[Back In The Saddle]

Back in my much younger, brasher days when I umpired baseball, I had a partner who felt the need to overrule a call I had made. No discussion, no "hey partner, what did you have on that?", just walked up and said "I'm afraid I'm going to have to overrule you on this one." I wasn't about to put up with that crap, so I walked off and left him to work the rest of the game by himself.

At the time I felt completely justified -- what kind of a man was I if I let this jerk walk all over me? But looking back now I'm kind of horrified by my behavior. I now consider my behavior to be much less professional than his. And being the jerk that he was, I would imagine that he told the story to everybody who would listen -- spun his way, of course. I'm sure that did wonders for my reputation.

The lesson I've taken from that is that it's probably better to suffer the fool in as professional a manner as I can muster. Otherwise I risk damaging my own reputation.