[jicecone]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by His High Holiness

Originally posted by jicecone

Good question. Quite honestly, I feel like a guest on a high school varsity field. I did all of seven FED games last year and that will be about what I end up working this year. I no longer have a feel for the what proper decorum is and I have told my assignor that I would be happy to work zero FED ball. I find the atmosphere and violation of of what I consider proper decorum to be irritating.

Let me give you an example. A couple of days ago, I received the following email regarding FED ball from my assignor. (It went out to about 200 umpires so I am not violating any confidence.)

_________________________________________
To All High School Umpires:

To date there have been numerous reports of coaches using tobacco on the field or in their bench areas. As all of you should know from the Federation rules: tobacco use by coaches, players and umpires is prohibited. Considering how many reports I have gotten, I am shocked that to date not a single coach has been restricted to his bench and forced to remove the substance.

In addition, every local county, school system or park has their own set of rules governing and restricting the use of tobacco.

Finally our umpire association has a policy of imposing fines for umpires that use tobacco on school grounds. If you smoke or dip, you will be fined. If you have done that this year you most likely have already been fined.

Starting today if you see a coach that you suspect has a dip in his mouth:

1. First ask him if he does have tobacco in his mouth.
2. Make him remove it and restrict him to the dugout for the rest of the game.
3. Either call me or email me of the offence that evening.
4. If he refuses to show, admit or cooperate with you then you should restrict him to the bench for the remainder of the game. And report it to me.

DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY EJECT THE COACH.

Two weeks ago I sent all Ads an email informing them of this action. They overwhelmingly support this. Please be diligent in your enforcement of this rule. There will be times the coaches will be uncooperative and refuse to admit or show you. You may never be sure if what he has is really tobacco. You may order them to remove anything that looks like tobacco.

IF a coach refuses to cooperate and remove the substance from his mouth you should not allow him to be restricted to the bench and keep tobacco in his mouth. The bench restriction is only for those that cooperate AND remove the dip. In these cases you should be able to get close enough to tell by sight and /or smell if it is tobacco. Give the coach the option to remove the dip and go to the bench or eject him if he refuses.

If your partner uses tobacco on school grounds before or during or after games that should be reported. Failure to report a partner using tobacco may result in a fine.

Please call me if you have any questions on this policy.

signed
____________________________________________

Until I got this email, I thought that I knew the tobacco rule. I thought that this was an automatic ejection. Now I have to play some stupid a$$ game with the coach about inspecting the contents of his mouth. YUK!

I emailed my assignor and asked him wha the he!! was going on. What is wrong with an ejection? He informed me that if I ejected a coach for tobacco, the coach would have 25 witnesses lined up by the next day swearing an oath that the coach was not chewing tobacco.

(All this may have something to do with the discussion I mentioned last year regarding a right to use tobacco in Virginia. Remember when I introduced the subject along with right to carry firearms. Some guys are determined to prove that they can chew when and where they want since unlike smoking, they are harming no ones but themselves.)

Last year in one of my rare FED games, I ejected a coach for a clear violation of the rules. The ejection was overturned by the Virginia High School League (our state FED arm) and the mandatory sanctions suspended. My offense: I did not warn the coach that cheating was not allowed.

Maybe I should start enforcing armband restrictions. Then I could get banned from every school and not have to do FED ball anymore. With so many kids wearing the cloth and tape, I would be the only umpire enforcing this rule. Enforcing this rule would be a great way to end a high school career if that was the goal.

Peter

I understand you completely Peter, I work in Connecticut.