Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy
There is no way in hell you can be as effective in your fourth consecutive plate game or your seventh consecutive game as you were in your first or after a break.
Unless you were "pacing" yourself from the beginning knowing that you had to work that many games on that day. If you were doing that, then you weren't effective from the beginning by not giving the game and the players your maximum effort.
As for your assignor....I have ran into plenty of assignors who seem to thing that umpires are a "necessary evil" of running a tournament and just look for bodies to put out there without regard to how it affects the umpires or the games.
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I wouldn't disagree with that. Then again, some people aren't capable of working a DH and being effective on the second game. I've even met the occasional umpire who loses effectiveness late in a single game.
Of course I knew I was working 7 games in advance and, no, I wasn't sprinting everywhere all day long. But I was always in position to make a call and I was still running and pivoting in during game 7. The parents, players, and coaches and the assignor all were happy with the quality of work.
I'm just not shy about telling people my motivation for working ball on the weekends. For the pure joy of umpiring, I'd probably quit after HS / college season was over and then work volunteer LL in July (which I already do). Maybe travel a bit to umpire, like I do now. But I do like to do some of this to make some money to offset the huge amounts of gear and clothing I buy every season. And maybe take the family on the occasional vacation.