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What works for one, may not work for others, I guess. It worked for me, maybe it won't for you. I only track with my eyes, and it works, at least for me. When I move my head, I am not seeing the pitch from the same spot every time, which is where consistency comes from.

Quote:

Originally posted by Atl Blue
Nope,
"Joe West and Bruce Froemming are two that resigned that were later reinstated, among others."

I think you better check that piece of information also.

You missed two calls in this thread already.

Tee

On July 14, 1999, 23 of the 32 AL umpires, and 33 of the 36 NL umpires tendered their resignations. Bruce Froemming was a union board member. Both he and Joe West were on the list of umpires that resigned. Their resignations were to be effective September 2, 1999.

On July 27, 1999, these same umpires filed a suit in federal court in Philadelphia to be allowed to rescind their resignations. A settlement was reached in arbitration, led by US District Court Judge J. Curtis Joyner. 22 of the umpires' resignations were accepted; the others were allowed to return. Ironically, Joe West was one of the umpires that was NOT going to be allowed to return. Further court actions and settlements led to some of these 22 umpires being allowed to return as well.

There is still court action going on regarding back pay that was not paid to these umpires. (Cites available if needed)

Now, I have admitted to incorrectly stating the name of the union attorney as Richie Garcia when in fact it was Richie Phillips, as Dave as pointed out. Other than spelling, where was the other blown call in this thread?

http://www.fmew.com/archive/umpire/

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bas..._wednesday_ap/

According to Sports Illustrated CNN this is the list of the 22 who ACTUALLY resigned.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bas..._wednesday_ap/

(Funny, the url looks familiar)

National League 
Gary Darling
Bob Davidson
Bruce Dreckman
Eric Gregg
Tom Hallion
Bill Hohn
Sam Holbrook
Paul Nauert
Larry Poncino
Frank Pulli
Terry Tata
Larry Vanover
Joe West

American League 
Drew Coble
Jim Evans
Dale Ford
Rich Garcia
Ed Hickox
Mark Johnson
Ken Kaiser
Greg Kosc
Larry McCoy

Noticeably absent is Bruce Froemming. Although he was one of the orginal umpires who "resigned" his resignation was withdrawn and he was not one of the 22 whose resignations were accepted, thus he was not, as you had stated, one of the resigned umpires who was reinstated.

No homerun.

[Edited by GarthB on Aug 24th, 2004 at 01:04 PM]

Let's try this one more time. Bruce Froemming and 55 other umpires submitted their letters of resignation (i.e, they RESIGNED). MLB said, OK, we are hiring 25 new umpires. The umpire's union, realizing they had made a MAJOR tactical error, then filed a suit in Federal Court to rescind their resignations. As part of the arbitration settlement, all but 22 of the umpires were allowed to return, in return for the union dropping it's suit against MLB. This was the effective end of the union, as the settlement allowed 34 umpires to return (which Froemming was among), and left 22 out of a job (which West was among).

The list you published are those umpires who were not allowed to come back. As you can see, many of them later regained their jobs as well through even more court action. See Joe West, Larry Poncino and others on the list.

But Froemming was a board member of the union. He was one of the first to sign the letter of resignation, and to convince others to do so as well.

Make no mistake. Froemming resigned, and then used the courts to win his job back after realizing the foolishness of his move.

Quote:

Originally posted by Atl Blue
Let's try this one more time. Bruce Froemming and 55 other umpires submitted their letters of resignation (i.e, they RESIGNED). MLB said, OK, we are hiring 25 new umpires. The umpire's union, realizing they had made a MAJOR tactical error, then filed a suit in Federal Court to rescind their resignations. As part of the arbitration settlement, all but 22 of the umpires were allowed to return, in return for the union dropping it's suit against MLB. This was the effective end of the union, as the settlement allowed 34 umpires to return (which Froemming was among), and left 22 out of a job (which West was among).

The list you published are those umpires who were not allowed to come back. As you can see, many of them later regained their jobs as well through even more court action. See Joe West, Larry Poncino and others on the list.

But Froemming was a board member of the union. He was one of the first to sign the letter of resignation, and to convince others to do so as well.

Make no mistake. Froemming resigned, and then used the courts to win his job back after realizing the foolishness of his move.

According to the reports by SI, CNN and the releases by MLB, Froemming was not among reinstated umpires as he never left.

Only umpires among the "22" who actually left were considered reinstated. Some of which Froemming convinced to leave.

Semantics? Maybe, maybe not. Consider it similar to the wording of a FED test. "Bruce Froemming resigned and was among the reinstated umpires." False. The term "reinstated", for better or worse, has been reserved by MLB for use in referrence to members of the 22. After all, can one be "reinstated" to something he never left?

[Edited by GarthB on Aug 24th, 2004 at 03:04 PM]

On July 14, 1999, Bruce Froemming signed and delivered a letter of resignation to MLB.

You can quote the SI article about "reinstated" umpires, but it does not change the fact that Froemming RESIGNED, as did 56 umpires.

The 22 you quoted were (origianlly) not allowed to return follwing their "resignations". SI may have called the returnees from this list as "reinstated" but that does not change the fact that Foremming resigned.

If you used all of the wording as quoted by popular magazines, batters would be forced at first, Melvin would have "protested" the OBS call in the Devil Rays game last week, and various other misnomers would be true.

If Froemming didn't resign, why did he have to file a suit in Federal Court on July 29, and submit to arbitration in order to "regain" his job?

Guys,
I would never encourage/teach someone to call pitches like I do. I do a lot of things different now than I did when I came out of umpire school 5 years ago. In fact, I instruct at a small camp here in Michigan and when I teach cage mechanics, I stress the same things that I learned at the Academy - proper slot position, head height, tracking with eyes only, etc.

I guess over time, I've steered away from the "robot" like mechanics you first learn at umpire school. Sometimes I even stray too far and have to go back to the basics if I'm not seeing the ball very well.

I asked a fellow umpire a few years back how my mechanics looked behind the plate and his "veteran" response was, "I don't care if you stand on your head and call balls & strikes back there... just get em' right. As time goes by, I've sort of adapted my own style and it seems to work for me. Obviously, what works for one may not work for others.

[Edited by Sal Giaco on Aug 24th, 2004 at 05:44 PM]