[jwwashburn]

I had a guy who helped me quite a bit when I started many years ago.

He was an Elder in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. They abide by the regulative principle of worship...in other words, they only do things in their worship service that they believe the Bible commands and nothing else.

He said that I should take this principle in umpiring. Only do what you are supposed to do! Don't say take your base on ball four, don't point the batter down to first, don't give the "situation", don't flash the count at your partner from the bases, etc etc etc.

Have a reason for what you do as an umpire. Make sure that reason can be found in the Rules Book, Case Book, Umpire Manual or a clinic.

That helped me a lot.