One of those days.....

[MichaelVA2000]

Originally Posted by jkumpire

Johnny and Byron,

I am not running a doggone thing, or I wouldn't be talking about it. You think I wrote this because I'm happy about it? Look, in a lot of places today rules don't matter, if you can find something convenient that satisfies both sides. It stinks. And if one coach involved is/was an umpire, it's even worse. How in the world can you be down in a game and then agree to something like this? Now you have thrown your own team under the bus.

No, you can't violate the book, but when you are not the UIC, and you don't know until after the game the coaches agreed on this (though I admit I had a feeling it wasn;t the team manager they dressed), please tell me what you can do about it? I could walk off the field, or run both managers, or throw my partner under the bus, or do all those things and look like such a rube I won't get a game within 100 miles of my house.

Yeah, I could have just said, "Look coach, these are the rules, you don't like what we are saying, tough. Look it up yourself." But we had time to get a book and show him, and since obviously the coach has never had the situation before he doesn't know. Showing him in a book when you have to get it w/o delaying the game is not a mistake. Maybe I'm too ncie a guy to be an umpire, but if you have alternatives under the circumstances, I'll listen to them.

Actually as an umpire you are not there to appease both coaches. You are there to officiate the game by the playing rules. The fact that one of the coaches claimed to be an umpire is irrelevant.

A rules book was requested and the request was met. The alternatives for this game situation were in the retrieved rules book; sadly you and your partner chose to ignore them.

What would have been wrong with getting together with your partner and reviewing the rule and deciding to enforce the rule and then presenting this decision to the coaches? Your alternatives were either to enforce the rules or not enforce the rules. Sadly you and your partner chose not to.