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Originally Posted by NDblue
Didn't matter which catcher and even if the catcher were setting up for one down the pipe or to the outside, the PU was set up waaaaaaaaaaaaay inside on every left-handed batter.
Apparently we're not allowed to voice our opinions about Olympic bound umpires on this site without getting slammed.
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I have kept quiet on this one, mainly because I didn't see enough of the game to really know what you guys were talking about. However,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, what I did see of the PU looked ok to me. Sure it wasn't enough of a view to see if their positioning really agreed with the best expert I know, ME
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Those who want to whine about ASA and their mechanics are not always wrong, Lord knows I have done enough of it over the years.
The difference with whining and working with it is that only the whiner feels better about it.
If you have an idea that things can improve, work with your UIC to get it to you Regional UIC and then the NUS.
I can say that I don't like some ASA mechanic techniques because I use them.
I can say that I don't like some ISF mechanics because I am an ISF umpire (number 119 on the US roster of ISF umpires), but I use them.
Some aspects of our umpire mechanics are indeed way to robotic for my personal taste but I have used them, WHY?
Well, I use them because I want to work Nationals, (37 in Modified, Slow and Fast) I use them because I wanted to become an ISF umpire, (accomplished in 2004).
If you have no goal, then work outside the system and you will get where you are.
If you are using the mechanics as an excuse for why you don't get a National assignment, well then that shows the real reason you whine.
As I have said, I have whined and I have bit**ed about some things, then I took the time to work with the NUS and others who had the ability to change things. I was heard on some things and changed my mind on some others and was disregarded on even other issues.
The point is I kept working at it.
Talk to Irish in privite and he will tell you he has heard from me in email and in person, gripes I have had.
The point is, the mechanics have been worked out with deliberate reason to fit a deliberate need for the general population of umpires. Some variation has always been allowed when legitimate need has been noted.
I personally could not spread as wide as the NUS wanted me to. I use a modified scissors stance to get low enough into the zones that as a 6'5" umpire is not always easy to do. When Merle worked with me, he asked why I did what I did, I told him and was able to show by game performance that my modification worked for me. I never heard him complain not one bit after that time. I had the same type of conversation with every UIC I had at Nationals, again with no beef at all.
Most of the old NUS and plenty of the present NUS have had the same converstion, with the same results.
Work with them and it will work out.
More than once, Henry used me as an example of a necessay modification of mechanics at national schools with no penalty to me or others.
I think your whining (and it is just that) is just a poor attempt to cover up your feelings of jealousy of inadequacy on your part.
So, put up or shut up I say.
Prove with diligent work that your ideas are correct with teamwork or be a stay at home umpire that won't go anywhere.
(BTW, that last paragraph is an exact quote that was given to me by Bernie when I was bit**ing at a national one time years ago.)