Sending Messages

[Carl Childress]

Originally posted by Ranger
Wow what quick responses. My first post, too!

Carl and Roger: I guess I should feel bad for not knowing Carl. I am quite sure that he is a good man. I don't recall ever having the pleasure of meeting him. In my position I am quite focused on NCAA baseball and I don't recall him as a regional ump and he does not work the conferences I follow. Sorry, I am always open to be educated. I pray that you guys don't hold that agaisnt me. Perhaps we travel in different circles.

Carl: You see, even I must have gotten confused by the cute statement about the line and the bus. Naturally, that sounded like an ejection or a threat of an ejection.

Ranger:

I was replying to Pete Booth on two fronts: One was the FYC. The other grew out of a discussion he had with someone about automatically ejecting someone who drew a line to show the ball was "outside" the strike zone. Two different issues altogether. It's my fault I didn't make the distinction clearer.

I called D1 games back in the 70s and 80s with the likes of Randy Christal, Jon Bible, etc. I umpired in Edinburg, TX, where we had ONE college within 250 miles. Still, I managed to get in over 400 D1 games.

UT is an acronym for UmpiresTalk, a private email community I founded. Roger is a judge, so be nice to him if you wander into his state.

I didn't read the post by Peter Osborne, aka His Holiness. It was gone before I arrived back. BTW: I gave him that nickname. He was a member of UT at one time.

I'm still waiting for the email message from you. There's not much reason here to be anonymous.

[Roger Greene]

Ranger,
I wasn't trying to silence you or put you down. It just struck me that calling Carl a new guy is kind of like throwing rocks at a hornet nest. It can be fun and exciting, but sometime you stir up more than you want.

Carl was a bit modest in his response about his experience.
He was a teacher, and is now an author and an authoritive source on baseball rules and interpertations. He is kind enough to let me take part in Umpires Talk, an internet group that includes some of the best minds (in my opinion) involved in amature baseball officiating. Many of the writers for baseball at Right Sports are members of UT.

Listing to Carl, Warren Wilson, Rich Fronheiser and others on UT, as well as being involved in the internet boards that are populated by people like those UT members and Jim Porter has made me a better umpire.

Stay around. It doesn't take long to learn who to listen to.

Roger Greene ,
Member UT


[Edited by Roger Greene on Oct 31st, 2000 at 07:36 PM]

[Ranger]

Roger: Relax, I never would have thought you were attempting to silence me or put me down. What I thought I said was that after so many others had made responses on that thread, Carl was a totally new poster (on that thread). My reference to Carl being new was not an intentional slight on my part. His name does not have the instant recognition to me as it does to you. If I were, as you say, throwing rocks at a hornet's nest, I would have had to recognize the hornet's nest (Carl) as something to fear. Your analogy is funny. I had no idea that I could be stirring up more than I want. Somehow I doubt that Carl would be totally comfortable with the analogy either.

Methinks that after such great lengths by you and Carl to educate me about Carl's life in baseball, you may have been concerned that I needed or wanted that information to have me more prone to accept or validate him. I suppose I appreciated that information, but what matters to me most is who a man is. What will he say today? I will be infinitly more interested in a man's character and my relationship with him than his history. I would say the same thing if he were an ex-felon.

Carl: You need not worry about me being nice to Roger or anybody. I don't know what state he is in, but I am no longer shooting people for a living.

Also your reference to a post by Peter Osbourn, missing now, was not what I was talking about. My response was for Peter Booth.

FINALLY TO PETER BOOTH

I will put my coaching hat on and talk strictly as a baseball coach from here on.

If my number one hitter gets ejected for lipping off to the umpire he was stupid and I was stupid. That should not happen. My teams are coached by an umpire! I can not afford to allow any other coach to think that the PU would show me or my team any favoritism. All my players are instructed on how to behave and they are held to a very high standard. They are very aware that playing for me means a zero tolerance of disrespectful behavior. Being a military minded person you can assume that my being an umpire was only part of their problem.

Another aspect of this is that some of my coaching buddies love for the umpires to discipline their tough cases. Some coaches try too hard to be their friend. Oh sure they will put on a big act when their prima donna player is ejected but they also love to tell those players "I told you so" after the ejection.

Naturally I would prefer that you tell me you are having trouble with one of my players so that I might have the opportunity to correct him. If you eject him I will get upset. If you ring him up on an obvious ball I will get upset. You won't be able to win here. I will want you to have the ability to keep him in the game AND not hose the zone. If you eject him I will argue with you. If you call a bad strike I will not argue but I will be alert to keep my guy from losing control. If you call too many "bad" strikes, I will have the power to see that you not work any of my games again. Bottom line on this situation is that you can't win either way. Choose to be a great umpire instead and don't worry about the other stuff.

[GarthB]

Brad:

It is ironic that in a thread titled "sending a message" you got to send the best message.

Thank you and the rest of the folks at eUmpire and official forum for working to keep this board free of the clutter and personal attacks that have taken over other boards.

GarthB

Ranger:

I also have some experience at the D-1 level. What conference do you supervise? Perhaps we have some friends in common.

[Ranger]

To His Holiness:
Reread my post.

I saw that you were chastised by this forum administrator and I will not be responding to you at this time.