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Old Sat Jul 09, 2005, 05:02pm
Carl Childress Carl Childress is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by LDUB
Quote:
Originally posted by Carl Childress
But if your ideas are better, put them into an article - as he does twice a week - and send them for consideration.
Twice a week? They don't call he "Article a day" Wiederlanders for nothing.

Quote:
Originally posted by Carl Childress
But Officiating.com does not censor work by its writers. We believe our readers are intelligent enough to choose what they will use in their own games.

If they aren't, there is always some wannabe here at The Forum who will set them straight, you bet.
Why is more articles better? Already one person in this thread said he was thinking of suscribing, but after reading about what some articles are about, he has decided not to. There is a difference between quanity and quality.

So someone on the forum will set everyone straight if an article gives very bad advise?

Well it has already happened, everyone is on Wiederalanders. So 6 months from now, a 1st year umpire joins the forum and suscribles to Officiating.com. Now Officiating.com is better than Referee because when you sign up, you can read all of the past articles for no extra fee. So this rookie reads Rollie's article, and he dosen't know that the advise is terrible. He thinks if Carl allowed it to be published online, then it must be true. Now remember, this is 6 months in the future, the forum discussions about the article are long over. There is no one to tell the kid that Rollie is an idiot. So he goes out on the field and does this in a game. He then sends you an email asking why his partner refused to talk to him after the game. What are you gonna say? Well I knew Rollie was wrong, but I figured everyone would know that. The kid responds, "I don't really know what I am supposed to be doing. I joined officiating.com to help me become a better official, but instead it has made me worse."

Now, you're certainly entitled to your opinion, and we're happy to have your input. (grin) But let's get serious, now. You and I (as well as Blaine) know that Roland's suggestion is clearly not something an untrained, rookie umpire would adopt. The entire text of the article is slanted toward advanced training, advanced use of every tool that might be available.

As a trainer for about 40 years, I've called with hundreds of "true" rookies, guys who were walking out on the diamond for the first time as an umpire. In all those years, I never had a beginner try such a ploy.

On the other hand, Smitty would do it on a regular basis. It's one of the reasons I coined that term for the terrible (but experienced) umpire.

Roland made it plain that he was offering a technique one could use if we reached the point where more and more organizations insisted on GIRAAC.

And don't for a moment believe that nonsense about "I was gonna subscribe but because of this article I won't." That's a big crock of something Roland uses lots of on his farm. "Already one person said...." The Forum has around a hundred regular members, some of whom are double-dippers (same person, two handles). We're not going to run a magazine with thousands of subscribers all over the world just to please one percent of the people who post on an umpire message board.

Tee knows about internet umpires. He are one. So am I. But we who post are just a tiny drop in the bucket.

BTW: Officiating.com would be interested in any articles explaining to us what we should do to improve our product. We'd be happy to publish those pieces at our current rates. Wjy not give that a try?
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