Umpire Excellence

[harmbu]

Seven teams in the district tournament. One first round bye.

Day 1 (First Round)
Game 1 (KD & ZnM)
Game 2 (KD & DS)
Game 3 (ZnM & DS)

Day 2 (Semi-Finals)
Game 4 (DS & JG)
Game 5 (JG & DS)

Day 3 (Championship)
Game 6 (ZaM, ZnM & JG)

The umpires were selected by recommendations by the participating coaches and then contacted by me (the district manager). We were rained out on the first scheduled day and had to do some shuffling since some were sheduled to work other places on the make-up days. My team was the #3 seed. We lost to the #2 seed in the semi-finals 14-6. The tournament went as seeded with the exception of the #5 upsetting #4 in the first round.

There was one player ejection in the championship game. The way I saw it, after being called out on strikes, he had some sort of comment. PU did not follow him to the dugout or even watch. As the player neared the dugout, he threw his bat to the ground, threw down his helmet, kicked his helmet, sat down and said in a very loud voice, "Come on guys! You have to swing even if it is a foot outside!" At that point he was ejected. Not a quick trigger by any means, but a well-deserved ejection. After the ejection, the player sat in the dugout with a smirk on his face for the remainder of the game. As justice would have it, his spot came up as the tying run in the top of the seventh and struck out.