State HS tournament blues
 

Yah, I know...you get to go to the state HS championship tournament, you should be real happy, right?

BS.

Not unhappy about myself or what I got. Didn't go in expecting much and was not disappointed. What, you think they're gonna put some guy who is not HWP on the finals? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Before this next part, let me say this: I am NOT the world's greatest umpire. I work hard and always try to do my best, but I am NOT Superump.

So...

What has me down in the dumps, disappointed and whatever else is the same thing I have been disappointed about before: WHY THE PUCK DO PEOPLE SEND UMPIRES TO TOURNAMENTS WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE DOING? HOW MANY TEAMS ARE WE GOING TO SCREW BECAUSE WE NEED TO REWARD SOMEONE FOR DOING WHATEVER?

Major case in point. Saturday morning, championship semifinals. One's getting a big trophy, maybe even a BIG trophy. Other gets a chance to go over and lose ANOTHER game and get a "thanks for playing" handshake.

Tall skinny guy behind the plate. Taller skinnier guy at 1B. Fat white guy at 3B.

R1 at 1st. Batter hits a sharp grounder that hits just fair about halfway to third. Ball is clearly foul as it passes back of bag. Easy call, right? Well, not if PU pointed "fair" as soon as ball hit just fair, even though ball was foul well before it got to 3B. Runners end up at 2B and 3B. Defensive coach has a small discussion with PU, and reminds him that he CAN change a wrongful fair call into a foul. PU has admitted that yes, it was foul but he pointed fair and he was going to stand by his call even if it was wrong and coach you can't argue judgement so we're done.

There was much more, but let's just say there were no virgins left for either team when game ended. He screwed everyone.

I could go on and on just about this game. This doesn't include many many others. Remember that point of emphasis about not using unapproved signals? More humor, not even including Sonny Scoreboard, who had to flash the number of outs to everyone after every out, looking like some little whirling dervish with his arms and hands and raised fingers all doing 360s to be sure players, coaches, GLMs, field crew and the folks at the supermarket two blocks away knew we had a foul ball, knew what the count was or if the ball was foul.

Sigh.

Similarly, I've grown disillusioned with the "old grizzled vets" being put on the field at big games. Yes, they've been working 25-30 years.. but they suck. Did they suck all 30 years? I dunno, but they sure as sheep suck now. Yes, they were all buddies for 15 years with Frank Cortez before he passed.. who cares! They suck! I'd rather have a guy just learning the ropes that you can teach than some of these guys.

A few of my gems from the "old vets" this weekend at 18Gs ..

- Phoning in calls from never never land, not taking any steps to get into position.
- Walmart pants with cigarette holes in them.
- having to tell one of them "no smoking by the dugouts between innings, the coaches are complaining".
- Being looked at like an idiot when I confirm that the complaining coaches are right, contact is not required for INT, so you dont EVER say to a coach "there was no contact so no INT". Yep, two "vets" said same thing to the irate coach.
- Long sleeve white shirts under the blue shirts

We had the same problem with the same group of "vets" at our HS regionals.

ok this guy is an idiot so many ways that i cannot comment on all of them. ........ NEVER do you tell a coach you were wrong and arent going to correct it.... that guy had a set of beach balls... I dont know how he could move let alone work the dish. and well i mean if i screwed up that bad maybe i would have to be all loud and obnocious with my foulball calls giving the count etc... unless he is like some of the HS only guys like we have here in the old dominion ;)

I can vouch for that. I went and watched some of the "blues" from Wades area, not overly impressed. :(

Y'all have skinny umpires?

They must be new. Not enough hot dogs in their systems yet.

Hey now, now yer gettin personal.. dont forget, I've worked with sacto guys.. :cool: :D

Well, it is the Pacific Northwest...

:D

I think I umpired with some of those knuckleheads at a tournament in Colorado last year.

Hey my son is now umpiring in WA. Has met wild bill and in fact was talking to him while I was on the phone.

He is the Army stationed at Fort Lewis. You guys treat him right and teach him good!

Wade,
I'll PM you and give you my info- if he wants to work weekend JO, we've got lots he can do!

We (Seattle Metro) just recently (last month) picked up Ft. Lewis and McChord AFB into ASA - they've been other alphabet soup softball orgs for over 15 years, and finally came back to the Blue side.