[IRISHMAFIA]

Well, slow-pitch is my primary game and I've work game from the bottem, damn near to the top level.

Here, in Delaware (including some teams from SE Pa) the ball players believe they know it all, mostly because they "know" baseball and think it is the same game. They also believe that paying the $$ to play the game, gives them the right to argue just about anything they want.

This statement covers approximately 30-40% of the SP teams around here. BTW, no beer involved until after the games.

Now, the BS cuts back a bit when you start dealing with Championship play, but not completely. One of my more embarrassing moments was at the Men's A Industrials in '96. None of us had any problems with anyone until halfway through the second day. The crew was returning to the umpire's area really pissed. They told us the game they just finished involved a so-so team that did nothing, but whine and cry half the game about every little play.

I had worked with two members of the crew and had watched the other and they were all good umpires. I asked them to point out the crybabies and sure enough, it was the only team from my home state. If there had been a "Whiner's Cup", they would have taken it home, because that is all they did for the 3 (?) games they played. Problem was that they were the ONLY team out of 53 that acted that way.

Because of the player's actions, we lose 2-3 umpires a year. Fifteen years ago, we had 220 active umpires in our association and they all worked. We now have 47 and it is a struggle to cover all the games, but the players still don't get the point that the reason we can't get umpires is in the mirror.