Ichiro's first ejection

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by RPatrino

Tball, are you afraid of a coach calling your assignor and effecting your schedule? In all my years of umpiring I have never heard such a ridiculous assertion, that someone would ignore a situation that needed handling, because it might make a coach angry. Unbelievable, as it just doesn't happen where I am.

Coaches have virtually no pull with the assignor in Southern California, either. That coach rating input and coach preference stuff is a thing of the past. My main assignor couldn't care less about what any coach or AD thinks.

And if they did, I would still stand up the same way I do all the time, because I think respecting the game is paramount, and respecting oneself is up there pretty high.

I've had to run a few players from the 18-U and 25-U wood bat leagues, and one came in a game with my assignor (who's also my high school assignor). Another came in a battle-for-first-place game, in which I was lightly assaulted (bumped, beaked, mildly butted, shoved) and the president and assignor immediately agreed to kick the guy out of the league. He was suspended before I got home, and banned before I finished my report.

The result of standing up and respecting The Game and demanding respect for it: The assignor gave me two championship games with his own crew. That's how that guy backs his umpires, and that's why I drive farther to work for him. Every now and then, you get to drive to some stadium for a championship game.