Game Management

[gordon30307]

All things being equal eg. good knowledge of rules, mechanics, judgement, proper uniform, arriving on time, etc. what distinguishes the competent official from the exceptional one is game management. An exceptional official whom I respect said "it's knowing what to say and when to say it and I can't teach you this". What are your views on this?

[kylejt]

He may be an exceptional official, but he's not a good teacher. There are plenty of ways to teach game management. Examples, videos, role playing, etc. I even have managers come in when I teach this at my clinics.

I get what he's saying, but if I can teach a twelve year old kid to send a 55 year old manager with a LL World Series under his belt, back to the dugout, it CAN be taught.

[mbyron]

Game management requires good judgment. Good judgment has many broad guidelines which can be taught, for instance "be polite," "be firm," "don't put up with too much crap," etc.

The problem is that broad guidelines have exceptions. What cannot even in principle be taught is the recognition of (a) when an exceptional case has occurred, and (b) what to do in it.

This cannot possibly be taught, because to teach it, it would have to be part of the rule. And in that case, it's not an exception.

The good news is that good judgment comes to most people, to some degree, with experience. The truly great officials, like the truly great human beings, somehow learn more from experience than everyone else.

[UMP25]

I believe that several basics of developing good game management skills can, indeed, be taught, but there may be some aspects that cannot. For example, I often believe one's individual temperament plays a role in game management. If one tends to be by nature a hothead or quick-tempered, being a good game manager may be more difficult or impossible. One's temperament is not really something that can be taught per se. After all, how does one "teach" a certain personality? Of course, it may be possible to teach how to control or mitigate such a potentially negative personality.

[ozzy6900]

You can "teach" all the management skills that you want. The student can watch all the videos and games he/she can but it still doesn't do anything until the student is put into the position. That is why in the MLB schools, the role playing is one of the most important parts of the education.

I am considered by many to have good game management skills and this is one of the things that I try to instill on students. Well, last weekend, I was having an issue with my zone, the damn hernia tore even more and I barked at 2 different coaches for absolutely no reason!

Game management will change with every situation, every ounce of pain, every inning! It is not a fully "teachable" item nor is it something that can be "learned". It is something that needs to be experienced and controlled. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it is not and sometimes, you are your own worst enemy (like I was).

Regards

[Rcichon]

I think Game Management Skills increase with wisdom.

While most anyone can be taught to remember rules, situation control and the like, every facet of communication (verbal, non-verbal) has a large impact on how your game management skills are perceived by others.

In short, an "Exceptional Official" will be one [everything else being equal] who has a thorough understanding of communications skills and has extensive practice in their execution.
A "Good Official" will be one [everything else being equal] that has effective communication skills but has limited experience executing those.

My $.02

[PeteBooth]

[QUOTE]

Originally Posted by kylejt

He may be an exceptional official, but he's not a good teacher. There are plenty of ways to teach game management. Examples, videos, role playing, etc. I even have managers come in when I teach this at my clinics.

I diagree with the aforementioned.

When it comes to game management is akin "to sitting on the bench and observing"

A QB in football can look at all the video, take in all the knowledge from the verteran QB etc. but it's not until he is "put in the line of fire" that he will "sink or swim".

Also, we all have different personalities and you cannot "teach" a personality.

I will give you an example. One of my partners kicked the s**t out of a call. The manager requested time and was livid. My partner listened for a while and then "out of the blue (no pun intended) said to the manager "skip, here have a life-saver it will make you feel better".

The manager didn't know what to say and simply started laughing and went back to his dugout.

This type of "method" will not work all the time but it did in that occasion. You can't "teach" that.

Yes you can "pick someone's brain" and learn how to control certain situations but for the most part Game mangement is not "taught" it is learned through both Experience and a persons make-up

Pete Booth

[JJ]

I posted this last year, and it fits with game management. The best game managers I've worked with are all AWARE of what's going on and then deal with things accordingly.

AWARENESS. I've been fortunate enough to be able to watch some excellent college umpires, and this is the one thing that seems to keep manifesting itself with the cream of the crop. They know what's going on, where the crap is coming from, where it's liable to come from, who doesn't like whom, past history, who the "players" are, who the "rats" are, who they can talk with and who they can go to to get things done. They know what the score is, who is frustrated (coaches AND players), which partners need "guidance", when to listen and when to raise their voice, when to warn and when to dump. They know the direction the game is headed at any given moment. They pay attention to "message" pitches, chirping, bench-jockeying, and even "eye-balling". They watch the weather, the fans, and they know where security and game management is. If you ask them, they can even tell you where the bathroom is, and the best hot dog in the league, the most economical hotel, and the best local steakhouse.

[waltjp]

Along the lines of what Pete had to say, I don't believe it's 'one size fits all'. What works for one may not work for another. I've seen some officials say things to a coach or manager that I'd never dream of saying. Some people have a knack of defusing a situation with humor. For others a stern warning is what's needed. You have to know your abilities and have to be able to read the situation.

[jkumpire]

Men,

Game management is a set of three principles:

1. Treat other people the way you want to be treated, the Golden Rule always applies.
2. Learn to ignore/deal with pressure, as the old golf saying goes, "put a man on the golf course and you find out in three holes who he truly is." When you learn how to deal with pressure, you can handle any situation, or any manger, because you are the one with a cool head.
3. By experience, "Learn what is fair and right in baseball culture/language." Young umpires need to learn the right language and wrong language to use when a manager is either complaining, or ejecting himself. You need to know in OBR when to to ignore a HBP, and when to stomp on F1. In FED, you need to learn the nuances of enforcing the rules to make the game go smoother.

