Umpiring Politics

[JRutledge]

Ump 25,

Remember you brought this up, I do not recall anyone making this claim or not making the claim about Chicago area specifically, I am just commenting on your statements.

And yes other sports matter when many of the baseball umpires I work with, also work other sports. And the college baseball umpires I work with, also work other college sports. So I am often dealing with the same people. And if there is backstabbing as you suggested, it does not seem to hurt anyone. And I can tell you the multi-sport officials are not phased that much either based on the conversations I have with them. And often I have work with people that have much less experience than I and often are breaking into the level we are working. And they certainly have not passed me in my assignments. I am not seeing the issues you raise. Which also makes me think attitude that you bring to the table plays a role on some level. Because I would not know what a big time assignment is other than post season games. And even in those cases when I have gotten a so-called big time assignment, there are people that have no idea I worked the game or was assigned.

Again, I am sure this is more about perspective than whether there really is this politics you claim are so bad. That does not mean what you and others does not see is real, but I would bet most umpires that work football or basketball will scoff at claim of how bad it is, when they really have seen some issues in those other sports. Then again I do not buy into the whole politics issues anyway for a lot of reasons I have stated over the years.

Peace