inconsistant umpiring FED rules

[UMP 64]

I have been fortunate to work 2 tournaments with in 3 weeks and really enjoyed seeing teams from other parts of my state as well a as other surrounding states. Unfortunately, many of the visiting teams do not have umpires calling games with in the NFHS rules.

I guess it is not chear and concise what constitutes an illegal pitch, ie. feet outside the pitching plate borders, licking fingers w/no wipe, leaping, how the DP/FLEX works, what bats are legal and that the "2000" bat must be accompanied by the 27+ page supplimental ASA list to be carried with the team, just to mention a few problems. When our local umpires apply NFHS rules in these sutuations, these teams talk and act as though they have never heard these rules before.

The only reason I can guess that these issues are not addresses where the teams play their regular season games, is that some umpires want the good ratings and do not want to cause problems. Granted, we are not perfect in our association either, but we do address these issues and try to be consistant through out our ranks. We have a way to go in our training, but we are not affraid to make the call as we see it.

Do any other associations see the same problems when you have out of area teams in for tournaments?