Daddy Umpire

[Copper Eller]

What do you think of an umpire who would force a 16U Travel Team to have him umpire his daughters games or he would take her off the Team. He says ASA,
High School and all Fast Pitch associations have no problem with him umpiring the Game. This is blackmail and should be stopped. I have told this umpire he cannot umpire his daughters game. It is unethical and brings the charges of Home Town Referree. In fact other umpires are not allowed to umpire the games unless He approves it. This is blackmail. This is in Southern California.
I would think the coaches would have a real problem with this umpire. The worst part is his daughter is a Junior Umpire.

[NCASAUmp]

It doesn't sound like much of a threat to me: "if you don't let me umpire my daughter's games and potentially give close calls your way, I won't let her play."

I wouldn't call it blackmail, but rather a conflict of interest. For an umpire, this is bizarre behavior, to say the least.

When I was a kid playing softball, my dad umpired my games in our local league. He was VERY fair, but I still got sh1t from my teammates for it. I'm sure this girl's team does the same, considering the behavior of her father...

Poor girl.

[wadeintothem]

Lamest.thread.ever.

[SC Ump]

Originally Posted by Copper Eller

This is in Southern California.

Well, I'm not sure what is the protocol for handling it there. For our area of the country, there's an old Andy Griffith episode where Andy has to umpire for Opie's team. Finding a copy of that might have a couple of life lessons that could be applicable.

(You probably already 'figured' that my "SC" is as in 'USC', which of course means University of South Carolina. )

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by Copper Eller

What do you think of an umpire who would force a 16U Travel Team to have him umpire his daughters games or he would take her off the Team. He says ASA,
High School and all Fast Pitch associations have no problem with him umpiring the Game. This is blackmail and should be stopped. I have told this umpire he cannot umpire his daughters game. It is unethical and brings the charges of Home Town Referree. In fact other umpires are not allowed to umpire the games unless He approves it. This is blackmail. This is in Southern California.
I would think the coaches would have a real problem with this umpire. The worst part is his daughter is a Junior Umpire.

Well, he is not exactly correct. While not absolutely forbidden, ASA does frown upon any possible appearance of inproprieties which would include an umpire who is a player's father, mother, brother, sister and even from the same state in some instances.

The team and league should simply say "no, thank you" and let whatever happens happen. Besides, in most situations of which I am aware, a team doesn't have "personal" umpire crews.

This is definitely improper, "blackmailing" the coaches like that. If I was asked to work with this guy, I would definitely turn down the assignment.

I know when I first started, I was still in HS and my superintendent wanted me to get on the right track so he partnered me up with his son-in-law, who was an experienced umpire, and we worked a few of the superintendent's daughter's games at 14U (If I remember correctly) and the son-in-law and I worked it so well the visiting team wouldn't believe it when someone told them who we were. The visiting coach said that those two umpires were the most neutral home town umpires he ever ran across.

If I wasn't working with the son-in-law, I ended up working with one of my JH football coach's brother or our district UIC. I was in good company back then, and have those gents to really thank for getting me on the right track. Sorry to get off the point, but just wanted to illustrate what a good approach does.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by Ref Ump Welsch

This is definitely improper, "blackmailing" the coaches like that. If I was asked to work with this guy, I would definitely turn down the assignment.

I know when I first started, I was still in HS and my superintendent wanted me to get on the right track so he partnered me up with his son-in-law, who was an experienced umpire, and we worked a few of the superintendent's daughter's games at 14U (If I remember correctly) and the son-in-law and I worked it so well the visiting team wouldn't believe it when someone told them who we were. The visiting coach said that those two umpires were the most neutral home town umpires he ever ran across.

If I wasn't working with the son-in-law, I ended up working with one of my JH football coach's brother or our district UIC. I was in good company back then, and have those gents to really thank for getting me on the right track. Sorry to get off the point, but just wanted to illustrate what a good approach does.

