[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by Bob Proctor

I've been officiating football for 25 years and if that were done in a football game we'd be shot ... twice!

Bob you are missing the point.

In certain circumstances and umpire will make the FYC call. It's done on rare occassions and only on balls / strikes not on the bases.

Football and Basketball are different in that there is no need for the FYC call. If a player in either of those sports commits an unsportsmanlike act, the TEAM suffers. In your sport a 15 yard penalty and if it's the defense who committed the act an automatic first down for the offense. The offesne could have had 3rd and a mile, but because of a "bonehhead play" by the defense they now have a new set of downs.

In basketball, there is a Technical Foul issued and if a Foul is considered Flagrant or Intentional, the offense in addition to shooting free throws, gets the ball back again.

In baseball we have no such rule to enforce. We cannot give the defense an automatic out or give the offense 4 outs instead of 3. All we can do is eject the player or SEND A MESSAGE

Your sport as well as baskeball also "send messages" meaning this.

If the players are going to be "chippy" then EVERYTHING gets called. I remember when the Knicks (were a good team) played the Miami Heat (before Shak) the games were called TIGHT because those 2 teams had a HISTORY of fighting and the officials didn't want the game to get out of hand.

Sending Messages is prevealent in every sport but to different degrees.

In baseball IMO it serves a useful purpose. Let me give you an example;

I was umpiring a mens league game. These guys pay pretty good bucks to join and play once maybe twice a week. In this one at bat, B1 was fooled by a Curve ball and wanted to blame me for calling it a strike. He said "I would need a tree trunk to hit it" and starting drawing lines around the plate.

Now I have 2 choices. Eject Immediately or try to keep him in the game. I chose to try and keep him in the game. Since B1 wasn't ejected for his Unsportsmanlike behavior F2 KNEW what I was going to do next. He called for a pitch 8 inches off the outside edge. I rung B1 up on a called strike 3. Even his own teammates knew what I was doing.

The next time he came up to bat he said "Hey Blue can we start over". I said sure and no problem from that point on.

Therefore, depending upon the situation, Umpires do SEND MESSAGES. ASlso, IMO, it's not making a mockery of the game but trying to keep a player in the game who otherwise would be ejected. Also, the MESSGAE is not SENT all game long. It's a ONE Time MESSAGE for ALL participants.

Do not try to compare officiating Football to baseball. It's like Oil and water

Pete Booth

[Edited by PeteBooth on Mar 6th, 2006 at 10:06 AM]