Tuss,
Earlier this season, I received an e-mail one morning looking for an "emergency" assignment later that afternoon between 2 schools that have very good (and "serious") baseball programs, happen to be located about a mile apart from one another, and have a fairly intense, but good-natured, rivalry. The assignment was for the completion of a previous suspended game, followed by a regularly scheduled game.
I was able to juggle my work schedule to do the game. I was checking the hosting schools website and saw that it said the festivities were scheduled to start at 4:00PM instead of the 4:30PM start the assignment e-mail had specified.
I unsuccessfully tried to contact my assignor to find out who my partner was and if he knew about the 4:00PM start. After the game, I sent the following e-mail to my assignor (slightly edited to protect the innocent & guilty).
Quote:
(Assignor),
Interesting experience today. I arrived at (Hosting School) shortly before 3:30 and let (HT HC) and (VT HC) know I was there and asked if we were starting at 4:00 or 4:30. They both said they'd like to start at 4:00, even if I was solo at that point. So, I said OK, that I didn't know if my partner knew about the 4:00 start, and went and got my gear on.
Started the suspended game at 4:00 solo, and my partner showed up after about an inning and jumped on the bases. It took about three pitches to realize I was partnered with Bozo. My first clue was his "dazzle" shirt with the nice long-sleeve grey underneath. My next clue was after each pitch I called when he would look at his indicator and announce and hold up fingers for the count and show it around the infield. Then there was a base hit to right center, and, from "A" he starts drifting in the direction of 2B along the edge of the outfield grass.
In the 2nd game, he butchered a catch/no catch on a deep fly to center and changed his call - TWICE!!! Once in response to (HT HC's) request and then back to the original call at (VT HC's) request. Oddly, this was the only really "emotionally charged" incident in the game, and I'm pretty sure I did nothing to throw him under the bus.
He also made a quick trip to the men's room in the middle of the 3rd or 4th inning of the 2nd that probably didn't delay things for more than a minute or two (as light was beginning to fade).
Anyway, we managed to get both games completed, nobody got tossed, and they split, so nobody seemed terribly upset at the end of the day.
I'm sure this was a very good learning experience for me, and I was quite glad to see that (BU) was not wearing a (my association) logo anywhere (I believe he was provided by (hosting School)'s assignor). When I see Bozos like this, it makes me glad I joined (my association) when I decided to start umpiring.
In closing, should the opportunity to work with (BU) again in the future present itself, PLEASE get someone else to do it. I think (Big Dog who does not suffer fools gladly) would really get a kick out of working with him. ;-)
I think you owe me a beer for pairing me up with this clown. Nonetheless, it was fun.
Later.
John
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I later received an appreciative e-mail from my assignor.
So, I would say your assignor should know and, if he's any good, would appreciate the "heads up".
JMO.
JM