That is good. I'm not suggesting umpires who worked games under such conditions would be "homers", but it only takes one close call made correctly or not and the rest of the game will only go downhill from there.

I ran into that when my brother started playing in a league I worked. There were only three umpires and eight teams, so avoiding his games was tough. But the concerns were quickly dismissed when I tossed him the first game. Apparently, he was the only one who thought being my brother was going to get him a little slack.

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

That is good. I'm not suggesting umpires who worked games under such conditions would be "homers", but it only takes one close call made correctly or not and the rest of the game will only go downhill from there.

I ran into that when my brother started playing in a league I worked. There were only three umpires and eight teams, so avoiding his games was tough. But the concerns were quickly dismissed when I tossed him the first game. Apparently, he was the only one who thought being my brother was going to get him a little slack.

That reminds me of the time my dad gave me a warning for arguing balls and strikes.

Sometimes, the exact opposite thing will happen when an umpire knows a team. One of the guys in our local crew used to play on one of the teams. When he stopped playing and started calling their games, they initially thought, "hey, we've got a man on the inside." Unfortunately for them, this umpire had the reputation of being even harder on his former teammates. Now, I've called a couple of those games with him, and I'm not sure just how much I believe it. However, that was the perception that people had of him.

I say that it's a bad idea to umpire games where conflicts of interest could arise. No matter what happens, you're screwed.

[bkbjones]

If the guy wanted to umpire other games in the tournament and watch his daughter play, I could understand it. Heck, I've accomodated it. I don't understand why he would want to umpire his DD's games. My little brother will tell you I was horrible when he was at the plate, because damn near anything he didn't swing at was a strike, and if it was close, he was out, and neither one of us enjoyed it. That little experiment was one and done.

I say ixnay on addy-day.

Originally Posted by NCASAUmp

That reminds me of the time my dad gave me a warning for arguing balls and strikes.

Sometimes, the exact opposite thing will happen when an umpire knows a team. One of the guys in our local crew used to play on one of the teams. When he stopped playing and started calling their games, they initially thought, "hey, we've got a man on the inside." Unfortunately for them, this umpire had the reputation of being even harder on his former teammates. Now, I've called a couple of those games with him, and I'm not sure just how much I believe it. However, that was the perception that people had of him.

I say that it's a bad idea to umpire games where conflicts of interest could arise. No matter what happens, you're screwed.

Mine actually called a check swing on me on a very close one. I didn't say anything to dad at home, until my mom chirped in and asked him if he was 100% sure. He said 99.9%. He was a volunteer that night, heh.

My situation is that I was from a small town of 700-some people, and I was the only ASA-certified umpire in town for the few summers I lived there before moving to a big city. The coaches of all the teams were responsible for hiring umpires, and they really had a hard time getting people into our town to work because our ball organization paid crap for fees. Some of the umpires we had would travel 15-20 minutes only if it was guaranteed to be a doubleheader. That's how bad it was. I just had to walk across a couple backyards to get there.

But the big benefit was, once those umpires from the bigger towns came in to partner with me, word got back to those other towns and they were calling me to come and work games there when I wasn't working anything in my hometown. Even got to the point where I was traveling 30 minutes to do Legion baseball. Things were scarce back then. I don't know how much better they are now.

[archangel]

Originally Posted by Copper Eller

What do you think of an umpire who would force a 16U Travel Team to have him umpire his daughters games or he would take her off the Team. ......This is blackmail and should be stopped. I have told this umpire he cannot umpire his daughters game. It is unethical and brings the charges of Home Town Referree. In fact other umpires are not allowed to umpire the games unless He approves it. This is blackmail. This is in Southern California.
I would think the coaches would have a real problem with this umpire. The worst part is his daughter is a Junior Umpire.

Its very possible to be an unbiased umpire when you know or are related to one team, but my question is this....If it bothers you so much, let him take her off the team. Problem solved. Or is it more important to you to need her skills to win?