View Single Post
  #6 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jan 17, 2006, 11:42am
mcrowder mcrowder is offline
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Little Elm, TX (NW Dallas)
Posts: 4,047
I'm in a situation much like this. I am UIC, and have only found 6-8 people willing to work as umpire. Many of them either coach, assistant coach, or at least parent kids in this league. One is even the commissioner for one of the age groups. There are a limited number of adults willing to be involved in leagues like this sometimes - potential conflict is always around the corner.

The best solution - any parent/coach/etc with a vested interest in a particular team should avoid working any games in that age group. As the season progresses, this can be relaxed in certain situations, and tightened in others. Joe Parent is not allowed to work any 12U games early in the season because his daughter plays on a 12U team. Halfway through the season, Joe's daughter's team is out of the running. Assuming Joe is a qualified umpire that you can rely on to be unbiased (and has had no problems with coaches or players on competing teams), you might relax his restriction on this age group. Or let's say his daughter's team is winning it all - he might be able to still work the occasional 12U game between cellar dwellars.
__________________
"Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile." - Hall of Fame Pitcher Christy Mathewson
Reply With Quote