[TussAgee11]

I'd never even think this on the field. But I understand why rats hate umpires. Its the attitudes that have been evident on baseball fields, and quite frankly, threads like these. But at the same time, I understand why umpires hate rats, because quite frankly, I hate most of them all the time, and all of them when I'm on the field. As a fellow member of this board told me today, quoting Mark Hirschbeck: "Squash 'em all like F***ing bugs".

What concerns me is that the next time I go umpire a game, a coach that has read this thread, or experienced similar conjecture or attitudes from umpires in the past (which certainly has happened), will lump me, the umpire, into a larger group of egotistical maniac umpires who hate all coaches as openly as we see in this thread (I do hate all coaches while on the field, but I keep that secret to myself). So now my day at the field has been made harder by other umpires, in a very similar way that it is made harder when the umpire in a team's previous game misapplied a rule and when I make the correct ruling I get a s***storm. The coach stereotypes all umpires the same way umpires stereotype all coaches.

Who cares what came first? Coaches hating umpires, or umpires hating coaches? Its a part of the game, seperate yourself from this nonsense of worrying about it, and go call the game. And be ready to "squash em like bugs" if neccessary.