What should I do?

[WhatWuzThatBlue]

I can't believe that I'm agreeing with him...

Garth is correct; coach the team and control the things that are under your immediate purview. While you are certainly the customer, scratching a veteran (even one who is known not to hustle and guess at the outcome) gets around. Even in 14U travelling leagues, you will be viewed as the guy who got Ol' Man Winter dumped.

The best advice a coach can give his players - adjust to the umpire, he won't adjust to you.

Lastly, I finally saw the documentary of ESPN 360 about Jim Moore. He sounded like a really special guy. He was umpring out of a love for the game and it was his reason for living. Some of those old timers relegate themselves to those fields because they know they can't keep up with the higher level game. They also know that without the chatter, booing and smell of the grass they lose a big chunk of their life.

My ego is often in need of minding, but I know that when you think you are good enough, there are usually people that disagree. Cut the old guy some slack and remember, even though the call was blown, umpires don't win and lose games. Adjust and remind the kids that even the WUA guys blow calls.

[LMan]

Geez, JM, if you were THAT upset about my umpiring, you could have just talked to me about it instead of throwing it out on a public forum......

[RPatrino]

JM,

Let me answer this question from 2 different perspectives, coach and assignor. I have been a coach, an assignor(UIC of an association), and now I umpire exclusively.

From a coach's perspective, I fully understand your frustration. I have been there and done that!! In the long run, I believe that bad calls and bad umpires will always happen. Our job as teacher's is to teach our players to adapt and adjust. I never once as a coach made an umpire, the weather, the ballpark or anything a scape goat for my teams play. NEVER. We play, we win or we lose.

As an assigner, I would like to get this phone call. I'll be honest with you, I might listen to your comments about calls, but I let them go in one ear and out the other. Calls will be blown and mistakes will be made. I will talk to the umpire in question, might even go observe them, but I won't pull an umpire from games. Now, what things will get an umpire pulled from games? Attitude and behavior issues will for sure. Plus, I don't ever want an umpire or teams to get too familiar with each other. That causes more problems than you can imagine.

Some leagues don't have the luxury of a large pool of umpires. So, you might see the same crew or umpire many times during the season. The answer to that problem is to recruit or strap on the gear yourself. I once coached in a league that required the manager's to "volunteer" themselves for umpiring. That was a nightmare, and the league decided to invest some money and pay into a local HS association for umpires. But, it was there that the umpire bug bit me and as they say, the rest is history.

Bob P.

[FVB9]

Coach, I suggest emailing your Assignment guy and suggesting it. There are a lot of factors that go into the umpires you receive. First and foremost, your Association you chose may have 30-40 schools they cater to in the Spring. You need to realize that those schools take priority over youth travel games, which means on some days you may get umpires who are not up to par. Also, most travel games start at 6PM, which opens the door to umpires who cannot do the traditional 4:30 HS starts.

But to get back to your question as to whether or not you should contact your Assignment Chair...yes, you are the paying customer and you have that right. Someone made the post that it's like a once in a lifetime request...that's pretty true. Your assignment chair may not honor it...that's his right. But he may want to know that someone out there is not cutting it. There's a rule of thumb in my neck of the woods...if a HS coach calls the Assignor and complains about an umpire and wants to never see him again, our Assignor has been known to send him back the next day (under certain circumstances). Everything works out, and the scratch list remains blank.

In other cases, an umpire may have been flying below the radar, unseen on the field by peers or evaluators, and this info needs to be known.

Bring it on Coach, but not out here.

[UmpJM]

Gentlemen,

My sincere thanks to each of you for your responses and advice.

I realized that this was most likely a sensitive subject before I posted, and felt this would be a good place to seek informed input.

I am not disappointed.

A number of points were raised that I had considered, and many I hadn't. I still haven't decided what to do, but whatever I do decide, I at least feel it will be a better informed decision.

Thanks again, all.

JM

[gsf23]

Coach,

I had a similar situation to yours a couple of years ago and this is how I handled it. My situation may be a little different because I had umpired in this association for few years before I moved into coaching so I had a bit of a relationship with the assignor.

Basically, I called up the assignor and expressed a few of my concerns about this individual that we were getting almost every game. I then told him that, as a coach, my judgment may be a little clouded so, could you, or someone you trust, come out and watch this guy work and then talk with me after the game about some of my concerns. Well, he came out, watched and after we chatted. Some of the things he agreed with, some he told me were “whiney rat” issues as some of you say. He then told me he would talk with the individual, maybe arrange for some additional training in some areas and see what he could do about not scheduling him so much at our games.