Educating teams in ASA rules

[Shmuelg]

Keep up the good work, folks.

I can tell you how we do it here in Israel:

We have a competitive men's fastpitch leage, and the board of directors of the league requires each team to furnish two names of people to go to the umpiring course, which takes place Feb-March. The course goes over rules, mechanics, and situations. We also have practice runs umping Junior national and Women's national practice games, with comments after the game, and sometimes during it.

That that there are several umps who play on each team helps the game go better all around. For instance, when an ump calls someone safe when he's out, and the reason he did that was because he did not see the play, the players understand. Or the proper way to make an appeal. Or when the ump says nothing on a ball that went down the foul-line and might have been foul, might have been fair (if he says nothing, it's fair). Or what the players can do on an infield fly. Or what can be argued (rules points, or "ask for help"), and what cannot (judgement calls).

After the game, when everyone is in line doing the "good game" handshake, the umps are on the side, and get a handshake as well.