutifully I was running up the first base line in preparation to watching the pulled foot off the bag. Had the throw been a good throw, everything would have been fine since my partner would have been able to make the call and I was in position to help him. Of course, the throw was wild and headed toward dead ball area. My partner, already in foul ground, followed the ball to watch it cross the dead ball line; unfortunately, I had the same idea and we therefore had both umpires 30 feet in foul ground with the runner racing toward 2nd. Fortunately the ball did enter the dead ball area and we could call "Time" and place the runner on 2nd. Had the ball remained alive and the runner tried to advance to 3rd, we would have had the embarrassing situation of an umpire calling a close tag play at 3rd from the coaches box at 1st base (not a very good look at the play). Since that play, I have always included this exceptional dead ball play in the pre-game discussion describing the proper technique of the base umpire chasing the ball and the plate umpire taking the runner.