[QUOTE]
Originally posted by His High Holiness
Quote:
Yes, Joe Jara knows from coaches that he is a good umpire. Likewise, we have a dozen or so umpires out of 300 in our association that know that they are good umpires because they make coaches' lists. I show up on some lists as well.
However, this does no good for the 288 umpires out of 300 that never show up on any lists. They have no reliable feedback from coaches. The dozen or so big dogs that make the lists like to delude themselves that they are the only good umpires.
Peter
[Edited by His High Holiness on Sep 2nd, 2004 at 11:36 AM]
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Uh, we do have lists all right. The high school association (about 100) uses a computer program (designed by yours truly) that assigns via preference lists turned in by the coaches. We assign for about 50 schools.
Each coach hands in a list of 75 (about 3/4ths) of the association umpires RANKED from "most-like-to-see" to "least-like-to-see." On the day of assignment (the assignor does two weeks at time), he selects the date and ranks the games in order of importance (his opinion alone). The computer, on command, assigns the umpires. We average about 22 games a date.
It works this way: School A plays School B. The computer looks at the preferences and assigns the highest ranked available umpire on the School A list as the plate umpire -- IF he is on School B's list. It then moves to School B's list and picks the highest ranked available umpire for the bases -- IF he is on School A's list.
An example: I was number two on the McAllen Bulldog's list. They picked me for their bi-district 3-game playoff. I was number 38 (he only listed 38 umpires!) on the Weslaco East list: I once ejected the head coach when he played in Pony. When I retired in the mid 90s, I was ranked first on the lists of 14 schools and I was in the top 10 in all but three. I was picked for the play-offs for 18 consecutive seasons. (This may not mean I'm a good umpire though. All things are relative.)
In Texas generally and in the Rio Grande Valley specifically we know what the coaches think of us.
In order. (grin)