Quote:
Originally posted by MarionTiger
As a coach, I make a point of shaking the Umpire's hand before he leaves no matter how inept he or she was that day. It's like work...when the game is over, we're all adults. If it was a good game in my opinion, then I say so. If not, I just say thanks...and I mean it.
I also think it is very important for the kids, especially the little ones, to see coaches and umpires reconcile (well, that kind of implies arguing, which shouldn't happen either) after the game to show good sportsmanship.
After reading some of your posts...if officiating is so thankless and even hostile for you that you have to throw balls on the ground and run to your car, then you need to find a new league or get some support from the league administrators. You shouldn't have to do that. Just my 2 cents...I'm sure I will now be flamed.
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MarionTiger;
Carl has labeled me a curmudgeon. (He also gave me my moniker four years ago this month and I have used it with honor ever since.) Anyway, I regularly get on umpires about their mistakes. It's part of who I am (which is not a nice guy.) I am the same way on the field. Coaches generally are cool towards me. The upside of all this is that my games go very smoothly. I am known as a person to leave alone. If one wants his games to go smoothly, it is a good reputation to have.
Anyway, in my 5 or so years on various boards, I don't believe that I have ever flamed a coach. I save that for the baseball field. (OK, head case from Rhode Island, do a search of the archives and prove me wrong.)
As a matter of fact, I have written umpire articles directed at coaches for the paid part of this site. One of the long series that I wrote last year was a tutorial for coaches on how to successfully manipulate umpires. I did not win any umpires friends for that series. A long standing thesis of mine (which goes back to an article that I wrote in 1999 for ABUA) is that "coaches are smarter than umpires." That thesis has not won me any umpire friends either. I believe that the article is still available for viewing on the ABUA site.
Another long standing question in my mind is how umpires can be so sensitive on the anonymous Internet. Here they are day after day taking abuse up close and personal on a baseball field, and they come to the Internet and come unglued at an insult.
What gives with that? I believe in combat Internet umpiring in order to toughen up the greenhorns for the real combat of 9 inning umpiring on real baseball fields.
Your attitude towards umpires is so unusual that we umpires cannot afford to reciprocate. We are like policemen in that regard. We cannot afford to treat coaches as human beings because we never know which one will pull a "gun" on us.
However, in my writings, I am very charitable towards coaches. It is because coaches often give umpires better advice than they get from other umpires. In response to the problems outlined in this thread you wrote: "...then you need to find a new league or get some support from the league administrators."
I have often written that only league administrators can effect real reform in the way coaches behave. I have often urged umpires to quit umpiring in places known for bad behavior, for their own sake and the sake of their careers. Umpires are normally too stupid to take that advice. It's nice to hear the same advice from a coach.
Peter