What about good friends?
 

I don't have this problem in softball...

But I coach baseball and have made many friends, some close ones, through coaching with them or coaching their kids. Then, in the winter, I referee football, and in peewee or junior high I often have one team I don't know at all and the other team I know every single kid by name, along with coaches I'm friends with.

In general, the kids seem to like me out there, but the coaches don't. Wonder why? :)

<b>As [my father] slid into 3rd on the back end of a triple, I saw and heard his leg snap.</b>

So is he suing everyone and everything in sight, including you?

There was a case like that years ago around here. One friend sued another over an injury from an accidentally thrown bat. Their friendship didn't suffer, as I guess it was only inssurance money at stake.

PS. The double "s" in the last line is not a typo. Every time I tried to type in that word, it produced a hyperlink. Is that happening to anyone else?

I think the issue of relatives come up more in fast pitch than slow pitch. Problem I see with some of the slow pitch leagues is you never know who's playing on those teams. I've worked games that involved people I went to college with, even though that college is a 2 hour drive away. Ditto for some old high school chums, and that's an hour and a half away. Guess it can't be avoided in a big city.

I agree. I think that in SP nobody cares much about relatives or friends here or there. In fact, I routinely umpire contests in which guys who played with, against, and for me compete.

Our association covers two counties plus parts of two others. Most of the guys grew up around here, so they're naturally going to know a lot of the players.

NOTE: Somebody help me out! I tried to type the word g-a-m-e-s, but once again I produced a hyperlink. Apparently my posts fill with link codes on certain words.

games
insurance

Hmmm... no problem here.

If you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to VIEW and click STATUS BAR (if it is not already checked).

Then type your problem words into a message post and do a "preview reply" -- float your mouse pointer over the link in the preview window and look in the status line to see what web address it is linking you to. That may give you a clue what is going on.

<a href="http://get-faster.com?go=<a href="http://get-certified.net?go=insurance" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: insurance';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">insurance</a>" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: <a href="http://go-acct.com?go=insurance" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: insurance';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">insurance</a>';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''"><a href="http://get-data.net?go=insurance" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: insurance';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">insurance</a></a>
<a href="http://get-faster.com?go=<a href="http://get-faster.com?go=games" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: games';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">games</a>" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: <a href="http://000info.com?go=games" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: games';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">games</a>';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''"><a href="http://get-faster.com?go=games" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: games';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">games</a></a>

Thanks for the assistance, Dakota. One word creates the following link:

h t t p : / / get-certified . net/? go = g a m e s

The other word creates a corresponding link.

I see that other links sometimes appear, too. Somebody's worm or something got into my computer. I'll try updating Norton Antivirus and then running it.

Whatever it is keeps removing my password, too.

You might have been infected by adbot-like advertizing software. In addition to Norton, (if that doesn't cure it), try this:

http://www.safer-networking.org/

That is the website for Spybot Search & Destroy, a free program that will remove advertizing software from your computer.

Thank you, Dakota.

Your help, plus my son's facility with the protection programs, got rid of the infection, and apparently hundreds of others.

It was a recent infection. He had to get the latest updates to apply the "cure."

Death penalty for malicious hackers.

About 20 years ago my dad showed up to watch my high school game.(baseball) For some reason they didn't have an ump and he ended up stuck behind the plate with me pitching. As I remember it nobody had any problems with any calls.(including me) He had done a few other games I was in but would never do the plate incase I ended up pitching. Brian

In my town we use a single umpire because of the budget.
Due to a lack of umpires i was told to umpire a game against my own team that i was a pitcher on.
Well needless to say,I was a bum all the way around.
I called my first baseman coming home from third out at the plate on a slide for the last play of a 7th inning 6 to 5 run game and didnt bat an eye.He was out. Game over.
Fortunately I have a great coach and he showed his approval but to this day my firstbaseman swears he was safe.lol
All in fun.
pops
peace

For the most part it should be avoided, even at the youngest levels. However, that's not always possible. My daughter is on the HS varsity team now, and I recused myself from all of her team's games. When she was a 10-year old Little Leaguer, I did a few, and I'd love to be able to forget the looks she gave me for called third strikes. Unfortunate circumstances led to me being the "team ump" when she was 12, but I never had to call one. With 2 strikes she either struck out or hit anything close.

When my son played minors, 8-10, I was asked a few times to do his game because they just did not have anyone else. I would get both managers and tell them 1) my son was on the team; 2) he struggles at the plate; 3) I won't call strikes on him, if he doesn't swing he'll walk; 4) if the opposing coach has a hitter who struggles, I'll give him the same consideration; and 5) I understand if this is unacceptable, and they can get someone else to do it. In this, my terms were non-negotiable. They always accepted, and it always worked out well.

As a LL assignor, I would permit it only as a last resort, and even then I told the umpire not to be hard on his son to prove he was not biased - it just isn't fair to his son. Better to go the other way, if priorities are set properly.

Mike

The worst situation I had like this was when coaching basketball (CYM) and no refs showed up. As I was also a ref, I was pressured into refereeing the game. Fortunately, I was able to get the assistant coach of the other team to "help" even though he wasn't a ref. We made it through, but with lots of tension.

Not old enough to have children playing, but I have umpired for my OLDER sister before...not a fun time, but both teams were okay with it.

More likely than not, I end up with this situation: Umpiring high school/college games for schools that have one or more player that I have UMPIRED with. Usually I'll call the two schools ahead of time to see if it is okay with them and then I'll adjust if needed. I umpire 300 fastpitch games a year so I'm quite known (good or bad). It's hard not to do a game where someone on either team doesn't know me...I'm sure it's the same for many of you out there.

I have to tell this story...
 

...and even though it was a baseball game, it fits on this topic.

A few years ago, I got a call from a high school needing an emergency fill-in. I taught at the high school that the home team was playing. I also had a couple of nephews that played for the at which I taught. I made sure the school A.D. knew this, and he said he nor the head coach had problems with this, so I took the game.

I called my wife before I left for the game letting her know where I would be that evening. Her response, and I'm not joking, was "Are you going to ride the team bus to the game?" She was dead serious when she asked that! I had to explain to her that it might be a good idea to not do that.