I was told last night...

[nickrego]

Originally Posted by harmbu

I sure hope you are joking. The problem is I have encountered umpires before with that attitude. What do you do when you have an umpire who comes up with something that is way off and nowhere to be found in the rulebook.

I have no recourse but to call the assignor after the game when it is too late.

Here's the deal...

We don't carry rule books, we are supposed to know the rules. Now, most of us are not professional umpires, so we do make mistakes. And that includes interpretation of the rules. So, when a coach questions our application of a rule, if I think it is appropriate, I will give the coach the opportunity to prove me wrong, based on showing me the rule, in the rule book.

He can argue his rule knowledge against mine all day long, but he is not going to change my mind, or waste game time doing it. If all we have is two opinions, the umpire's must win out.

For the record, I only give the coach the opportunity if I am not sure about the situation. And that is only for those rare occasions when something obscure, that happens once in a career so your not really up on it, is the issue.

And don't ask me for an example. I can't tell you about a rule I don't know about. Why, because if I don't know about it, how can I know about it ?