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Old Sat Aug 20, 2011, 11:55am
IRISHMAFIA IRISHMAFIA is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BuggBob View Post
Do any of you guys have a social media policy? One of our umpires was chatting on facebook with a player from team A, and a player from team B was listening (watching) in. The conversation was mostly friendly, but did dwell on the coming tournament which the umpire would be working. He wished the player A good luck and told them that he expected to see them in the championship game as all the other teams weren't as good. You can imagine the listening in player B was not happy. (S)he sent me, via her league, a copy of the whole conversation. I think the umpire was out of line, but then still think "Op Sec" and try to not pass too much info on an open channel. So the question is how do you balance 1st Amendment rights against the good of the association? This conversation has cast a bias on all of us (umpires in my association).

Bugg
IMO, this is an over reaction. It is common conversation especially in smaller communities where everyone knows everyone else. And recognition of a team and their skills is biased in what manner? Are you telling me that umpires don't know who the better teams are? In most cases, the know better than anyone else as they are an unbiased witness to the plays and games.

To go a step further, I'm not saying that if an official made a comment showing actual bias that it would not be addressed, but according to what you posted, the umpire did nothing more than wish a player luck with an observation of the overall tournament roster.

But to answer your question, no.
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