The Teaching of Umpires

[mcrowder]

Chessref, my reply, with all possible moral outrage removed.

I submit to you that despite your initial confusion trying to answer question 87 (for example), you learned 25 times more about the rules during your thumbing, indexing, and searching through the book than you EVER would have learned from getting the answer off the internet and then knowing the specific answer to just that one question.

You, after all the fumbling, could likely handle a situation on the field that was similar, but not identical, to the question involved - because you eventually read ALL of the rules that pertain to the question (and possibly several that didn't pertain to THIS question, but pertained to SIMILAR situations). Joe Schmoe, who got the answer off the net, will be lost the minute the on-field situation deviates from this one question.

Therein lies the reason for my "moral outrage" on the other thread. I don't personally know all of my umpires character (yet!), especially the newer ones. I do know that matrix's actions, if seen by any of my newer umpires, makes my job harder.