Quote:
Originally posted by Carl Childress
Quote:
Originally posted by Rich Fronheiser
Quote:
Originally posted by Carl Childress
Quote:
Originally posted by Tim C
Rich you beat me to it!
I was going to say, "in my area CC, we always place the least competent umpire of the crew on the plate in big games, less likely his performance will bite your crew in their collective butts!"
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Well, we'd like you and Rich to hustle down here and try out for our association. We're short umpires for our Freshmen and JV games.
Seriously, I don't understand the comment, even in jest. Rich, you put at the plate the guy who can't get to third? Our plate umpire covers third in several instances: bases empty triple, R1 and ball go to third on a base hit, R2 tags on a fly and goes to third, R2 goes to third on a throw across the infield, and (optional) R2 goes to third when F1 picks off and the throw goes into the outfield.
Of course, if your comments related to a four-man crew, you're entitled to your opinion. We use two-man crews until the play-offs, when we'll switch to four. Our last district games are played on 3 May this year.
We don't decide where the umpires go; that's the province of the coaches. They flip a coin, and the winner picks where the series starts. Almost all choose to start away, so they get the double-header on their field. That toss also sets the umpires: The "losing" coach wins second and the plate. The "winning" coach gets third and first. We rotate once for the second game. PU goes to third, etc.
If there's a third game, (always immediately after the first), they flip again. We have had instances where the plate umpire of the second game is chosen also as the plate umpire of the third game. The coach who lost the first toss wins the second. He gets to choose whether he wants the second-base umpire to have to plate. I've had that double-header twice in thirty years.
Umpires aren't assigned until the state tournament, where there are four schools in each division competing for the championship.
It appears that our coaches are somewhat less cavalier about who calls the plate than is obviously the case in your areas.
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My original comment was completely in jest, but obviously you are short a sense of humor. Big surprise, there.
I don't care how you folks choose your playoff umpires.
It's obvious the rats run the show where you live and you are (talent and experience aside) the beneficiary of such a system. I could come down there and be the best technical umpire around, but without such familiarity I'd be sitting home come playoff time.
Believe it or not, regional umpires are hired by the teams where we live and, GASP, we decide as a crew who's working what position. If a coach ever tried to tell me who was going to work the plate, I'd probably start laughing and ask him if he was already trying to work ME.
I don't work freshman and JV games, sorry. Can't help you.
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Don't come to the Rio Grande Valley then. Those are the only games we assign. All other games are filled by the draft. Throughout the state, both coaches must agree in advance on the umpires. In every sport, not just baseball.
But considering your attitude about coaches, we wouldn't let you call an eighth-grade game. Too much potential for permanent harm to our kiddos.
Your (and your compadres') comments about coaches are ridiculous and self-serving nonsense. If just one coach in our area heard such comments, you would never work again. Not here. Not at any level.
I wonder if that would be true in Wisconsin.
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I wonder if I care. I wonder why I respond to you, as well.
But, what the heck.
You have no clue what I'm like on the field. Sure, the stories about rats make for the most entertaining stories just like your stories about the Old Smitty. But the Old Smitty is an entertaining device you use to make a point whereas me calling a coach a rat is "my attitude about coaches."
Maybe we should look at the Old Smitty as you disrespecting people who choose to umpire youth sports. Maybe you are undermining the officials and contributing to the declining sportsmanship. Even I wouldn't claim something so ridiculous.
Why don't you go find yourself a clue? Why don't you recognize that it may just be the same damned thing?
I've worked 13 games so far this season (we start late up in the north). Each coach has been greeted by name (I find their names on the Internet before going to the game) and shown the utmost in respect by me and by my partners. Only one rat in the bunch and he was treated extremely well until he got himself ejected. I don't put the coaches on any pedestal, though. They're just coaches just like in their eyes we're all just umpires. Apparently you see coaches as "higher on the food chain" to us mere umpires. Sorry, the day I'm in a system where I have to show the proper deference is the day I pack it in for good.
My partners (yes, we pick who we work with, and I work with good umpires) and I don't take innings or games off and we work hard every game. If a coach doesn't want to hire us for whatever reason here, that's OK. I have more games than I know what to do with and there are one or two schools who won't have me back (in basketball, actually) and there are 1-2 schools where I will not work by choice. The system is what it is.
Enjoy your system in the Rio Grande Valley. As someone who's wife has lived in McAllen, I guarantee it will be a cold day in, well, the Rio Grande Valley before I ever live there. But I've been successful in six states working in different systems -- why couldn't I succeed anywhere?
And remember -- all this started because you couldn't understand a little one-line joke I made in a previous post.
Edited to add: A friend has pointed out that you probably COULD understand the joke, but you just chose not to. I would have to agree. Too bad.
[Edited by Rich Fronheiser on Apr 17th, 2005 at 01:23 PM]