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Originally Posted by topper
This brings us back to the original post and my first reply to it. Why are assignors suprised when their officials show up and do what they do?
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Well, I'm no assignor, so I can't speak on their behalf, nor can I say anything about Darrell's decision to send that particular umpire. So what I say from here on out is not, in any way, directed towards Darrell.
I suspect there may be a lot of assignors who don't fulfill their end of the bargain and evaluate their umpires before they send them off to a tourney. I don't know if it's "mandatory" or simply "encouraged," but I suspect there are some who treat it as the latter. I have seen some umpires sent to tournaments who, in all honesty, should have never arrived at the tourney in the fashion they did - poor mechanics, insufficient understanding of the rules, sloppy uniforms, etc.
There are a lot of fine, up-and-coming umpires who deserve to get their fair shot at a National. However, it is the responsibility of those umpires to work towards bringing themselves up to that caliber, and it's the responsibility of the assignors to make damn sure they do so. If I'm asked to do a tourney and I'm not truly prepared, it is MY fault as well as the fault of my assignor.
I'll admit that prior to my National, I only called one game behind the plate for senior slow pitch. However, I think I worked my butt off to understand the slightly different mechanics of calling a game with two home plates, and I took every opportunity I got to gain more understanding before I ever set foot on the field. I prepared myself as much as I possibly could, and my UIC at the tourney indicated he was quite happy with me.
Same thing applies towards 3-man mechanics. A little more complicated, but doable. Sounds like the umpire mentioned in the OP simply didn't do his homework.