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I remember I got a lot of flack from the big dogs in our association because I was too "by the book", especially when dealing with balks. Don't toss anybody, don't cause any controversy, just make everyone happy. Well, after reading a lot of the articles on eumpires.com it turns out that a lot of the calls that I made are the ones I should have been making.
Basically I now take everything an veteran says or does with a grain of salt, unless their actions dictate that they do acknowledge NAPBL interpretations, authoritative rulings, or that they realize that there's always something new to learn. The big dogs who trained me never mentioned NAPBL, PBUC, or any interpretation or "authoritative opinion" outside the book. When I learned of the existence of these a few years ago, it really humbled me and made me realize that even after 12 seasons of umpiring there was still a lot to be learned.
Last year one of our UIC's, a 25-year vet, kept insisting that the hands were part of the bat, even after I showed him repeated references that his claim simply wasn't true.
Just goes to show that even though someone claims to have 30 years of experience, it doesn't mean jack if they've been doing it wrong all those years. Of course, that doesn't mean you should disrespect them.
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