[Tim C]

Over the years on the Internet I have been called arrogant, saracastic, cocky, conceited, bombastic and self indulgent.

I am all of that and more (with heartfelt apology to Howard Cosell).

By good fortune (and being old) I have been blessed by having great umpire friends suck as Nck Bremigan and John McSherry. I have been trained by people as different as Gary Darling and Dale Scott to Joe Brinkman and Mike Winters.

I was lucky to be able to work major college baseball when it wasn not as NEARLY difficult to get your break as it is now.

The same goes for working MLB spring training in the old days when if you hung around you'd get asked.

The one thing I am is never bashful about saying the "way things outta be . . ." and MOST the time I am pretty close to being right.

We deal with a difficult situation on the internet.

Because OBR does not have a Case Book and the only official interpretations come from the MLB League office we have only items such as the NAPL Manual (official rulings at the Milb level), the MLB Redbook, Jaksa/Roder and the JEA.

This means that not all umpires have equal access to information

So what we get down to are what are called "Authorative Opinions" . . . and that falls into the eyes of the beholder.

We can discuss items like "unrelaxed/relaxed" and give opinion but we really are only doing the umpire version of the "hot stove league".

There are guys such as Bob Jenkins, Carl Childress, Rich Froneheiser, Dave Hensley an d a handful of others that have at their fingertips inportant reference documents and good crisp thinking. These are people that know, understand and can explain the rules of the game.

At the FED level we do have rules book case book and umpire manual but we find that indivdual areas have indivdual umpires that simply "set aside" rules they do not like.

Here's what I am getting at:

Half the issue of internet communication is establishing the versimiltitude of the poster so you can see what they say has value. Experienced people who post here have established there own style and proven their knowledge.

When new posters come on they usually get tested (I know I did when I joined boards eight years ago) and some pass and some do not.

Baseball boards are far different that either football or basketball boards and I think the general membership are also different.

I am simply an umpire that, through good luck, has had a solid career.

I work hard at all parts of my game, I train umpires just as hard as I was trained and post here with that same attitude.


fwUmp, never said I never kicked a call . . . I've kicked my share, and yours I'm sure.