Never done this before: Told a coach to go yell at my partner :D

[chapmaja]

Originally Posted by teebob21

I said "practice"! Not do it on the fly.... :|

Thanks, Andy

For what it's worth...this exercise paid off. My rookie umpire called a LOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW strike 3 this weekend at a 10U tournament. By "LOoooooowww" I mean...it hit the plate. Coach McJerkerson understandably got a little heated. Rookie Umpire was flustered, but she called her partner (not me) in, talked about the situation, and then the Rookie told the coach (paraphrased, since I wasn't on the field) "We hear you, but the pitch was judged a strike and that's what it's going to be." Rookie Umpire's eyes were the size of teacups again through the whole experience.

Lesson #1 in eating one in a real game and moving along. One bad miss in seven games: not a terrible first tournament for a 13-year-old umpire.

I'm glad she has the ability to learn from her mistakes. I've witnessed too many situations where potentially good officials make a mistake and get so beat up about it by coaches and parents that they quit umpiring. We even had a basketball official quit mid-game a few years ago when he was corrected by a fellow official mid-game. He took off his whistle, threw it on the table and walked out.