[Gulf Coast Blue]

Our local Umpires association sponsers an annual pre season Umpires Tournament (this coming year will be the 16th annual).

The purpose of the tournament is 3-fold. We service 6 cities in our area and the tournament rotates between them. The intent is to use it as a training tool for us to train our rookie umpires (and shake off some of the rust of the veterans). The tournament fee is low and all umpires donate thier time (umpires who attend our regional school and call in this tournament are reimbursed for their school fee). After expenses, we return all profits to the host Association (they also get concession stand money). Also, the coaches that enter their teams get to see them on the field before the regular season starts.

Because of the training type nature of the tournament, the coaches are usually very understanding of the "rookie mistakes" that sometimes happen. Every game is called with one rookie and one veteran.

Last year, my rookie partner made a rule call that put a runner in jeopardy so I killed the play and corrected the situation. I thought (at that time) because of the laid back attitude and because we were using this to train our new umps I made the right call.

After much discussion with the other veterans in our association (and some of you on the message boards), I realized I made a big mistake in teaching this new umpire a valuable lesson. I should have let everything play out and let the newbie get a taste of handling a difficult situation. In the future, if something like this happens again, I will let everything play out just like it was a game late in the year that really means something.

Joel