Definition of an Umpire

[ctblu40]

Originally Posted by LLPA13UmpDan

oh and who ever asked about my ej to game ratio, it is 3 EJS to appox. 40 games. with two being in the same game.

Okay, now think about this and honestly answer.

You worked a season of approx. 40 games, and have had to remove a participant in 2 of those games. I'm assuming (correct me if I'm wrong) that you worked 40 LL games.

Compare yourself to some of the more expierienced umpires here. I can't speak for all of them, but I can speak for myself. The last two seasons I've worked about 200-225 games. In those 200-225 games I've had 2 ejections. One was a manager who just would not stop arguing a close play at second base (summer college league), and the other was a HS coach who told me that he was sure I was trying to miss calls because I didn't want his team to win.

This is not to say that I haven't had arguements. I have. But the difference is knowing how to defuse a situation. It is difficult to learn, but you must be committed to attaining this skill. One way is to do your best to keep them in the game. I'm not telling you to stop ejecting when it's warrented, I'm telling you to carefully consider how you can be better at being a calming presence in an argument.

What do you think, can you make goals and work at attaining them?

[wmblue]

Originally Posted by ctblu40

Okay, now think about this and honestly answer.
Compare yourself to some of the more expierienced umpires here. I can't speak for all of them, but I can speak for myself. The last two seasons I've worked about 200-225 games. In those 200-225 games I've had 2 ejections. One was a manager who just would not stop arguing a close play at second base (summer college league), and the other was a HS coach who told me that he was sure I was trying to miss calls because I didn't want his team to win.

I was doing to say something similar. It's been 3 years or about 250 games since I've ejected anyone, that was in a Babe Ruth game where the coach decided that he was going to follow me out on two consecutive calls and tell his runner to stay on the base because I was wrong, before that I went 200 games between ejections.

You learn to deal with confrontation and you learn how to deal with situations, it sounds like in Dan's case his association probably needs to schedule him with veteran umpires or mentors.

[ctblu40]

Originally Posted by wmblue

You learn to deal with confrontation and you learn how to deal with situations, it sounds like in Dan's case his association probably needs to schedule him with veteran umpires or mentors.

I don't want to speak for Dan, but....

I think one of the problems may be lack of quality mentor availability in his area. I was lucky enough to have two very good NCAA umpires take me under their wing when I started. They were honest with me about everything.

If they thought I sucked, they told me, "You sucked." If I did a good job, "You did good, kid. But keep working on ______, ______, and ______." They weren't big on telling me war stories, and when they did they remembered to let me know that until I've earned some respect, I couldn't and shouldn't talk to managers the way they did.

Just some things I've tried to present to new umpires.