FED Bashing

[Dakota]

Originally posted by whiskers_ump
We apply the rules of the association that has hired us to officiate the game. AFA, ASA, NSA, USSSA, NCAAA, NHFS,
even USFA or NFSA. You knew going in what was expected. If you don't like it, don't accept the assignment.

Agreed, but this is a rules discussion board, not a protest committee much less an on-the-field ruling.

Don't confuse disagreement with the rule, the philosophy behind the rule, or even the process used to write the rule with applying the rule on the field.

We tend to get motive, loyalty, affiliation, and even integrity confused with opinion.

When calling HS ball, I am fully prepared to call their dodgeball rule as they wish it called. That doesn't mean I agree with it. It also doesn't mean when I express my disagreement with it that I am "bashing" the entirty of the NFHS or their rule-making processes (although I don't particularly like parts of that, either). Criticism is not "bashing."

I do find offensive and hypocritical the self-made claim that NFHS is more interested in participation and more interested in handling kids properly while at the same time allowing state champion teams to be DQed because some sour grapes coach protested AFTER THE FACT that one participant had the wrong color underwear. This is not a one-time anomoly - it has happened at least twice in my little corner of the nation. In the same vein is DQing a team's entire season because one player ON LAST YEAR'S TEAM participated in a summer league. Participation and for the good of the kids my foot. Like many things with government run organizations, common sense is lacking.

Similarly, when I criticise ASA for the influence of adult slowpitch on the JO program I'm not bashing ASA. Neither am I an ASA blind loyalist when I (as in years past) tried to explain the rationale and the interpretation of the "about to receive" clause to those who viewed it as silly or worse.

On the dodgeball rule, I cannot understand the rationale behind the ruling. So, I criticize it in denegrating terms (i.e. "dodgeball") and treat it with derision. But, that is opinion only and only directed at the rule, not the organization, and does not carry over on to the field.

After a year's experience with HS ball, on the whole it was a pleasure, but I did get cheated out of 3 game fees dues to an argument between schools as to who would pay and a school confirming that I was assigned to do their game when they didn't even have a team. Plus,they are very, very slow to pay. I've never had such issues with summer leagues. And, the coach's influence is noticeably greater in how the whole program is run, WMB's protestations to the contrary. Mostly that is benign from the umpire's perspective, but it is real.