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Originally Posted by azbigdawg
by the lack of preparation of some umpires for their national tournament. Why the HELL would you not brush up on your mechanics.....especially if you KNEW you would be working a 3-man system the entire tournament....the field is NOT the right place to finally ask for help.
It also AMAZES me that there is such a lack of basic knowledge of positioning for calls, etc....
I may be overgeneralizing....but I finally had to vent after last weekend.... JFC.....
and to top it off, one of my umpires was sent home from his national.... WHY do I do this?  |
I think can answer your question, or at least, parts of it. There are a few factors, some may apply to your area, some not.
First, there are fewer umpires in the ranks and a higher percentage of what we do have are more about the green than the blue. Many of those discount higher levels of training as it isn't necessary for their daily leagues and local tournaments.
State/Metro schools are not what they used to be if they still exist in some areas. Again, some just believe it isn't necessary. Due to this, many relatively new umpires are directed toward National Schools. As anyone who has experienced a good state/metro school and then a NS recently can tell you, it has been dummied down quite a bit to accommodate the inexperienced umpire. After all, it isn't the umpire's fault. In order to make sure the umpires who go to a National School don't lose interest and miss out on important info (like the 3-man), I warn them before they go that some of it is going to seem boring and repetitive, but they need to look beyond that. However, the NS is important and an umpire should not be sent to a National without having attended one. From what I have been told, this problem seemed to have crept into the SP advance camp this year. I understand they want to fill the schools, but for the money being charged, those who are there for serious training shouldn't have to wait on others to catch up.
In some areas, an umpire is nominated/assigned to a National by a District Commissioner (or someone of equivilant authority) and not the UIC. I had a first hand experience with this. I had some real good umpires and I had some that shouldn't have been near a National. Turned out, the state UIC was not even consulted on some of the umpires.
Then there is the umpire that just believes s/he is "owed". That notion is somewhat "old school", but still exists in some areas. I have an umpire who approached me at the beginning of the 2007 season. He works local ASA league games, but basically umpires for whoever. During my tenure, this umpire has never made himself available for State Championship Play. He came to me at the first meeting of his local association, told me he has worked LLWS and PONY and now he figures he can work an ASA National for me. The guy is a decent umpire, so I wouldn't hesitate to give him consideration IF he supported the program. I told him that could happen. He just needs to attend an ASA National School and work some state tournaments and we will see what happens. He acted like I asked for his first born. There may be some who disagree with me, but why would I go out of my way, ignore the standard of requirements applied to everyone else to placate an umpire who hasn't worked one inning of ASA Championship Play? I have not heard a single word, spoken, written or typed, from this individual since that day.
Another reason is over the past decade, the number of available Nationals has nearly doubled due to the institution of the territorial, zone (whatever you want to call them) nationals. That provided some great opportunities to areas that had a hard time finding Nationals for deserving umpires. Unfortunately, it also taxed certain areas with a need for umpires and, in turn, some umpires that are not qualified get the nod.