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IMHO,
"I would have thought that rules knowledge would have been just a little important in choosing the officials."
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It is my opinion that an assignor for Federation Playoffs should:
If it is a three man crew (which all of our playoff crews are) I would assign my very best two umpires to the crew. I would then assign my highest ranked umpire that I consider a "great Federation rules guy" to the third crew position.
I would instruct the crew that under no circumstance are they to produce a rule book during any conversation.
I would also tell them to meet as necessary to determine rules issues and LISTEN to the rules guy.
In Oregon we do not allow protests. Getting a rule correct is critical to a games process. There always need to be a "rules guy" on every playoff crew.
If it were a game with a two man crew I would even go as far as to assign a "rules guy" as the second umpire EVEN if there were several umpires with more umpiring ability available.
In my area we see this example illustrated by the fact that many of the umpires in our Federation Association are also college umpires -- their rules knowledge is fine but they falter at the subtle changes that occur in Fedlandia.
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