Quote:
Originally posted by Huskerblue
Like most hitters go through, I have been in a slump that I cannot seem to get out of. I worked a game yesterday that jut may have been my worst game ever. I couldn't dial in the strike zone, I missed a fair\foul call, I swore at a couple of players who argued. I ejected a bench warmer in the bottom of the 7th inning after taking heat from everyone pretty much all day. It was a mess. I felt absolutley awful. Any advice for getting out of this slump? I need help. Conference tournament is next week and if I repeat the performance from yesterday, I may as well hang up the mask.
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Ten years ago, I went through the same problem. I solved it by looking for occasions to eject people and following through. I would not recommend that you adopt this persona in tournament season; this tactic is a long term solution.
Your game is suffering from the effects of loss of control. It is your personal loss of control over your work environment that is creating this doubt. You must positively focus on finding misbehaving cretins and tossing them out of the game.
You are an umpire. As such you are the Joseph Stalin of your game. You said that you took "heat from everyone pretty much all day." What is that all about???? Would Jospeh Stalin take heat for anything? Would Joseph Stalin ever admit that he was wrong. No, if idiots had the audacity to complain in Stalin's Russia, it was off to the Gulag or worse for them. Satlin was never wrong, at least in his own mind.
On a baseball field, if anyone complains about anything, it is because they are low life cretins and dog manure. It is simply not possible that you suck. Your analysis of your problem is simply that of wimp who blames himself rather than others for his problems. For Stalin, others had the problems. He was perfect. Like Joseph Stalin, you need to execute (eject) people on a regular basis in order to keep the rest of the citizenry in line.
I imagine that Joseph Stalin woke up every day and plotted who he could torture and kill just for the pleasure of it all. This warped personality is what made him so effective and fearsome a leader. (It is also what lead to 25 million Soviet casualaties against Hitler but at the end of the day, Stalin was alive and Hitler was dead. That's all he cared about. 25 million people are expendible.) You need to walk on a baseball field with the same personality. It will make you a fearsome umpire. Everyone will leave you alone and you can concentrate on becoming a better umpire. You will be surprised at how good you can become when you do not have to tolerate a side show of misbehaving cretins.
Who says umpires are not warped? I wrote a long series of artilces on this very subject for the paid part of the site.
Peter