Thanks, Carl. The good news is that I was more or less on the right track. I totally agree with you on the "standers." In my limited experience, they've caused a lot more trouble than they were worth.
The problem I get into is that, in our league, umpiring has been mostly an afterthought. We do have a couple FED guys who work some of the over-12 games. But in the lower levels that I've been working, we've been taking whatever we can get. And there's never been an attempt to actually schedule individuals to cover certain games. We just have this understanding that the home team is supposed to supply the PU and the visitor the BU. You can imagine what happens.
More often than not, I'm the only umpire who shows up for my games in uniform, with gear, and with some idea about what to do. Most of the time, the other team is happy to let me do my thing however I want to do it.
But occasionally the other team will insist on putting somebody out there, usually a coach or a rabid dad who wants to make sure his team gets all the calls, but sometimes just a poor schmuck who thought he was there to watch his kid's game. I'm not sure who's worse. But the absolute worst is when the other team is the home team and they insist on putting their guy behind the plate.
The good news is that I may be able to do something about this sorry state of affairs. Rumor has it that one of the VPs is going to nominate me for UIC for next year. Then maybe I'll have I forum through which I can pass on all the great stuff I'm learning from all of you.
Thanks again for teaching me pretty much everything I know about this arcane subject.
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