[murphyt]

.....the stalking is just a joke. I'm not one of those dad's that goes beserk on every pitch. Yes a team can easily blame an ump instead of themselves and have to account for their own failures. But so does the Ump! The game went into extra innings because the ump failed to interpret the rules, not because of a judgement call. If you take up umpiring, and this guys been doing it for over 20 years, you should at least make an attempt to understand the rules. Umpires take a lot of abuse and can never win, %50 of the people are usually mad at them. We did not abuse this ump for his ruling, merely pointed out his being wrong and continued play. They don't even allow for protests, so it could not be overruled. No, I'm not actually going to stalk the guy, I have better things to do, but I will notify him of his misinterpretation for further reference. I respect most Umps for putting up with unknowledgeable fans. I have a player's mentality (played USSSA A ball) and it would be tough for me to umpire even though I have successfully in the past. I'd end up telling the player to "shut up and hit the ball". And that is not good umping. Thanx again for verification fellas. Even though I was pretty sure I was right, I'm not so arrogant as to not ask others. All umps should use this forum to get better.