Umpire signs and signals

While researching baseball signs by catchers and base coaches, I stumbled across an informative article from The Amateur Umpire Home Page: Umpire Signs and Signals.

You don’t think of umpires needing, as Bruce McLaren’s article terms it, to “sell the call”, but it makes a lot of sense. Well beyond the obvious ball and strike calling, you have to let the scorers, the players, and the crowd know both what’s going on and (sometimes more importantly) why it happened. Not to mention needing to communicate information amongst themselves.

The base umpire touches the brim of his hat with one firger pointed up then gives the plate umpire a thumbs up signal. The plate umpire responds with a similar, unobtrusive thumb motion. You look at the field and realize it is an infield fly situation. The initial hat touch also relayed the fact that one one is out, the thumb signalled the infield fly situation. This signal may not the one your crew uses but it is an effective form of communication around the diamond.

Umpires have developed a unique set of signs and signals to convey the game situation, the count, even anticipated onfield rotations to each other. Their discreet, and sometimes not so discreet, motions do not distract the fan, who rarely sees them take place. Instead they insure that every umpire on the field is focused on the task at hand, that the count is consistent and everyone knows what might occur on the next play.

So next time you’re at the ballpark, keep an eye on the umps and how they communicate their information — even if they are blind and out of their minds. ;D