Umpire Speaks The Unholy Truth
 

http://softball.officiating.com/x/article/5641

http://softball.officiating.com/x/article/5642

The most impressive piece in David's article comes in these words (IMO):

"I'm sure I have greatly offended many of you after you read Part I. I confess, some of it was hyperbole. For effect, you know. Even if much of what I said didn't apply to you, deep down in a place that you'd rather not visit, you know that there is more than a shred of truth to what I've described. Softball and baseball umpires often view each other with a degree of mutual disdain, even if it largely goes unsaid, unpublicized."

This forum is chock full of people who havn't the nerve or the cahoonas to speak out like David did. This "three monkeys" attitude (no hear, no see, no speak) seriously debilitates umpiring and rightfully so. Our inability to take on difficult subjects (obesity, influence of pay, or David's soft vs hard "war") and discuss them witout either ad hominem attacks or introducing irrelevant subjects is perfectly exampled here in the last few days.

Congrats, David, well done.

How would you have us "take on the problem of obesity", as you perceive it in umpiring?

Should we refuse to work with those that don't measure up to a pre-set physical standard decided upon by you?



Tim.

Wasn't that thread locked? Can you comment on the content in the OP and its links?

JR,

The above it the part of his post I was trying to address. If indeed we're blind to these "problems" and should open our eyes to address them, I would simply put to the man attempting to open our eyes, how would he have the issues addressed. It's not an unfair query.


Tim.

That's fair. I guess it's a bit misleading to offer > 1 possible thread divergence.

Larry:

When you click on a posters name, a window opens that lists this option on the right hand side: Add ******** to your Ignore List

God bless technology.

By openly discussing it, staying on the subject and not getting the thread locked might help. Not one comment I made in that thread should have caused it to be locked, I made simple statements backed them with medical conclusions and pointed to the cardiological sources. I can only guess the thread got locked due to the subject matter, the absurdity of the racial comparisons, umpires who quote medical citations like they have a clue how to read one, or whatever.

As to refusing to work, that's equally absurd as a question and as a relevancy. With an overfat umpiring community, baseball as we know it would be in jeopardy.

A few years ago, there was a thread in the basketball forum that the SEC was hiring 6'0"+ males with higher than average athletic builds. IOW, tall, muscular men.

I've already read many articles that claim in the business world, more beautiful women earn promotions quicker and also command a higher salary. The same also goes for men in the business world.

As for the OP articles, you have to be a subscriber to read them. In the paragraph that I could read, it seems dumb that there is a disrespect of the other flavour of ball.

That's funny right there, I don't care who you are.

Get 'er Done

It does, indeed. But it also exists. Most of the guys I know that "go both ways" don't hide it. I think what causes the "disrespect" is the quirks associated with one or the other that don't cross over very well.

For example, BU carrying a brush and brushing off the pitchers plate and 2B. I worked with a guy (in a BB game) that did this, I almost fell over. He is VERY proud that he is a softball ump. This "thing" carried over. It is not widely accepted in baseball and even frowned upon.

It all stems from a lack of knowledge of the common practices in the other form of ball. You have the same disrespect for BB umps that work less than 90' diamonds from some of those that work nothing but 90' diamonds. It's also there for LL umps.

I thought
 

That was just more than funny. :p

You're the one who seems bent on making it an issue, not me. You've yet to answer my question. Short of refusing to work with someone who may be considered 'overfat', what would you have the general umpiring community do to address the problem as you perceive it? It's an easy task to point out flaws in a system. It's much more difficult to propose changes to address those flaws. All I see is you finger pointing with no real solutions presented.



Tim.