Associations feud

[thumpferee]

Texas baseball playoffs postponed because of feud between umpire groups | Prep Rally - Yahoo! Sports

Would you back down for the sake of the kids?

[JRutledge]

Problem would be solved if you took associations out of the equation for assigning. When groups that have an interest in the assigning to give to their members, I am not surprised this does not happen more often. Official's Associations should not be assigning any post season anything.

Peace

[jwwashburn]

The schools know who the good umpires are. the athletic directors should ask the coaches and call up guys from a list supplied by the coaches. Plenty of guys would be willing to work the games.

Either that or bring some in from Oklahoma. These guys think they are more important than the kids playing the game. They are not needed.

[rbmartin]

feuding officials groups, injunctions, right to work...

This is a union issue, not an officiating issue.

[jwwashburn]

Right, so some umpires should go officiate the games.

[cbfoulds]

All too typical for news articles that deal with legal issues, this article lacks clarity about what, exactly, the problem is.

"Injunctions" are typically not "filed" by litigants [Petitions for Injunction ARE], rather they are granted by a Judge after some form of hearing on a Petition or Motion. And they are not, typically, granted where what you have is, in essence, a breach of contract suit where money damages [lost umpiring fees, for example] are an available and adequate remedy.

Similarly, it is not clear how the jilted TASO claims the "right" to umpire these particular games. Do they have a contract granting them the exclusive right to supply umpires for all games at a particular venue? Does their contract [presuming they have one] explicitly cover or include post-season/ "playoff" games?

I don't see assigning by an Association as the source of the problem here, nor removing it as a solution. In my area, HS post-season games up to the Regional level are assigned by the association that supplies umpires to the host school(s), and State games are assigned [typically] by the State assigning a particular Assn to supply a crew for a certain game, with the Assn. chosen to be "neutral" to the teams playing, but selected from the group of those Assns who have a team they serve during the regular season in the State Tournament(s). Seems to work fairly well.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by cbfoulds

I don't see assigning by an Association as the source of the problem here, nor removing it as a solution. In my area, HS post-season games up to the Regional level are assigned by the association that supplies umpires to the host school(s), and State games are assigned [typically] by the State assigning a particular Assn to supply a crew for a certain game, with the Assn. chosen to be "neutral" to the teams playing, but selected from the group of those Assns who have a team they serve during the regular season in the State Tournament(s). Seems to work fairly well.

The reason I said this as my state does all post season assigning at all levels comes from the State Office. It eliminates this entire issue all together. Now we are in a big state as well and our state has every single time make the playoffs which has to be a nightmare on many issues. In baseball there are play-in games that are not located at the Regional site (or first stage of the playoffs), so that can be difficult to find people to cover all those games. Associations assigning have inherent interest in who gets those games and IMO if it is not defined who can work those games, this is the problem. Either the state should take over the assigning to prevent this or give it to people that are to be objective that have no direct association ties hired from the state. This would never happen here because if you do not get a playoff game, you cannot run to your association for help. And based on things I have heard about other sports and how Texas assigns, that sounds like a nightmare. Just because something has been done for a long time does not mean it is right or the right way to do things.

Peace

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by jwwashburn

The schools know who the good umpires are. the athletic directors should ask the coaches and call up guys from a list supplied by the coaches. Plenty of guys would be willing to work the games.

Either that or bring some in from Oklahoma. These guys think they are more important than the kids playing the game. They are not needed.

Yeah, let's end the feud between associations with coaches competing to bring in homers.

[johnnyg08]

Originally Posted by MrUmpire

competing to bring in homers.

this is a lot of it!!

[Rich]

Originally Posted by MrUmpire

Yeah, let's end the feud between associations with coaches competing to bring in homers.

It's amazing the stupidity on this board tonight. Let's have each coach pick an umpire and have them change gear after 3.5 innings so each coach gets *his* guy on the plate for half the game. Let's flip a coin to see who calls the plate first, too.

Sheesh.

[CT1]

Our state has eight officiating districts, each of which has several hundred officials and is administered by a District Director. The State Office assigns playoff series (best 2-of-three) to the DDs, who then pick the crews (all 3-man, BTW) to officiate.

Although coaches may "scratch" 3 umpires statewide, they have no other input into the selections.

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by GROUPthink

It's amazing the stupidity on this board tonight. Let's have each coach pick an umpire and have them change gear after 3.5 innings so each coach gets *his* guy on the plate for half the game. Let's flip a coin to see who calls the plate first, too.

Sheesh.

In case you didn't notice the sarcasm, you repeated me point.

[David B]

Originally Posted by jwwashburn

The schools know who the good umpires are. the athletic directors should ask the coaches and call up guys from a list supplied by the coaches. Plenty of guys would be willing to work the games.

Either that or bring some in from Oklahoma. These guys think they are more important than the kids playing the game. They are not needed.

Called in TX up til 1990 and that is how we did it. The coaches got to pick one umpire to work the series and then the other two were assigned by the state association.

But, that was a long time ago and you made big money in the playoffs then so it was an honor to work. We got paid fees, plus travel, and then a % of the gate. Was great to work a game and get paid 300+ per game etc.,

Hello, there might be a reason they didn't pick your association to work the playoffs ...

thanks
David

[Steven Tyler]

Originally Posted by David B

Called in TX up til 1990 and that is how we did it. The coaches got to pick one umpire to work the series and then the other two were assigned by the state association.

But, that was a long time ago and you made big money in the playoffs then so it was an honor to work. We got paid fees, plus travel, and then a % of the gate. Was great to work a game and get paid 300+ per game etc.,

Hello, there might be a reason they didn't pick your association to work the playoffs ...

thanks
David

Yes, you can make big money when you get to the regional finals or higher. However, the same officials make the big money every year. Even had one umpire who is the assigner's son, who gets to work several games, complain that they didn't start taking gate fees until about 10 minutes until game time. Then I've seen umpires who were homers on their calls, probably because they want to be "chosen". I've also seen a four man crew come out in red shirts, and obviously didn't know rotations in the four man.. They also missed several balks when one of the teams pitcher was working from the windup with runners on base. And this was in the later rounds of the playoffs. One coach picked me one year, but for some reason I didn't get assigned. I didn't know until the coach mentioned it the following year.

[David B]

Originally Posted by Steven Tyler

One coach picked me one year, but for some reason I didn't get assigned. I didn't know until the coach mentioned it the following year.

Funny I had the same thing happen. Ran into coach from local school at the mall and he asked why I didn't get assigned their regional final?

He said I requested you and >>> one other guy, and neither got the game.

Politics play a lot in the assigning I'm sure, but where I am now the state assigns and its even worse - guys calling games that are hardly qualified etc.,

Thanks
David