won't be the last

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by dash_riprock

He kicked the crap out of a call that 99% of mediocre high school umpires would get right. And he did it in the world series. Doesn't make him a bad guy.

Agreed, or a bad umpire.

He made a blatant, huge, disasterous, and stupid error.

His record and reputation will take a hit, and he will still be a good ML umpire, better than most.

[Arnold A.]

Tim was an extremely good umpire.

He is still a better than average umpire.

He has lost a step (or two) due to age and injury.

In past years, he has made some gross misses in some high-profile games.

All that said, if we are painfully honest, we all have had gross misses in a lot lower profile situations. Does he one butchered call make us lousy umpires?
I hope not!

I think Tim McC should retire, along with Cowboy Joe. They are painful to watch, they can't move.

JMO

[UMP25]

I find interesting all this talk about "So-and-so was a good umpire," because one has to wonder at what point do we focus on the "was" a good umpire and wonder if said person still is a good umpire.

After he retired, Johnny Carson was asked why he retired when he did, why he retired when he was still good, still funny, still relevant. Carson replied that he would rather go out while still at the top of his game, having people tell him, "You didn't have to retire; you were still good," rather than retiring too late and having people tell him, "You should have retired years ago."

I wonder if we can say this about some MLB Umpires or even about ourselves. I hope I stand by my promise I made to myself, that being when I am no longer able to physically umpire, or when I believe I am hurting the game, I will retire. The game deserves me at my best, in good enough condition to do an excellent job. When my abilities tank, it's time to go.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by UMP25

When my abilities tank, it's time to go.

And there's the rub: for so many, the abilities don't "tank," but rather slowly ebb. Hard to know when to stop, since tomorrow's performance won't be noticeably different from today's.