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Originally Posted by jimpiano
While you response is rather crude and demeaning to the majority of umpires in slow pitch softball, it does make a point.
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You think that was crude? Hold on, cuz I'm about to say what others won't say because they have more class than I do. But I've cheated death four times in the last six months or so, so what do I really have to lose?
Jimpiano, you really do not have a friggin clue.
The ASA rule book is NOT written to help umpires get to the highest level. There are other programs within ASA (and some other organizations) to accomplish THAT task. The ASA rule book is written to have uniformity amongst players, leagues, coaches, commissioners, administrators and umpires.
The umpire manual (that would be the unused protion of your rulebook right behind the pretty photos of the National Umpire Staff - and we're sorry about that last picture in there, but it was the best we could get without breaking the f'in camera) was not primarily written to get you to nationals.
It was written to get you through that rec slow pitch game, that 12U B "fast" pitch game. It was written for 40,000-plus umpires, many of whom aspire to become the best umpire they can be. Some want to do 5 nights of slow pitch every night, and that is ok because WE need those fellow umpires.
The book stresses uniformity - not just in how we dress, but in the rules we enforce and the signals we use. that way if I get lucky enough to work with someone down in Dallas or College Station or Phoenix or Sioux Falls next summer, we will dress alike, work alike, signal alike and talk alike.
There IS an appropriate place for your double fist pump ... although I doubt it would take two fists to pump. But out on the softball field there is no place for an unauthorized signal, whether ASA, NSA, Players Choice, USSSA, ISC, Pony, Dixie, AFA, NAFA or any other form of alphabet soup.