Quote:
Originally posted by Bandit
From what I have seen and heard. I'd work with FUBLUE anywhere except in IL. Heard your quality level drops once you cross that state line. You don't have Farm Bureau Insurance do you ?
|
FUBLUE, I've noticed that about the IL umpires. I worked 3 tournaments up thereabout 4 years ago and my partner and I (He was from Texas too) encouraged the coaches to come talk to us if they had any questions. They absolutely would not do it. We finally asked one of them why ( we had come to know his team fairly well) and he told us they weren't falling for that. They get thrown out if they do that. We asked the UIC of the tournament if they really did that and he said they absolutely would be ejected. Nobody was going to question their integrity on a field like that. My partner and I just looked at each other. I told him that wasn't what was happenig and if he felt so, he must have pretty thin skin and needed to upgrade his umpiring skills and call the game, not be the game. Needless to say, it didn't go over well. Of course, I was back at that tournament the next year and he and his other folks weren't. Please, please tell me this is a just an area of Il. that does this and not the whole state. I know the same thing happened in Salem and Marion that weekend. We were in Herrin.
Did I mention that Marion used a convict from the local Pen to be the base umpire in all the games? We were horrified to hear that. There was some agreement with the county to get the fields, if they allowed the convicts to do some community service. I think someone had to put them through a clinic and they were all petty criminals, they said. That was the worst collection of umpires I have ever been associated with (my partner and I being the exception.) When we left, several coaches from California, Pennsylvania, Arizona, etc told us they planned on coming back and hoped that we would too. "But, the other umpires don't need to be here!" We just told them thanks and left.
[Edited by TexBlue on Aug 25th, 2004 at 03:06 PM]