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Originally Posted by Shmuelg
No, this has nothing to do with the famous ficitional British wizard, but everything to do with umpiring.
We are taught that a good blue is an invisible blue.
How far do you go to do that? I'm curious.
I'm asking this specifically, because there is an umpire here (Israel) whose calls I really like (his name is Yaniv). His "ball" and "strike" and "foul" and "time" all sound somewhat similar - he kind of grunts it and melts the word together, and you understand him because the word is a bit intelligible, and he uses hand signals. The advantage, I think, is that his personality is not imprinted on the game. Almost immediately, we ignore him, and pay attention to the ball, the runners, the players, in short, the game itself.
I, on the other hand, have been making very very clear calls. That is, "foul ball" sounds like "foul ball", "strike" like "strike", "ball" I rarely call at all (only ball four), but the point is that you can hear my voice, and right away you recognize that it is *me* making the call.
What do you guys think?
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ShmuelG
Israel
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Our District UiC has an interesting illistration of the visibility question.
With a bang-bang play (say a tag at third base from an outfield throw), which umpire is less the focus of attention?
- Bashful, who slowly makes a routine, unvocalized out call.
- Assertive, who reacts to the play with a strong call of "Out!" and a hard bang with the fist
Bashful's problem is that the players, coaches and fans have to wait for the call, maybe struggle to hear/see it, and then question it. When Assertive makes his call, the fans barely have time to ask, "Was he safe?" before hearing the definitive call and moving on.
Sometimes the attention
is on the umpire. Make the call authoritatively, let them know what happened, and they'll move on. If you seem to make the call tentatively, unclearly, or so quietly that people don't even know what happened, you
will become the center of attention.
I think this goes even more strongly for the points others have made about game management. If you insert yourself decisively when problems are small, your intervention may be small. If you try to hide until the problems are big, then your visibility will be large.
For your exact question, I strongly believe that unclear or misunderstood signals will attract attention to the umpire. Be decisive and distinct and deliver the calls you are there to make, after all, and folks will concentrate on the game.