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Originally Posted by CoachJM
My experience is somewhat different than yours.
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Yes, it is. And when you've umpired as many games as I have, which would be quite a feat in itself, then perhaps you would have a much different perspective. You will have worked many seasons of baseball, and dealt with every kind of manager, coach, and player imaginable, and will have noted a recurring theme concerning the behavior of the majority. It's not a small few who are rats, it's a small few who are not.
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Originally Posted by UmpireJM
When I was a child, I would often play "pick-up" games with whatever kids in the neighborhood I could find. The games would often end chaotically, most commonly over an irredeemable dispute over whether a player was out or safe or some such thing.
But, in retrospect, I wouldn't say they were "meaningless wastes of time". |
But they were what they were. Pick-up games. I played in pick-up games nearly every weekend until I stopped playing ball (and started umpiring instead). That is what MLB games would become without umpires, pick-up games. Nothing wrong with pick-up games. It would probably be a hoot for awhile to watch the meltdown, but it wouldn't count for much of anything without the order and realism that having an arbiter provides.