My 1st Ejection

[Don Mueller]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

JM,

But from my point of view working solo stunts the growth of umpires. There are guys where we live struggling in their 4th and 5th year when they finally work a 2 man game. They do not know where to go and where to stand which is extremely basic stuff. Once again this is just an opinion. I know there are people that disagree.

Peace

I agree that 2 man crews will generally call a better game and in a perfect world all leagues would hire 2 per game BUT
If he wants to learn 2 man before he gets to varsity he has the opportunity. There are multiple clinics every year teaching 2 man, there are resources on line and published, there are summer games with 2 man crews that he could get. There's no excuse for an umpire to have that deer in the headlights look on the bases after 4 or 5 years if he was truly motivated.
So my question is: Did the solo games stunt him or did he stunt himself with lack of motivation?

Working solo as a beginning ump has its advantages.
It forces you to work on game management skills.
It definitely hones your sense of anticipating where the play will develop.
In one man your always looking for the angle because you usually are sacrificing distance, then when you get to 2 man you've already developed the knack for the angle and by default you've cut your distance.
You have no one to pow wow with on a rules interp question so after your first screw up(when you realize you're not all knowing) it should be a motivating factor to get back into the rules and you learn real quick the art of BS.
The big problem I found after doing many solo games and then going to BU in 2 man was trying to stay in the game.
BU is very boring if you're used to solo gigs.

JM, this is your first year. Does any of this ring true for you?

I enjoy the comraderie of 2 man before and after the game but the game itself goes much faster for me as PU with or without a partner.

[UmpJM]

Don,

JM, this is your first year. Does any of this ring true for you?

Quite a bit of it does.

Game management, most certainly.

In terms of anticipation, I found I initially had a tendency to commit too early to the "obvious" (to me) play. I believe I am now more patient in letting the play develop and letting the actual action of the play take me to the proper angle and best distance I can achieve w/o sacrificing position for a possible subsequent play.

I am pretty confident in my rules knowledge and have not yet had a situation where I improperly applied the rules. I did have one situation where I wasn't sure & happened to guess right.

When I do work 2-man games (approx. 20% of my games so far this year), I find the biggest liability is I have to think too much about which calls or responsibilities are mine and which are my partner's. I kind of "know" in a book-learnin' way, but it is far from second nature to me at this point.

So far I haven't had too much difficulty in staying focused when on the bases in a 2-man game. Except sometimes when it's the second MSBL game I'm working that day - but that's a different issue.

I certainly prefer working two-man games; for me, doing a game solo is preferable to both eating lead paint and not working a game at all.

JM