Master these, and you have good game management skills.

[fitump56]

Originally Posted by kylejt

He may be an exceptional official, but he's not a good teacher. There are plenty of ways to teach game management. Examples, videos, role playing, etc. I even have managers come in when I teach this at my clinics.

WHAT, THIS IS A TOTAL NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

But I do it too

I get what he's saying, but if I can teach a twelve year old kid to send a 55 year old manager with a LL World Series under his belt, back to the dugout, it CAN be taught.

Absolutely. Game management is not doing HAHAHAs over life savers, it is a strict set of rules, conversation, warnings and action.

Originally Posted by fitump56

Absolutely. Game management is not doing HAHAHAs over life savers, it is a strict set of rules, conversation, warnings and action.

Do you actually do games at age levels where they shave?

[bossman72]

Originally Posted by rei

Do you actually do games at age levels where they shave?

The more important question: does he actually teach at clinics???

[SanDiegoSteve]

This from today's San Diego Padres/Colorado Rockies game:

SAN DIEGO -- This qualifies as bizarre, even for San Diego outfielder Milton Bradley.

Bradley, who has earned a reputation as being temperamental in his career, was ejected during the eighth inning of Sunday's 7-3 loss to the Rockies by first-base umpire Mike Winters after the two exchanged words.

Only it's not that simple, said Padres first-base coach Bobby Meacham, who witnessed the incident and said it is Winters and not Bradley who should bear the burden of guilt after what occurred in front of a crowd of 37,984 at PETCO Park.

"Everyone is going to make a twist that Milton Bradley blew up again," Meacham said. "This kid [Bradley] is doing a great job holding it together. He's not going to get thrown out because he knows his team needs him. But there's no possible way a man is going to stand there and take what he said to Milton.

"In 26 years of baseball, I couldn't believe my ears the way that he spoke to Milton. [It] was so disrespectful, so angry, so vindictive. The boiling point is when he called Milton a name. Milton did not saying anything to him to get him to do that."

The incident didn't begin with what happened in the eighth inning after Bradley reached base after a single, which was about the only thing the Padres and the umpire crew were in complete agreement on.

Bradley was called out on strikes to end the fifth inning. Plate umpire Brian Runge told the Associated Press that Bradley "... flipped the bat right in front of me, about 5 to 10 feet in front of me."

Runge asked Bradley before his eighth-inning at bat if Bradley had flipped his bat in the direction of Runge intentionally.

"He said 'no,'" Runge said. "He said, 'Did he [Winters] tell you that I threw at you? He started to point at Mike. I said 'no, no.' I even threw my hands up and told him to calm down."

Once Bradley arrived at first base, he engaged in what essentially appeared to be a tame conversation with Winters, who was standing behind him while play continued. That's when things got strange.

"I get a hit and I go to first base, and I asked him [Winters] 'Did you tell him I threw my bat at him?'," Bradley said. "He said, 'Yeah, you did.' I said, 'Are you kidding me? That's completely ridiculous. Why would you do that? Why were you even watching me? If I strike out, the inning's over, why are you even looking at me.'"

It was about then, when, according to Meacham, a fan in the seats down the first-base line yelled something from the stands directed toward Winters.

"Someone from the stands booed the umpire and Milton pointed to the guys in the stands. He didn't say anything, [he] didn't look at him. Then the umpire went off on Milton and called him a name," Meacham said. "If he had said that to me, I would have charged him."

The crew chief, Bruce Froemming, said Winter's actions were justified. Winters was not made available for comment after the game by Froemming.

"He got grumpy with Mike Winters," Froemming said. "Winters told him to knock it off and he continued it. There is no covering up what he did. He had to be physically restrained. We're not going to put up with that."

Bradley suffered an injury to his right knee when Padres manager Bud Black separated him from Winters. Bradley fell to the ground and clutched his knee. He then had to be helped from the field and complained of soreness in his knee after the game.

"It's killing me," Bradley said before leaving to have an MRI to assess the damage.

Meacham said that he was incensed further when the rest of the umpiring crew came over to where the incident occurred and Winters explained to Froemming what had happened.

"When he explained it to the other umpires when Buddy came out [it was a] straight lie," Meacham said. "I heard what he said and asked him why he was lying. He explained it to me again what he said and I said, 'That's a lie. You're wrong. You made a mistake. You lied.'"

Bradley said this was another case of him being unfairly maligned for past incidents. He shared that same sentiment earlier this month after he was ejected from a game against Arizona by home-plate umpire Phil Cuzzi for not leaving the batter's box quickly enough. Bradley never said a word in that incident before being ejected.

"All I do is try go out there and play baseball hard. I've done everything in my power to do things the right way," Bradley said. "That guy, Mike Winters, no reason for it. There is no reason for that. You don't ride people. He kept talking to me. He wouldn't stop. If he tries to say I did anything wrong, it's completely ludicrous.

"It's terrible, and now because of him my knee's hurt. If he costs me my season because of that, he needs to be reprimanded. I'm going to take some action."

END OF ARTICLE

It was also reported on the local news that Winters made a racist remark (the name he called him) to Bradley. There's your game management, I guess!

[fitump56]

Originally Posted by bossman72

The more important question: does he actually teach at clinics???

Better than that. We are hired to setup game management policies for all participants and fans. This is a strict set of well definrd rules where the line of demarcation and unacceptable behavior is clearly understood.

And you?