[Ranger]

This is interesting. I do not know any of the characters on this board. I will try very hard not to offend anyone by my comments. I will not offend intentionally.

Now along comes Childress, another new guy on this, and he wants to eject the batter but is encouraging Booth to send messages.

Please do not accuse me of being too moralistic for a sports official, but I feel it is very important to offer a different point of view.

My perspective is a relavant factor here, so let me say that in addition to being an umpire I am also a coach. I have mostly coached at the high school level. Most of my umpiring has been at a very high level and I am currently a supervisor and evaluator at the NCAA Division I level.

Enforce the rules. Do not be tempted to compromise your integrity over such a trivial matter as drawing a line. If you feel that someone did something wrong, then handle it immediatly. Don't wait a few innings, but do it immediatly. If you feel that you need to wait for a more appropriate time to deliver any message, you have wasted precious time to make the point. Don't confuse the players and coaches from both teams by seeming to ignore some bit of bad behavior, only to lay in ambush and spring it later.

That type of message can be misunderstood. I also agree that often the message is understood quite well. If it is misunderstood nothing is gained. If it is understood, then the umpire has to accept the consequences of the ill feelings that can result. So send a message and you might be considered brilliant. Send a message and you just might be considered incompetent or petty. In the example, in major league baseball, the umpires were not even able to comment on their actions. One might ask where else might an umpire have done something so good and not be able to admit it? Where I come from, if you have done something you are ashamed of, you will have no comment when asked. You might even be forced to lie about it. This is something to be proud of?

In addition to coaching and umpiring, I have considerable training as a military officer. While this may not seem to fit the weaker behavior standards that seem so common in baseball, sending messages in this way violates most of the leadership principles taught to the men in our institutions.

Being totally realistic, I know that rules are broken. I know that the game of baseball is still a game. I know that umpires are no different than any others in our society that feel that they can be totally justified in breaking those rules and telling white lies. I have been in this game for over 20 years and I have observed many umpires arrogant enough to bend the rules just a bit. Many times it actually worked. Many times the umpire never recovered his reputation.

For Childress. I don't know your background and expertise to talk to strangers on this issue. I would feel much more comfortable with your advice if you were case specific and umpire specific. It seems to me that you may be empowering a very inexperienced umpire with a tool that he is not able to use and hasn't been trained to use. I beg of you to understand that the people reading your post may be innocent in the ways you are encouraging them to behave. They are not major league umpires working the World Series. For many young umpires that are all to willing to follow the hero in MLB, the professionals have proven over and over again not to be proper role models.

What I would have said is different. I would consider his experience level. I would caution him about the many alternatives we might have at our disposal to cope with a situation. He should weigh the consequences/results of his actions. He should then choose the best alternative. If the decision is then made to send a message, okay. After this type of analysis messages can be justified.

Now if all of this seems like too much of a mental strain on the umpire, consider this: Don't do it. There are some missions in life and on the field we were not supposed to accept. Sometimes the price is too high.

When Childress says to either follow the letter of the law or umpire the game, believe it. Make that choice intelligently and with the appropriate level of experience. Pitchers do it everyday. They send dangerous messages that are not authorized by the rules. This also happens in MLB. The world is full of people that do not respect others. Make no mistake about it. This is an issue of respect. Your respect for those players and their respect for you. Baseball is about fair play. Set an example to be proud of.