"I'm an umpire too!"

As one of those who works both sides of the fence, I am surprised any umpire who coaches would even think of coming out to question a judgment call.

Since the umpires we use in my son's league are from the same association I belong to, I introduce myself as one. During pregame, if the ump is new to our league, I do help out with the ground rules and local rules if they are not familiar. When they talk about no arguing judgment calls, I always tell them "you'll get no complaints from me."

There has been only one problem umpire. He came in with a chip on his shoulder and a holier than thou attitude and didn't want to play by our time limit rules. I had him two days later and he still had the same chip. I later found out he was a softball ump who was a fill in because they couldn't get anybody else. Luckily we don't have that problem this year.