Peter, again you care not about the umpire but the mighty buck.
If I have to select umpires, I want the one who will make his calls and suck up the ones he blows. This Horsesh!t about get it right at all costs is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Also, this will not help the Moose move up. It will do the exact opposite. I am the "Big Dawg" and the assignor for my association. I had someone who was in Moose's position (new to the level, but a good umpire) and had a similar play. He came looking for help, I told him to go away that he had the call. He tried to ask again. Well, he is not working our top level this season. Until he learns that part of umiring means making errors and sucking it up, he will NEVER be a good umpire - period. If I keep bailing him out, how will he learn?
We had a situation in 1997, game 7 of the finals, 4 man crew, bottom of the 9th, visitors up by 2 runs. There is a play at first that U1 blew, giving the home team a runner (he even admitted he booted it). What a time to boot one! Well, of course the visitor's manager comes out and asks for him to get help. He sticks by his call.
Well, next batter hits a 2-run home run (of course) and home team wins in 11 innings. A month later over a few beers, the visiting manager said he felt screwed by the call. However, he respected the fact that the umpire stood by his call. He knew U1 booted it, and was pissed. However, he said if he was umpiring, he would not have asked for help. he said that this stuff evens out, but that it still hurt.
Well, this same umpire is still working playoffs and was scheduled for the plate for game 7 this year, but the series only went 6. While we don't have the coaches pick the umpires here, that coach wanted that umpire back on the diamond.
Outside of DC, this attitude of please everyone don't cut it. This is baseball, not politics.
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