Umpire Conflict of interest?

[Fletch]

What is your opinion on this scenerio. A multi town league that comprises of 5 towns. Uses ASA officials. The officials also coach in the same league at the same age groups. Should this be allowed?

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally posted by Fletch
What is your opinion on this scenerio. A multi town league that comprises of 5 towns. Uses ASA officials. The officials also coach in the same league at the same age groups. Should this be allowed?

I (as an umpire assignor) would allow an umpire who also coaches to umpire in that league at any other age group. That umpire would only umpire in the same age group that he coaches (or has a child playing) if it was an absolute necessity, and then only with the approval of all affected head coaches.

In my opinion, these umpires should want to avoid any appearance of conflict or impropriety. No matter how good or fair they are presumed to be, perception is reality in a case like this.

[umpharp]

I would be very hesitant to use coaches from the same league and level. Whil most games would be smooth, it would only take one sititution (i.e. a late season game where a team needs a win for first place and the umpire happens to be the coach of the team that would lose first place if the other team won, etc) to really make fur fly.
I would try and use ASA guys that had no interest in the league or at least coaches from other age groups.

[IRISHMAFIA]

You need to remember, this is a local league. Many local leagues use the coaches and volunteers from non-playing teams to umpire games.

Do these umpires work any other league, or just the one in which they coach?

[Mike Walsh]

Originally posted by IRISHMAFIA
You need to remember, this is a local league. Many local leagues use the coaches and volunteers from non-playing teams to umpire games.

Do these umpires work any other league, or just the one in which they coach?

If it is a volunteer situation, I'd be even more against it (although it is more likely to occur out of necessity). The problem is they will be more likely to focus on strikes and outs, and go easy on safety issues. They tend to look the other way about things like how many batters are in the on-deck area, because the coach today will be officiating their game tomorrow. Until someone gets hurt.

Mike

[mcrowder]

I'm in a situation much like this. I am UIC, and have only found 6-8 people willing to work as umpire. Many of them either coach, assistant coach, or at least parent kids in this league. One is even the commissioner for one of the age groups. There are a limited number of adults willing to be involved in leagues like this sometimes - potential conflict is always around the corner.

The best solution - any parent/coach/etc with a vested interest in a particular team should avoid working any games in that age group. As the season progresses, this can be relaxed in certain situations, and tightened in others. Joe Parent is not allowed to work any 12U games early in the season because his daughter plays on a 12U team. Halfway through the season, Joe's daughter's team is out of the running. Assuming Joe is a qualified umpire that you can rely on to be unbiased (and has had no problems with coaches or players on competing teams), you might relax his restriction on this age group. Or let's say his daughter's team is winning it all - he might be able to still work the occasional 12U game between cellar dwellars.