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good post Lawrence.
I get from it this: in a game management sense, its best to be invisible as much as possible, until it seems something may happen. Then interject and do your buisness in a proactive way. That way you don't have to react to something, which makes you totally noticable. Of course, the best umpire in the world will still have a $hit house on occasion. Sometimes its just totally unavoidable and out of nowhere.
Now for the obvious (and clarification). As for being invisible while actually calling the game, I don't buy that one bit. Do the job the rulebook says. There will be things that happen that you have to rule on one way or another (anywhere from safe/out to some of the 3rd world stuff we read about on this form). Do your job, which requires you to definatly not be invisible. You are a part of the game just like the players. We all are invisible at some point during the year (no close calls on the bases, easy game with good coaches, etc.). But don't confuse invisibility with a good job, or a totally noticable umpire with a bad job. The two are independent from each other. Any combination of these things could happen at any game.
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