I agree. Your intentions are good, as no one wants to see anyone get injured, much less deliberately. However, I've made it my own personal policy to never tell anyone to DO something. I simply tell them what they can't do (can't block the plate and hinder the runner without the ball, catch... can't kick the SS in the twig and giggleberries while sliding into 2B... can't call the my partner an ucking fidiot, even if you only said it to me...). I leave it up to their coaches to tell them the proper thing to do.

Sadly, a lot of the lower level ball is coached by someone whose only qualification is that they are most athletic at their school. They know nothing of the sport (then again, do most coaches EVER know anything of the sport?), much less how to teach it to a small child.

You also have the volunteers whose DD is on the team, and no one else wanted the job. We've all seen our fair share of those.

Mandatory slide rules are well-intended, but we all know where the path paved with such intentions inevitably leads.

I make it a policy at my pre-game to let both captains or managers know about the crash rule especially at home plate that the runner must give themselves up or slide to avoid being tagged when the defensive player has the ball. Avoiding injury isn't always possible even with all the latest advances that have been made in the last 10+ years.Also with the advent of better design with the hockey style mask it's possible that the catcher could still wear her mask while making the play at home.

Ding, Ding, Ding!!!!!!!

All of my daughters have grown up playing in a low level rec league sponsored by our church. The league has a mandatory slide rule on any "close" play. When my oldest daughter played, she was coached by a lady who is my volleyball officiating partner during the fall. She is a knowledgable softball coach and took almost one entire practice session teaching the players how to slide properly. My oldest daughter now helps coach in the league and one of her main jobs each year is teaching sliding.

I volunteer some time as an umpire each year and I have been in the league directors ear for the last five years to get rid of that mandatory slide rule. He just keeps insisting that it is for the safety of the players. So far, there have been no injuries as a result of it as far as I know, but I just cringe when I see some of the "slides" that are executed by these players.

Using your advice, I guess I might as well as go against what my UIC encourages, because that's what he did in a game before that. I'm not willing to eject players over comments like that in a league like that, because the UIC doesn't have a backbone when the teams think I'm unfairly ejecting them over stuff that umpires in USSSA tournaments don't even blink an eye at. You have to consider the level of play sometimes, and the politics sometimes if you want to survive in some of these leagues.

By the way, there are no "coaches" on these men's slow-pitch teams, just managers who go up for the pre-game flip. So if I were to leave the coaching to the coaches, who do I go to? The captains who were at the pre-game meeting who are going to tell me to f**k off and when I eject them, walk up to my partner who's the UIC and get me removed from the field for doing that? That's something to be considered at this type of level.

The only thing to consider is why in the name of softball you would voluntarily take that treatment. If that is what you have to work with, you might want to consider taking up golf or work for someone else.

Or consider telling the city to stop being so player-friendly and put comments from both the players and umpires on an even keel? Politics...besides if I were to give up the games in that city, it would be half my schedule. I can't make up that half in another city, and I would be looking at getting bit by a judge in family court over quitting a job over principle. It already bit some of us blues in the area.

You live in one ****ed-up place.

I would suggest a new pregame that entirely skips that segment. This is not recommended by any sanctioning body that I know of as a protocol for pregame. Save the clinics for preseason. Your job is to arbitrate rules - not conducted a pregame rules clinic using language you have not been instructed to use. Also you are boring everyone, including your partner, and wasting time. It serves no purpose whatsoever.

Sadly, that's just how it goes. It's also the reason why I don't call in one particular town - the league director does NOT back us up. My take on it? "Guess what, bub. You just lost one of the better umpires in the area." I'm fortunate enough to have plenty of ball to call elsewhere around here. However, not everyone is so fortunate.

And it's not a matter of him living in an f'ed up place. Anywhere you have lawyers, family court's a b1tch.

I find it hard to believe this would be a family court issue (assuming this isn't one's sole source of income). What are they going to do if you are not scheduled, put you in jail? Small town politics sucks which is why you will never see me living in a place like that. Too many damn communists to make it worth it.

It would be a family court issue if the payments stopped coming in so regularly.

A family court issue...the judge imputed my income from officiating into my child support payments, even though they are not a regular source of income (and he knows that being a soccer official himself). The ex's lawyer asked me if I had intended on reducing the number of games in the future in hopes of reducing child support obligations. I said no, and my lawyer said now that I said that, if I were to quit working in one city on principle, the judge might either leave the payments as they are, or increase them just on principle. Pretty f**ked up system we have in family court.

So, you do understand the legal ramifications for saying things you shouldn't! :D

It should be your policy not to present a clinic on information that the coaches/players should already know at your pregame. They have access to the rules, whether or not they bother with reading them. They should understand the rule, and understand the consequence of violating it. If not, you can have your teaching moment when you call the player out and eject them from the game.