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Originally Posted by fiasco
Welcome to the real world, sir.
That's life. Sometimes umpires fall through the cracks and don't get top notch training. The good news is that, in the majority of these cases (as in mine), these umpires are doing low level recreation co-ed games. Not that I will call them meaningless, but not properly understanding the IP mechanic in this case is really not the end of the world as you so dramatically make it out to be.
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End of the world? All I did was state a fact of life, the mechanics to calling an IP is, okay in most cases should be Umpiring 101.
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Were I to move up, say, to upper level men's league softball or even fast pitch girls softball, of course I would get the proper training through my association.
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That's like telling a soldier, "Here's your gun to carry around. If you ever get into a situation where you need it, will give you the ammo and train you how to fire the thing". Why not get the proper training no matter what level of ball you are working? Wouldn't it be nice to be a step ahead of the game?
The money the recreational folks pay you spends just as well as that of a national or international level, why wouldn't your game be the same? There are numerous umpires on this board that give the same effort at the local park as they would in ASA's Hall of Fame Stadium whether it is a 10U tournament or the 18U Gold National.
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But the reality is, when you're new like me, you start out doing low-level games where the players are there just to have a good time, and so am I for the most part. I care about the job I do, and my assignor is not always readily available to answer my questions when I think of them. So I come to places like this, only to encounter pretentious blowhards like yourself hellbent on protecting the integrity of the game via an internet message board.
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This or any other board is not where one protects the intergrity of anything. If you think supporting and promoting and taking local associations and lazy people to the task of providing or attaining proper training the umpires for which they accept money is being a blowhard, then I guess that's what I am.
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So, I'm not bothered by the flippancy I get when I ask a simple question and get a "oh that's softball 101" answer. Some people have the heart of a teacher, some do not. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not trying to skate by. I read some of the ASA manual every day. Some days I get it. Some days I feel like I'm getting dumber with every page I read. I write down scenarios from games I work and talk them over with my assignor. I ask some questions here. Some of them are stupid questions, but I've never been afraid to ask stupid questions and encounter people who love to tell you how stupid your question is. That's just life.
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You already had your answer. How many more people did you want to tell you the same thing. I simply noted that this is Umpiring 101.
To be honest, the fact that it is Umpiring101, not being instructed of that would irritate the **** out of me. The only integrity of which you should be worried is that of your association. I would be standing in front of the association board and demanding access to the proper training.
Oh, well, good luck