[greymule]

Then why does the Softball create such and environment and other sports in the NCAA do not seem to care what the officials do?

Good question. I can only surmise that the NCAA looks to Fed and ASA as examples. Even then, I can go only by my experience in NJ; I don't know how Fed and ASA operate in other states.

I must say that I don't understand the appeal of having every umpire make calls exactly the same way, choreographing the umpire's movements and timing down to the last detail. It reminds me of certain large corporate training organizations that want all their instructors to teach every session exactly the same—on Tuesday at 10:42 a.m. you are pointing with your right hand to square number 11 on the flip chart and mentioning this or that team-building theory. It's almost cult-like.

I don't want to get into names and specific organizations, but I've been somewhat put off when various bigwigs have tried to recruit me to be one of "them." It's all about "our way" and "selling the [you name the association] method" and "getting the big games." It reminds me oddly of the sort of come-on I used to hear from multi-level sales schemes.