Yet another blow up

[SanDiegoSteve]

Wow. I think that Rich did the right thing. It appears quite obvious that these bozos intentionally allowed him to be hit.

I posted my comments after reading the ones that were posted. Some of the comments made a lot of sense, and a lot were posted by homer-biased fans and wannabes.

Rich...why did you bring the balls back? I would have just kept going at that point and perhaps returned them at a later date. This sounds like one of those "fun" leagues where you have to make a mad dash to your car after the game, and then check underneath for car bombs.

[BigUmp56]

Wow, Rich!

I carefully read all of the posts there and there seems to be a prevailing opinion amongst the individuals that posted. It is that you and your partner come to their fields with a strong authoritative presence that they resent like Hell. Well, I have some news for them. When you work in a league where there's no code of decorum that the participants follow, you have to have that kind of presence on the diamond. If you don't they'll try to intimidate you and own your calls. I hope you decide to let them beat up on other umpires and tell them to stick their league where the sun don't shine!

Tim.

[Welpe]

Rich all I've got to say is way to take care of business.

[TussAgee11]

Good job Rich. Sounds like you allowed people to make their own choices, and penalized each one accordingly.

[DG]

According to the writeup Thom, the base umpire forfeited the game. I thought forfeits were the duty of the plate umpire.

If a player picked up a returned ball and threw it at Rich, why did the article not mention the chargess that should surely follow.

And lastly, if I had this situation, and got to my car realizing I still had basesballs, they would go into my trunk with the rest of my gear and later be donated to a friend who has a young kid who plays ball.

[Carbide Keyman]

It would be interesting to hear Rich's take, though that may not be the wisest move at this point in time.

An aside, after reading the comments posted after the article, how do think these "fans" would "like" guys like Tim C., Garth, Ozzy, or Peter Osborne ?

Or canadaimp6 for that matter ?

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Carbide Keyman

It would be interesting to hear Rich's take, though that may not be the wisest move at this point in time.

An aside, after reading the comments posted after the article, how do think these "fans" would "like" guys like Tim C., Garth, Ozzy, or Peter Osborne ?

Or canadaimp6 for that matter ?

Trust me -- those guys would be no different than us. It would just add more of us to the mix. This weekend, Dave and I assigned the NBC regional and a few of the Internet umpires came to work. Six games, no real complaining, good umpiring, one ejection. By Bob Jenkins, himself.

[ozzy6900]

Originally Posted by Carbide Keyman

It would be interesting to hear Rich's take, though that may not be the wisest move at this point in time.

An aside, after reading the comments posted after the article, how do think these "fans" would "like" guys like Tim C., Garth, Ozzy, or Peter Osborne ?

Or canadaimp6 for that matter ?

I've never really cared how the fans like me (or don't like me) because I am not there for them. When I played, I was working for my manager and team. Now I am there to officiate the game and that has nothing to do with the fans as they are on the other side of the fence. I am there to see that the rules of the game are held up not to make friends with and educate the spectators (as some umpires still insist doing).

Given the same situation, I don't think that I would have done anything differently than Rich did aside from returning the balls - yeah, that was not the best decision, Rich!

[MichaelVA2000]

Originally Posted by DG

If a player picked up a returned ball and threw it at Rich, why did the article not mention the chargess that should surely follow.

The article did not say a player picked up a returned ball and threw it at Rich. This is what the article said: "After he rolled the balls toward the field of play, at least one McFarland fan picked up the balls and threw them at Fronheiser."

[DG]

Originally Posted by MichaelVA2000

The article did not say a player picked up a returned ball and threw it at Rich. This is what the article said: "After he rolled the balls toward the field of play, at least one McFarland fan picked up the balls and threw them at Fronheiser."

Rich Fronheiser is Rich Fronheiser. I expect most of us here thought the Fronheiser mentioned in the article was Rich Fronheiser, not someone else we never heard of.

You picking nits for fun or what?