The Devil's Advocate

[tasoump]

Officials never "cost" anyone a game. We might make erroneous calls every now and then, but it's up to the players to win or lose their own contest.

I have to disagree with this statement. I have called Little League, Babe Ruth, American Legion,High School, Junior College,and some semi-pro games in Texas for 15 years. I moved to Hawaii in 2001 and continued to call High School games. When I would show up at a game the coaches would say good a Haole. When asked why that was good they would respond you haven't lived your whole life in Hawaii and don't have the same ties to teams as local umps do,therefore Haole's tend to be impartial as all umps should be. As time went by I started seeing what the coaches were talking about. Case and point I was the base ump in a High School game in Hawaii. The visiting team was ahead 13-4 going into the bottom of the seventh. This is when the plate ump decided he wanted the home team to win because he got mad at the visiting team head coach. He quit calling strikes and walked the next 13 batters in a row. That was ten runs scored with no hits and no outs and home team wins 14-13. As the players were celebrating their victory I heard their coach tell them to shutup they did nothing to earn the victory, it was given to them. From my point of view pitchers were throwing strikes but the plate ump would not call them! I had never seen such a travesty in a game! I quit calling and will never call a game in Hawaii again!