Umpiring Politics

[DG]

Originally Posted by johnnyg08

Well fellas, I just found out that I have been pulled from the championship game of a local upcoming, important tournament because I had to enforce the rules of baseball the way they're supposed to be enforced. Due to local politics, the team that might get to the championship might make the tournament and they didn't want to ruffle any feathers by having me work the game. My question to you is that have you ever felt that you did the right thing when umpiring and then either not receive or get pulled from a future big game due to ejecting participants/coaches rather than simply taking the BS from participants? As I look back on it, had I not ejected and simply took the BS, I'd still be working the game.

What are your stories?

Several years ago I was working a 13-14 league and on two separate occasions I made a 15 year old "coach" (HC other son) wear a mask to warmup a pitcher a) behind the plate, and b) in the bullpen. On both occasions the HC and other adult assts threw a fit, said he was a coach, they had approval from the league, he is on the roster, yadayadayada, and on both occassions I told them it was fine for him to be a coach but minors can't warmup pitchers without a mask. Finally I said "are you going to make him wear a mask or not?" The answer was going to determine whether HC stayed in the game or not. Finally, I had to make all the coaches on this team stay in the dugout because they were all standing outside the fence during play, including the 15 year old, who was outside the dugout taking practice swings with a bat. This was 3 different games, you would think they would learn.

Well the team complained, the league said they would make all umpires enforce these rules, but, they did not want me to umpire anymore. This was about a week before legion ball started, so no skin off my back. I did not lose any sleep about it and will do it again if needed.