[RPatrino]

JM,

Let me answer this question from 2 different perspectives, coach and assignor. I have been a coach, an assignor(UIC of an association), and now I umpire exclusively.

From a coach's perspective, I fully understand your frustration. I have been there and done that!! In the long run, I believe that bad calls and bad umpires will always happen. Our job as teacher's is to teach our players to adapt and adjust. I never once as a coach made an umpire, the weather, the ballpark or anything a scape goat for my teams play. NEVER. We play, we win or we lose.

As an assigner, I would like to get this phone call. I'll be honest with you, I might listen to your comments about calls, but I let them go in one ear and out the other. Calls will be blown and mistakes will be made. I will talk to the umpire in question, might even go observe them, but I won't pull an umpire from games. Now, what things will get an umpire pulled from games? Attitude and behavior issues will for sure. Plus, I don't ever want an umpire or teams to get too familiar with each other. That causes more problems than you can imagine.

Some leagues don't have the luxury of a large pool of umpires. So, you might see the same crew or umpire many times during the season. The answer to that problem is to recruit or strap on the gear yourself. I once coached in a league that required the manager's to "volunteer" themselves for umpiring. That was a nightmare, and the league decided to invest some money and pay into a local HS association for umpires. But, it was there that the umpire bug bit me and as they say, the rest is history.

Bob P.