"After reading a number of recent posts in The Forum, I feel compelled to share with the distinguished umpires who frequent this site some confidential information I have recently become privy to – after a visit to my doctor.

"I hope you will respect that this is offered in confidence because I could get into lots of trouble with my fellow coaches if it was to get out that I'm the one who leaked this."

Click the title to see how this is done.

But after she read the first draft of this piece, she wondered – aloud – why I didn't have any of my patented anecdotes. She noted I've always said that one anecdote is worth 15 good, but hard-to-remember bullets.

She believes that anecdotes are antidotes. She knows what she's talking about. Anecdotes serve to spice up the environment while forcing out the tried but dull commandents clinicians fall back on. Like: "You've got to hustle to every play."

That's one I use a lot. Mama says it would be better if I illustrated what I was talking about.

Easy to do for mechanics. But this piece is about rules.

Go inside. Please.

Not so fast, Bubba. That's what you're thinking. But it's a simple rule, right?

Wrong.

Click the title to find out some differences you may not have been aware of. 

The purpose of this article is to rehash one old situation and offer two new ones, examples of times when one umpire needed the help of the other umpire in two-man mechanics. In all three examples, when the help was rendered, without being specifically requested – even  though the need for help was obvious – the resulting situation was welcomed by all participants.

Play ball.

You're up to bat, and you know what to do.