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Softball
Tips on Game Management — Part III
The sweetest music
By Emily Alexander
November 27th, 2009

We know. Year after year you hear us "experts" talking about game control. The subject is part of every clinic. You'll read article after article about how to handle difficult situations.

Veterans like us end up smiling knowledgeably: We've heard it all before. The nubies always start out thinking it's much ado about nothing. Boy, will they quickly learn a thing or two!

Here, then, is Emily's take on this "common" subject. It was so good, we decided to break one of our longest standing rules.

Click the title to read what she thinks — and what we did about it.

Football
Some Hollywood Interpretations — Part I
Plays from "The Replacements"
By Darin Hayes
November 27th, 2009

Thanksgiving for most of us means there will be a lot of football to watch but not much to call. Even so, it's never too early to start preparing for the upcoming season. One way to do that, believe it or not, is by watching movies about football. At the same time, we can have a little fun.

Hollywood takes things to the extremes quite often, and they may be very inaccurate in doing so. Let's combine our movie watching with some very early, preseason preparation by following along as Darin Hayes examines plays from football-related movies.

If the play happened in your game on Friday night, you would....

Go inside to see if you agree with Darin.

Baseball
Cats and Rats — Part II
By Carl Childress
November 26th, 2009

The thesis of this series is that the game itself creates rats (coaches) and cats (umpires on the prowl). In the MLB, we sometimes see an umpire bait a coach and then toss him. At our level, we have no idea of the pressure on those guys, so we have no way to judge their conduct objectively.

By our standards, baiting a coach is wrong. By their standards, it may be the only way to keep 'em guessing and thus remain alive and in control.

BTW: This is the first time in the 10 years of our existence that both articles on one day were written by the same contributor. I assure you, we're not going to get into that habit.

Football
I Wish That...
By Carl Childress
November 26th, 2009

In discussions last week, we at Officiating.com decided that we needed a specific Thanksgiving Day article, something that would inspire, elevate, and illuminate you, our readers. We settled for a wish list provided by our editor.

You'll find out what he wants for Turkey Day, other than a Cowboys' victory, by following the usual procedure.

He wanted us to say this is the first article he's ever written dealing with the f-word.

Baseball
Correct Head Position for Slot Umpires — Part II
By Peter Osborne
November 25th, 2009

In Part I, Peter advocated aligning the head of the plate umpire with the body rather than aiming it directly at the pitcher. Many MLB umpires have now adopted this stance. In Part II, Peter explains why this is important and how the umpire can be trained in this method.

His remarks are just around the corner.

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