[greymule]

Last year, our association began requiring that everyone take the test annually. Some local ump was sued over an injury during a game, and the guy's lawyer scored big points in court on the matter of testing. Q: "How long have you been umpiring?" A: "Twenty-six years." Q: "When did you last take an umpire's test?" A: "Uh, 26 years ago."

Of course, he might have spent the past 26 years conscientiously studying the rules and the casebook. He might have become a respected authority on the rules, but his answer sounded bad in court and helped the player win some damages.

Speaking of putting the ASA book on line, what the world really needs is an annotated rule book, with the ambiguous wordings clarified and the grammar and punctuation cleaned up. (There are literally hundreds of flaws, large and small.)

In the foul tip section alone, "not over the batter's head" has defied definite interpetation here for months, and "directly to the hand or glove" doesn't mean what it seems to imply, that the ball is immediately caught in the hand or glove. Instead, it allows that a ball can go directly from the bat to the hand/glove and then ricochet off the hand/glove to the chest protector and then back into the hand/glove for a catch. But how many people—coaches, fans, even umpires—will catch that meaning?