Which rules do you enforce

[KJUmp]

Originally Posted by Blue37

Great question.

I am a firm believer in situational ethics, and I am a firm believer in situational officiating. I take the following into account: The age of the participants, the skill level of the participants, the score of the game, the history between the teams, the presence of an observer, and most importantly, the expectations of the league and the assignor.

I do not want this post to get too long, so I will stick with one example, balks. The older the player, the better the skills, the closer the game, the tighter I will call the balks. If the teams want balks called tighter or if my assignor wants balks called tighter, I will oblige. The presence of an observer impacts how I call. I am fairly strict to start with, and am even less likely to let something slide if an observer is present.

It has been said that our customer is the game itself, and, in part, that is true, but the game does not assign me, and does not write my checks. I try to ascertain what my assignor and the leagues want called and how they want it called, and adjust to those expectations.

Blue: IMO you hit the nail square on the head in the first two sentences of your post. The league/assignor is our customer...give them the type of umpired game they want.