[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally posted by greymule
I like FP better and hope soon to be doing it and modified exclusively. FP pays far more, too.

Hmmmm....starting to see more of a green than blue.

I have done SP for a long time and find that even the veteran ballplayers--even guys I played with and against decades ago--know very little about the rules. To them, SP means crush the ball and watch it disappear. The intricacies of the rules are of no interest whatsoever. I would bet that not 1 player in 100 would know how to rule on a fair batted ball that hit a runner in contact with a base. Third out on appeal for failure to tag up at 1B? Force play and nullify all runs. Everybody knows that. Most of them think it's "2 from the outfield, 1 from the infield" or "1 plus 1." That kind of stuff.

Yada, yada, yada, snipped for brevity.

Yeah, the SP players are not too with it. Could it be that part of the reason is because there are so many different organizations and a multitude of different "local" rules interjected by league administrators?

Same with the umpires. You have umpires that are just the same as players. Some bring all their colored shirts to the field, not knowing which organization they are working that night. And you have the every popular switching back and forth between baseball and softball. But that's only part of it. The other side is that there are too many veterans that just don't believe it is worth their time to attend the clinics. Those umpires are just as stupid as the players in not being able to recognize the difference between the rules on the softball field and what they see on TV.

Then there are the ever popular, "hell, I'm a fastpitch umpire, any idiot can do slowpitch" umpire who takes the games for extra money, but doesn't have a clue what's going on. The next thing you know, s/he's calling an IP for the pitcher stepping "outside the H" or calling a runner out for not immediately advancing after rounding 1B (LBR).

And then there are the "greens".

I can't speak for the rest of the country, but I have seen a lot of games here in central NJ (which at least at one time was a real hotbed of SP activity), and I can testify that many veteran SP umps don't know the rules, either. I've seen many a preposterous ruling that engendered not a peep from either team.

The behemoths to which you referred are pretenders. They're not hitting the ball, the bat is. And do you know where these guys will play their post season tournament? At the lowest level they can get away with, not at the top levels of which they brag to their girlfriend at the local pub.

FP is a different story in my experience, because many coaches at least study the rules, even if they don't interpret them correctly, and teach their players to take advantage by pushing the limits. So, at least around here, while a guy who played SP and knows something about the game can probably get away with umpiring, it would not be possible to bluff your way in a FP game. And high-level girls' travel teams or college, forget it. You better know what you're doing.

My experience would be that your perception is incorrect. It is the umpire which is lazy or trying to skate, not the game that umpire is working.

There was a FP clinic last night in this area. There were a handful of umpires that didn't show up. Some are not bad umpires and a couple pretty good, but they just don't believe they can or want to learn more. And there are a couple of duds that know they will get games that just don't want to be bothered.

It's not the game that determines the umpire's zeal, but the umpire themself.

JMHO