N.S.A World Series

[SWFLguy]

$25 a game ???
"coolie wages"--why would you even go there ??
sorry "world series" if they expect the best to work for that.

[NEohioref]

Sorry for the late post. First I would like to say I had a great time. My uncle and I stayed at Holiday Express in Portage Indiana. It was about a 23 min drive to the Fields. Which I think we were very lucky because a few guys had about a 50 minute drive to our site in Michigan City. Hotel rooms were actually $119 per night so they wernt cheap.Thanks N.S.A! Typicall hotel breakfast all your breads and cold cereal, juices. This hotel actually had biscuits n gravy , eggs and sausage. Which I thought was different but in a good way. But enough about the great hotel. We arrived sunday afternoon just in time for the umpire meeting. They told us what was expected of us and stressed who has the right to the orange bag. It seems as if coaches and some umpires had lot of questions about this. They also said the shiney hairclips were illegal. Those have become very popular this year.And also the sliding pant must be worn the proper way. Meaning not rolled down because of the neon yellow had that looks like a ball. We met our U.I.C for the week and he was great. Thanks Mike.O ! They had pizza and salad waiting for us after the 40 minute meeting. We worked in 3-man crews per day and rotated umps and fields everyday so we could all work with different people. Mike did a great job of whizzing us around in the golf cart from fields,to our cars,and to the pressboxes which the umpires used to rest and change clothes in. We had plenty of water and snacks handy. Monday and Tuesday was a breeze. Those 2 days all the games were pool play. On Wednsday we ran into trouble.We had good weather until about my 3 o clock game. Thats when we saw the lighting. So we started a 30 minute delay. In the pressbox the U.I.C had a laptop to update scores and checked the weather. We had a bad storm that lasted about 4 1/2 hrs. After the storm passed the infields were muddy. The grounds crew got 6 of the 7 fields playable. One at a time they finished them. They did an excellent job !! My 3pm game didnt start until about 830pm. I ended up losing 2 games because of the delay and never made them up. It rained Thursday morning and all games were delayed until noon. I did 3 games that day. Again I lost a couple of games. Some guys were disappointed because they could have made more money at home. They were paying $27.50 per game. And they paid us by check at the end of the week. Which kinda sucked because I only took $100 cash with me thinking we were going to get paid cash at the end of the day. And yep I didnt bring any debit or credit cards with me. But I made it through.We got 1/2 off at the concession stand as well. The intensity picked up in the middle of the week. As some teams were facing elimination. There was only one real problem that I heard about and that was a fan was upset with a call that the ump made and told him he would meet him in the parking lot. Im not sure what happened after this but our U.I.C told us if we ever get threatend or feel we are in danger to stop the game and contact him right away, With no regard to the clock. You could tell he had our back 100%. He also told us if we had a question about a rule to ask him. He told us he back our call even if we are right or wrong, but also explain the rule. Which I felt was really cool. Overall I did 14 games as we left Friday afternoon back to Ohio. Overall I had a great time and would encourage any umpire who did not have a great time in the past to try it again. The umpires were treated with respect and coaches always seemed to say Good Job Blue or Thank You! Even the losing coaches. Im sure there is alot of this that I missed or did not cover. But if you would like to know anything just let me know! Thanks for reading!

[NEohioref]

Its hard for me to imagine that everyone agrees with me or im not interesting. I know for a fact that some of you guys were with me umpiring so let it all hang out.My goal is only to get better. Either way I would like a response from someone. I dont care if it is positive or negative.

[Indiana_Umpire]

I just found this site, and am really enjoying it. I came across this thread, and found it interesting since I attended the tournament. I must say that I was very unimpressed by the umpiring. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but the umpiring wasn't up to the standards I would have for a "world series" tournament. The judgement of the umpires was terrible, and if anyone even began to question an umpire on a call, they were immediately threatened with ejection. Come on, simply asking questions is a part of the game. In fact, we had one crew that screwed the clock up, and a 1.5 hour game ended up taking over 2.5 hours - and then the umps had the gall to try to blame the coaches! I think the highlight of the week was seeing a plate umpire "entertain" everyone behind the plate every half inning with jokes. I couldn't tell if he wanted to be an umpire or a comedian. (I think he was a better comedian.) Also -- you'all worked 2 man crews. In the ASA nationals I have worked, everything has been 3 man crews. If the NSA wants to be taken seriously, they need to step up their umpire program, because many (not all), but many of the umps they had working this tourney wouldn't have been able to work a ASA state tournament, let alone what was billed as a "world series". Very unimpressed.

[mccann]

What happened to NEohioref on the NSA Nationals. Did he like what the tournament, or is is going to go back to ASA.

[NEohioref]

I enjoyed myself . And look forward to going back in the future.I have never umpired A.S.A,only Pony. Im not sure how they pick which umpires go yo the N.S.A nationals. But I did hav ethe chance to go and it was an honor to me. What city/site did this clock error occur. And im sorry if you mis understood me we work 2 men per field on rotation plate,base,off or base,off,plate,base. The off man coming in to the plate.

[Indiana_Umpire]

The clock error occured at Michigan City. The coaches tried to bring it to the plate umpires attention, based on what the coaches had for the start time -- when the problem was brought to the PU's attention, there should have been 5 minutes left in the game. However, something went wrong with the clock, and it had stopped. The PU came over to the fence, looked at the clock, shrugged his shoulders and walked back to the plate. After a 10 minute half-inning, the coach again brought it to the crews attention. This time the BU came over, and said that "someone" must have stopped the clock. He said there was nothing that could be done - started the clock - and the game had 20 minutes to go! It was brought to the UIC's attention, which fell on deaf ears, and the game ended up taking well over 2.5 hours. Sad. When walking off the field, a comment was made to the crew -- and the BU replied that it was the coaches fault the clock stopped. When he was challenged, he went and cried to the UIC, and tried to get the folks that questioned him thrown out of the park. I have never, in my 25 years of softball, seen a group of umpires more scared to have someone question them on the game they are hired to umpire. Again, I'm sure there are some good NSA umps, but I have yet to see one. I sure hope you were ata different site.
And let me clarify that the ASA nationals that I have worked have been true 3 man crews on all of the games....We went one on and one off, but all games were umpired by 3 man crews.

