[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by Rog

The dictionary defines it as: judge, referee, arbiter, arbitrator, mediator, moderator.
Is it a vocation, i.e. trade, profession, calling, employment, field, job, occupation, work, art, business, career, discipline, gig, labor, line, livelihood, pursuit, role, schtick, specialty, task.
If you called a licensed electrician to your home to rewire your home, they would expect to do the job according to current standards and/or codes. As would the licensing bureau and insurance industry.
Would you really want this person to modfy the standards/codes just because you are paying the bill?
In that same vain, baseball has a set of rules with current interpretations which umpire's try to learn and understand and apply to todays games.
But, with the onslaught of modified rules, are umpire's who follow these modifications contributing to the lack of understanding and the proper application of the current legitimate rules by players, coaches and fans alike?

Rog IMO you are comparing apples to oranges. Using the electrician example, the reason there are codes is so that your house doesn't blow up and kill one's family, that's a heck of a lot different than changing baseball rules.

In addition, I believe most posters said they would not jeopardize safety issues, but the rest of the rules who cares. For example; suppose there was a league that said: a player doesn't have to wear a batting helmet. That's a different story because no game FEE is worth my house or to see someone get seriously injured, but

if a league wants to have a ground rule that says a player only gets a one base award from a throw anywhere that goes into DBT, who really cares. How's that hurting anyone or jeopardizing the game of baseball. It's the same rule for everybody.

I really don't know what your hang-up is on local rules. No rule book is Utopia. The OBR rule-book has some 75-100 inconsistencies already. FED / NCAA are not perfect either but what is.

As long as a league is for the most part well behaved, pays a good game FEE why do you care what rules they use (excluding safety)?

No 2 leagues are alike anyway. They all have their nuances.

I agree with Peter and TEE on this issue. They are the customers so give them what they want. If a particular rule is iffy , we interpret the best way we can and let that particular league worry about it.

If they get enough comlaints etc. they will change it. Rules are constantly changing anyway. Some say FED rules are strange (I am not one of those), so are you going to refuse a HS assignment because you do not like FED?



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