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I've opted to digress from the 3 warmup pitches/ASA SP rule by starting a new thread, here.
As I continue to study and learn the rules, I enjoy helping players, who are interested, to learn as well. I've tried to follow Mike's advice from months ago that during the game is not the time to do this. As I become more experienced and familiar to the players/teams, they have been seeking me out more before/after games to discuss rules and their applications. This happens only with a small minority of players, since most SP Rec players "know it all" already. But the ones who want to learn, are almost always intelligent and polite about it. It's funny to "see the light bulb go on" when you see that they finally realize something that they previously misunderstood. Doing this outside of game situation obviously works best, since it's not in the heat of the moment and is not confrontational.
For the league that I work the most, I attended the pre-season coaches' meetings and provided printouts of the new 2004 rules. Most of the meeting consisted of discussion of the rules, and Q & A with me, and cleared up alot of their misunderstandings about some rules. I did this because I knew noone else was going to help them out with the new rules, (even themselves) and it's made my job somewhat easier in that league.
You may think I'm nuts for putting this much of an effort forward, but when I made the switch from player to umpire, I did it because I believed that there was a need in the leagues in my area for better umpires, who hustled more, who were more knowledgeable, and who cared about what they were doing. I've actually grown to enjoy umpiring more than playing. When players from even the losing team tell me, "Good game, Blue," I know I made the right choice. But it doesn't happen all of the time!
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