Associations feud

[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