Hi guys. Wow. Cool thread :)

OK, in my area there is umpire drama and ASA lost the month of may tournaments. The reality is many umpires on the "other" side are very good friends of mine and remain so; however, out of higher loyalty not so much to ASA but more so to my local association - the people who have trained us all and helped us all and for shady reasons of the greed of a coach - have been cut out, so I just stepped aside. I could not work for that group at this time. I still have hopes everything can be worked out... but that is likely naive.

A number of us stood down for may, at the cost of thousands and thousands of dollars. Some umpires I never would have expected to remain loyal did. Not a lot of them lol but I was suprised at some of the names of the "game whores" who stayed true to the blue. This is an important protest because some tournies require upwards of 90 umpires required.

I worked some college ball, a little in april, and ran a few clinics and did some rec league stuff but over all, I took a few months off and it wasnt all that bad except the money. :D My method of dealing with a major loss of a large part of what I've done in may for years was to completely withdraw.

But I was back in action this past weekend and it was great.

Welcome back - you were missed!!! Obviously!

I'm impressed - in my area, there seems to be a lack of solidarity between umpires.

Kind of a mixed bag here. Some umpires in our group recently jumped ship when a contract for a particular town went to another org, others (like myself) stayed to dance with the one who brought us.

What can I say? I have an amazing assignor who has opened many doors for me.