[soonerfan]

Jim,

i can ride the fence on that last thread from His High Holiness.

i'll agree that your situation is a bit unethical. however, i'll also throw in that an umpire that is that concerned with making buddies with a coach is probably not confident enough in their officiating ability, therefore making them seemingly a weak umpire. when i used to do little league baseball, i could care less who did well and won what. if you didn't like the call...welcome to baseball. things happen we don't like all the time.

so, i can see where they would want to johnny up to a coach or two, but i don't think that would affect your promotability at all. the way you move up is to always ask a lot of questions to umpires that are better than you, show profound knowledge of rotations, sharp mechanics, good verbal presentaion, great timing, and ability to handle situations. that's how i did it. ti works.