Obvious mudball

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by MrUmpire

That is not something that happens on a national level in the US. It would be unique to contries outside of the US.

Unfortunately, it occurs in isolated cases in the US, but it is not common. Even in those cases, usually a coach may black list one or two umpires a season, but he may not dictate which of the others he gets.

In San Diego, the coaches are given a "scratch list" at the beginning of the season, and they can scratch anyone they want from their home games. The assignor then makes sure those coaches see the umpires they scratched at many of their road games throughout the year. The coaches may not scratch an umpire mid-season. Once the list is submitted, that's it. The coaches cannot choose the umpires they do get, but they do have "request lists" for playoff games, and those requested umpires get the first shot at those games.