[canadaump6]

My statement that I would have ejected a partner that tried to overrule me was made more out of emotion than out of thought. I would not try and pull that off during a game, and I apologize for causing this much dissent. Ejecting a "partner" is obviously never an option, even though we all probably sometimes wish it was.

I should describe the situation in greater detail. This was a volunteer "umpire" who had to have his own way and wouldn't stop arguing until he got it. As a coach that year, he had argued with a naive base umpire about an obvious out call against his team for over 5 minutes. Once he was finally ejected, he refused to leave the park.

In the situation I was involved in, he came up to me (I was plate) and told me there was no running lane, despite the fact that neither team said a word of complaint about the call. He didn't even make reference to the running lane- it was more something along the lines of "we don't call that kind of thing in this league". Clearly he was looking to overpower a younger umpire (I was 17 at the time) and I gave in, knowing he would make a show if I didn't change the call.

Looking back, I now wish that I had walked off the field and left him with his superior rules knowledge to call the game on his own. I should have also encouraged the UIC to ensure that this "umpire" didn't get within 200 metres of a ball diamond ever again.