Yet another blow up

[lawump]

http://www.madison.com/tct/sports/295089

[jwwashburn]

Originally Posted by lawump

http://www.madison.com/tct/sports/295089

One thing that does not ring true is the umpire went back to the field to give the game balls back. It could be true but my BS detector lit up when I read that. Something else was going on there.


Joe in Missouri

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Rich:

I have your back on this one.

MTD, Sr.

[blueump]

Just curious why Rich is talking to the media in the first place. I thought that was also a no-no?

[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 ?

[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."

[Rich]

Originally Posted by blueump

Just curious why Rich is talking to the media in the first place. I thought that was also a no-no?

I am an independent contractor. We do not have an association, or so the league reminded us when we tried to negotiate collectively this season. I had no problem communicating to the media when they asked for comments. At least the Madison media asked - the home team's town weekly rag wrote a blasting article and never once sought comment from us.

This league has a history of sweeping incidents under the rug. Dave and I were the assignors the past three seasons and we would not let that happen -- we pushed for suspensions and messages to be sent where needed. After last year we decided we would not reapply for the job for this season (we got paid poorly and had to put way too much time in it, especially with the lack of cooperation we got from the league), but would umpire once in a while for them if our schedules allowed. This was the fourth game I had umpired all season for them (in over two months of weekly games).

I did not "return to the field." I did roll the balls down the hill (the field sat at the bottom of a hill) and, in retrospect, it wasn't the brightest thing I've ever done as they were thrown back at us by an older gentleman who looked like he was an 8-year-old girl throwing with the wrong arm. Nobody was ever in danger of getting hurt, although both of us couldn't help but laugh as we kept walking away.

The president of the league asked us to keep it quiet, but when I saw the results misrepresented (the game was forfeited when the umpires decided to leave) in Monday's paper, I emailed my ejection/forfeit report to the local papers. That was what prompted the madison.com article.

I am taking a lot of shots on that forum, but that's OK. Dave and I are not softies on the field, but the teams that behave and win in the league have come forward and supported us. One of the managers came by the night the incident happened and drank beer with the two of us and told us how he couldn't believe what the league had come to. I couldn't agree more.

OK, the details in a nutshell: We had a decent game and I had some words with the catcher, who was pulling pitches and then holding the glove and whining about balls and strikes. All I told him was he was never going to get those when he's pulling the glove and telling the world that the pitch was out of the strike zone. Now, I had ejected this guy from a high school game and a Little League game (and the league president said he wasn't a repeat offender, but was suspended last season for 2 games after being ejected, so what's the definition of "repeat offender"?), but to be honest I didn't even know who he was at the time of the incident -- only after I looked at the lineup card did I have that moment of revelation.

The first pitch of the inning: Catcher puts his glove knee high in the middle of the plate and the ball hits me in the chest. I'm in the slot. After getting hit, I look down and the catcher's glove is STILL in the same spot. It still hadn't moved. I ejected him at this point. His reaction was: "You can't prove it. You can't prove I did it on purpose." The home manager charged me and the first words out of his mouth were "What the ****?" I ejected him at that point. The pitcher WAS an afterthought -- when he asked if the pitch was a ball or strike, I got rid of him. I was stunned, to be quite honest. My partner DID end the game, but I was trying to get my bearings together and it was the right move I supported at the time and still do. Wearing a K-1, the pitch hurt quite a bit and I had people charging at me from three directions. The good part was I managed to eject all three of them -- all three ended up bumping Dave while he was keeping them away from me. One thing the YouTube video did for me was prepare me for my reaction when it happens and who has to go. And yet, I was still stunned that someone would do this.

To this moment, the league president is still saying he needs to "gather information" and has yet to talk to myself or my partner about this incident. On Friday, he was at an NBC regional we assign and even though he saw us there, never bothered to talk to us.

And so it goes. Not the way I was expecting to leave this league, but likely the way I will.

[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.

[mick]

Oh, my !
Hope all ends well, Rich.

[wadeintothem]

As one who also had a bad game ending incident happen this year and was also fried in the press (I was fried and lied about in about 5 or 6 papers, although I never did present my side in the paper).. Good job Rich. You are supported by your brothers in blue and we've been there. Sounds like you handled it as well as possible. Some things are beyond your control..

Well done.