[NEohioref]

Well guess what I was in Michigan city. And if this is the same situation I know what went down beacuse the umpires did discuss this. The plate umpire was using the base umps timer, On this timer if you do not turn it off after the alloted time it starts counting up.I know exactly who and what you are talking about. I'm not going to throw the coach or the umpire under the bus. Because im not sure who is truely at fault. And the U.I.C backed his umpires desicion on the time. How could he fairly judge how much time is left.If he would have went with what the coaches said, that would have meant he didnt trust his umpires.J.M.H.O

[Indiana_Umpire]

NEohioref -- Well, at least you are able to proivde more information that the crew on the field did. I don't understand where this could be a "trust" situation. The UIC, Umps, and Coaches could have gotten together and got the RIGHT CALL, instead of worrying about egos and backing up Umps. The crew made a mistake, albeit a honest mistake that could be rectified. If the clock starts to could up after it expires, then couldn't it be said that time had officially expired if it was running up instead of down? (Seems common sense to me.) However, the crew did want to discuss it, was annoyed that it was taken to the UIC, and in the end even more damage was done than the original problem. In this case, the crew made the situation worse. As Umps, aren't we taught not to make things worse than they are? So, in reality, the crew made a mistake, made the mistake worse, and the UIC then helped continue making it worse. I guess it comes back to my original observation that I wasn't very impressed with NSA, it's umpires, it's umpire training, or it's UIC. But, thank you for helping me understand what actually happened. If the crew had taken 2 minutes to listen and talk with the coaches, maybe this whole thing could have been avoided. Thanks!

[NEohioref]

Thanks you sound like somone I can really talk too. With your point being taken about the coaches and the umps coming together. How much time would have been left , or how much time is left ,how many runs scored should be counted. Or just play another full inning and call it quits?what did u want to see? I R A Blue? Indiana Ump?

[BretMan]

I wonder if the "comedian umpire" was the same guy I was partnered with a couple of weekends ago. He said he was from the Dayton, OH area which would put him pretty close to Indiana.

He had a running commentary going with players, coaches and fans throughout the entire game. When he did the plate, between innings he would mill around behind the backstop and keep the commentary going with fans in the bleachers.

During one such break, he made his rounds and stopped at every little kid or baby in a stroller, stooped down and gave them a "cootchie-coo" or slapped them a "high five"!

One strange habit he had mechanics-wise was that about half the time he called a strike he would use NO hand signal whatsoever.

Our second game together he worked the bases and this one really takes the cake. The pitcher completed his warm-ups, I get behind the plate and am ready to go...but my base umpire is MIA.

I walk down the first base line to find him and see him rummaging around in the grass behind the dugout. A player had lost his car keys and he was helping him look for them!!!

[Indiana_Umpire]

NEohioref - Well, I appreciate you speaking openly about what happened. I think it's something we all can learn from, and since we can't change the past -- we only have the future to focus on.
I guess from my perspective if I were in the same situation, I would hope that I would -- have jumped on handling the problem as soon as the time question was asked. (Note that in this case, the crew actually waited an inning to an inning-and-a-half to actually find out what was going on.) Knowing my clock, I would have then gathered the coaches and my fellow ump to explain what happened, and then (depending on who was hitting, the inning, etc.) I would then have formulated what would have been the most fair solution possible. However, simply continuing to play wouldn't be an option....and that's basically what happened. It just appeared that the crew was caught off guard, became very defensive, and didn't want to look bad. Maybe they throught the the UIC could come down on them, heck, I don't know, but the way they handled it was wrong. Communication...communication....communication. They just didn't talk, to each other, the coaches, nothing. Then to make it worse, I think the coaches were afraid to talk with them, (more than the little they did), in fear that they would be ejected since both made it clear that they weren't gonna' "take nothing" from anyone. Again, thanks for the discussion. I know I've learned something from all of this, and I appreacaite your time.

[Indiana_Umpire]

BretMan - His mechanics were "ok"...nothing to write home about, and his zone was a little tight. But, as for his "antics", we might be talking about the same person! I just found it really, really odd and frankly unprofessional the way we was handling himself. And the BU in this crew wasn't much better. I "heard" (yes, I will admit I didn't hear this myself), that the BU openly asked the opposing coach (who was a home-towner), about purchasing some insurance from him during the coin flip. Now, if I'm the other coach, and hear one of the umpires that is about to call a winners bracket semi-final - ask the opposing coach about purchasing some insurance from him....well, let's just say that I'm off to a bad start. These guys might have known each other off-field, but it was really unprofessional to bring it up when he did. I think, for me, it just goes back to a sense that these umpires just didn't take the game seriously. Maybe it was because it was a 12U, but I've worked a ASA 12U national, (a great honor for me), and we treated it like an ASA major tourney. We had fun, but we were there to perform a job and to give the girls the best umpiring we could. I just think that this is one area that NSA needs to hit...and another being positioning and mechanics. But I come from ASA, where these things are stressed already, and maybe NSA doesn't want to do it this way.

[UmpLarryJohnson]

JEEzus thats hard to read can somone buy you paragraphs??

[NCASAUmp]

Honest question: Did this comedian umpire resemble Rick Flair? No, I'm not kidding.