The Official Forum  

Go Back   The Official Forum > Baseball
Register FAQ Community Calendar Today's Posts Search

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
  #16 (permalink)  
Old Sat May 26, 2007, 11:01pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 1,577
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rcichon
Wow. I keep learning WHY everyone (ok, not everyone but many) disdaines LL.

Yup. Either all these fantastic stories are lies, or these umpires repeatedly agree to be beaten like rented mules by coaches and administrators, and wonder why they are treated like dirt. I don't think there's a whole lot of value in giving advice here---they know its wrong, we tell them its wrong (even thought they knew it at the time, and when they posted), but they'll go right back to the field and let coaches pull this sh!t over and over like a battered wife returning to her husband.

Just like Oprah sez, baby, you gotta be willing to walk away, no regrets.
Reply With Quote
  #17 (permalink)  
Old Sat May 26, 2007, 11:16pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Spokane, WA
Posts: 4,222
Quote:
Originally Posted by LMan
Yup. Either all these fantastic stories are lies, or these umpires repeatedly agree to be beaten like rented mules by coaches and administrators, and wonder why they are treated like dirt. I don't think there's a whole lot of value in giving advice here---they know its wrong, we tell them its wrong (even thought they knew it at the time, and when they posted), but they'll go right back to the field and let coaches pull this sh!t over and over like a battered wife returning to her husband.

Just like Oprah sez, baby, you gotta be willing to walk away, no regrets.

In my sordid past, I served as the trainer and assignor of umpires for the local PONY folks. They hadn't had anyone other that a coach doing the job for years and some on the board thought it might be a good idea to bring in someone with umpiring experience.

I worked for them for four years and increased the number of umpires from 18 to 46, all of whom attended 12 training sessions annually and passed three rules tests.

The last season I was affiliated with them a coach bumped and knocked down one of my umpires. I went to the board and demanded some disciplinary action. The good ol' boys on the board decided that the ejection from the game was enough and one even said that the umpiire probably deserved it. I appealed their decision.

The next week, while I was evaluating umpires at a tournament, a coach bumped an umpire and then spit in his face. Knowing the support I'd get from the board, we called the police. The coach was arrested for fourth degree assualt and was later convicted. He lost his school coaching job, but the PONY board kept him on.

After my appeal to the board of the first incident was denied, I walked away. I told them I could not in good conscience assign umpires to games in which their safety was in question and in which they would have no support.

Life is to short to work with a$$holes.
__________________
GB
Reply With Quote
  #18 (permalink)  
Old Sat May 26, 2007, 11:38pm
Al Al is offline
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 207
Send a message via Yahoo to Al
Quote:
Originally Posted by GarthB
In my sordid past, I served as the trainer and assignor of umpires for the local PONY folks. They hadn't had anyone other that a coach doing the job for years and some on the board thought it might be a good idea to bring in someone with umpiring experience.

I worked for them for four years and increased the number of umpires from 18 to 46, all of whom attended 12 training sessions annually and passed three rules tests.

The last season I was affiliated with them a coach bumped and knocked down one of my umpires. I went to the board and demanded some disciplinary action. The good ol' boys on the board decided that the ejection from the game was enough and one even said that the umpiire probably deserved it. I appealed their decision.

The next week, while I was evaluating umpires at a tournament, a coach bumped an umpire and then spit in his face. Knowing the support I'd get from the board, we called the police. The coach was arrested for fourth degree assualt and was later convicted. He lost his school coaching job, but the PONY board kept him on.

After my appeal to the board of the first incident was denied, I walked away. I told them I could not in good conscience assign umpires to games in which their safety was in question and in which they would have no support.

Life is to short to work with a$$holes.
AMEN... Way to go GarthB!
Reply With Quote
  #19 (permalink)  
Old Sun May 27, 2007, 07:53am
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: NW PA
Posts: 146
We are working so hard in our area to get good qualified umpires to do these games. I can rember when all you got was Dad out of the stands are one of the local High school teams players who usually were pretty good with ball,strike,safe and out but no clue about any other rule. Now we have three umpires that have training and do everything from Fed to Legion,along with three more guys who have passed their Babe Ruth test and are really working hard on their rules and mechanics. For a league that only has 15 teams and play on eight different fields( one field is home for 5 teams) this is not to bad.
The BIG problem is that the other fields that only have one team are still all just using someone they've picked up and is officiating from what they know from watching TV or playing the game. I've gone to games to watch and been asked if I would do the bases and when you call obstruction or almost anything else that is not common knowledge to people not umpires the crowds go nuts and the other umpire goes,"Huh?"
Yes it might not be great baseball and the fans and coaches might not have a clue but darn it doesn't someone have to step up and say we will change this for the better.We will play these games by the CORRECT rules and be fair to both teams,we will start the change to make the officiating better for all concerned. OK I will now crawl off of my soapbox and come back to reality.
Reply With Quote
  #20 (permalink)  
Old Sun May 27, 2007, 11:25am
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Greater Birmingham, Alabama
Posts: 611
Send a message via Yahoo to umpduck11
Quote:
Originally Posted by LMan
kiddie ball....competent umpires? I keed

I watched my youngest son's coach-pitch game last night. They had a LL-certified umpire 'calling' from behind the mound. I knew he was good, because he wore a ball bag out there......hanging directly over his front beltbuckle like a loincloth.
But did he use his plate brush to clean the rubber between innings ???
__________________
All generalizations are bad. - R.H. Grenier
Reply With Quote
  #21 (permalink)  
Old Mon May 28, 2007, 04:54pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 1,577
Quote:
Originally Posted by umpduck11
But did he use his plate brush to clean the rubber between innings ???

I'm not sure he knew what a pitcher's plate was. He did scream, "FOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWLBAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWLLLL!" on every foul, no matter where it was, though.

I'm done on 'coach spit in my face, should I rescind his ejection?' posts, however.

Last edited by LMan; Mon May 28, 2007 at 05:19pm.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
where to find??? Karin Basketball 4 Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:21pm
Where to find used ump gear? ToledoCYOBlue Softball 5 Mon Aug 01, 2005 08:56am
Need help to find casebook RUBIERA Basketball 3 Tue Jun 14, 2005 07:20pm
trying to find a clinic ump2604 Baseball 1 Wed Mar 20, 2002 12:27pm
"Try it and you'll find out" Mark Padgett Basketball 35 Sat Aug 04, 2001 08:32am


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:44pm.



Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.3.0 RC1