Probably because the kids' teammates are going to "mob" him at the plate and the ump can see if the dirt on the plate has a cleat-mark facing the direction he was running. In other words, to have proof the kid touched the plate. Anal retentive, to be sure, but the ump takes his job seriously so I'm not going to fault…

It’s known as preventive officiating. The same theory as basketball officials talking to players during a game, football officials instructing lineman not to hold (and prevent a penalty against them). It’s the exact reason a good official does that sort of thing; so they DON’T get involved in a game

This is the umpire working to remove himself from the game by giving himself visual evidence of the runner touching the base.

The runner still has to touch the base, but this way there is no question of it because the ump can see the footprint.

You are not understanding. He’s not signaling to the batter to touch the plate. He is trying to determine whether the batter touched the plate by checking to see if there was a footprint.

In case no one noticed, in his pile of sub-taco-bowl reading material is a picture of ex-wife Marla Trump in a bikini.

internalized misogyny is a hell of a drug

“You mean the basketball ring?”

“What’s that stuff he’s doing near the rim?”

I really like this, because I’ve also seen the concept creep going on regarding bullying (no, making fun of a bigot isn’t bullying the bigot), and I also see a lot of power in breaking down when and why internet hate and harassment is distinct from bullying (or ‘cyberbullying’ which is just the same thing but with a…

Oh, shut the fuck up.

In America, police fight drink-driving. In Russia, drink-driving fight police.

Just mad because she has a ring and he doesn’t.

They’ve changed her wikipedia now, but for a while, it said “Chyna (born Joan Marie Laurer; December 27, 1970 – April 17-20, 2016)“ (emphasis mine) because they didn’t know exactly when she died. She died alone and had been dead for a while when she was found. Heartbreaking. Yes, she deserved better

True, but thanks to the repeal of prohibition bootlegging accounts for a minuscule percentage of the booze market.

That’s not really what we’re talking about here because it’s highly unlikely there’ll be multiple execution style murders at various locations because of a tax avoidance scheme.

That’s just tax avoidance, I’m talking about actual bootlegging.

While that’s certainly true, bootlegging today involves an absolutely tiny fraction of the murders that occurred during bootlegging’s heydey of Prohibition. I think it’s a little silly to say that legalization wouldn’t prevent murders like this. It certainly would. Just not 100%.

Absolutely. Just last week in my neighborhood, a dispute over a few stills led to a gun battle between the Crips and some of Al Capone’s boys.

The funny part is that the worker DID recognize McConnell and that there isn’t normally a cover charge.