If this forum was an umpire association meeting

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Originally Posted by pingswinger

I have been lurking in this forum for a few years hardly posting at all. Lately as the season has started back, I have attended the dreaded umpire associations for my local high school and college associations. I have never been one to be loud and obnoxious, rather, I sit back and watch the other umpires bicker and swap stories hoping their ego's will grow larger than the one sitting next to them. I often wonder why this is, why these older men, (I am 23) sit in their cliques and try to be rulebook laywers on everything. Does anyone else feel this way when they go to their local association meeting? Also, I was thinking, I wonder who in this forum would be an obnoxious, egotistical, rulebook lawyer, and who would be in the back quietly teaching other umpires true knowledge.

Simple answer - the Internet is an anonymous place, making it simple to hide behind a facade. People will say things in e-mail or an anonymous forum they would never dream of saying face to face.