[Mountaineer]

Originally Posted by tcannizzo

From the 2006 ASA 14A Nationals:

The following are true stories.
The names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

Just the facts:

1. I am U3. PU asks U1 " . . . SWING?" (I couldn't hear the first part.) U1 answers "YES!". Call changed from Ball to Strike. Sounds fine so far, right? The pitch they were discussing was 2 pitches earlier. I couldn't believe that the offensive coach did not ask to go the next step for help. I had to get three stitches to stop the bleeding on the inside of my lip from biting it so hard.


2. Sat 9PM game. Loser gets 5th place. Winner guaranteed 4th and still in it.
Game tied 1-1 after 7.
8th - neither team executes
9th - neither team executes
Top 10th - Vis gets 3
Bot 10th - Home gets 3
Top 11 - Vis does not execute
Bot 11 - Home has bases loaded with no out. 3-2 count on B4. Next pitch is Ball 4. BR goes into dugout to put bat away and then comes back out to the celebration at the plate. Defense is appealing BR did not touch 1B (which she never did). All 3 Umps run off field and get into the golf cart to get back to the house. Defense is pleading with the umps not to leave. 90 seconds later, they get the UIC who said he understood their position, but since the umps were already gone, there was nothing he could do about it. One of the umps was in the 2006 WCWS.


3. Three of the umps at the main complex were over 70. The oldest was 74. The weather was hot. High 90's in the shade. 4-5 games per day. They were dropping like flies. One ump had diverticulosus and had just been released from the hospital 2 weeks earlier. He was taken from the field and spent 3 days in the ICU. The 74 y/o had to be taken off the field on Tue, Wed and Thu. Finally on Thu they told him he was done for the tourney. Glad nobody died, but DAMN, these guys had no business being there.


4. In the house, during one conversation, at least 25% of the umpires said they would not honor a request for help on a check swing. Un-freakin-believable. Then they also said that if they were the base ump who was asked for help, that they would just automatically say "NO!". Just because they didn'y want to make their partner look bad.

I called 25 games. Worked with many different partners. I have a lot of opinions I which will not bore you with except this one:

5. I don't even want to go into the Sunday assignments. Although I did call games late on Sat. I would probably be banned from this board if I posted my notes. However, I will go on record that diversity supercedes competency. Before you flame me, I am not saying that I felt that I should have been calling on Sunday, but there were many umpires who were better than the ones who got selected, and they were also much better than I.


What is my point in posting this? It is to underscore that there is a critical nationwide shortage of quality umpires. Too many men and women have bitten off more than than they can chew. What I mean by that is calling too may sports and too many different sets of rules.

I hold myself to high standards. I only call girls fastpitch. I only call ASA (exc ept for school ball). What I am about to say may offend some of you, but how can you be competent at the highest levels in ASA, NSA, ISA, Pony, etc. plus do slow pitch, baseball, football, basketball? Nobody can beTHAT good in THAT many things. Especially when ASA pays a whopping $20 per game for a National Championship.

Sorry for the rant. It has been a long week.

Guess West Virginia isn't so bad after all . . .