I understand his comment, and I understand those that agree with him regardless.

We (you and me) once had a teacher in the assn. He umpired for vacation money. My first year in the assn, I redlined him as a partner. Told Dan and Bob to never schedule me with him.

Reason was because the two times we got together on a call, he refused to participate.

First time, I went to him on a possible pulled foot. He told me there was a hot mom in the stands and refused to say anything else. The second, he came to me and told me he didn't want any information because in HIS game on HIS field HE wasn't going to change any calls made. Kicker was, he missed a very clear tag, but never really told me what the coach asked.

I don't need a partner on the field that is not going to be a partner on the field.

The biggest issue on when to overrule,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,try to develp the "get it right" idea in your partners heads.:cool:

On a close play, take a look at your partner to see if they have that deer in the headlights look. If they do, casually have a conversaton with them later and encourage them to not be so over run with ego that they won't ask for help.

But like so many said, YOU NEVER OVERRULE.:eek:
You simply give information to your partner to allow them to make the correct ruling.

If you can trust your partner, and that is what you want to develop on the field, don't be afraid to ask for their view. Hopefully that leadership attitude will work for you.

I once had a game where I was in the C slot and had a sweeping tag play at first on the BR. R1 was on 2B.
I knew I had no good view and I a refuse to "guess" and out. R1 had frozen on 3B we had no other base runner concerns or possible plays.
I immediately pointed to my partner and loudly asked "do you have a tag?"

His answer was immediate and clear, "yes, I do"

I made the call, Batter runner is out.

I trusted my partner becuase I knew he was where he was supposed to be, trailing the BR up the line. He trusted me to go to him.

As a result of that particular call, the two most difficult coaches I had seen that year gave no problems from the rest of the season.
They knew we didn't let ego get in the way of the game, we were on top of our areas of responsibility and we worked together.

We got a lot of compliments from the coaches and spectators as well as league officers.
I know, I know..............if you are going to accept the compliments you have to accept their criticisms too.
But it was nice to hear some appreciation from the folks who saw us working together.

If you were in the C, your partner was nowhere near where he should have been if he was trailing the BR.

I was thinking the same thing. With a runner on 3B, that runner may break for home after the infielder releases the throw to 1B. If PU has trailed the BR down the line, he's in for a surprise between the eyes when F3 fires to F2 to get the runner breaking from 3B.

And if he's lucky enough to not get conked with the throw, it might be difficult to make a call from the seat of his pants and facing the wrong direction.

Ok, good point on basic mechanics but we had varied on coverage.
Remember, if you deviate communicate

We did use non-standard mechanics for most of that season because I was recovering from a torn achilles tendon.

how can you "get together" when your partner was not a willing participatant? did you insist on helping "get together" when help was NOT requested by your partner?