Double Booking

[Skahtboi]

One of the beauties of The Arbiter is that all of your assignors can see your schedule. I had one of the college assignors call em a while back and she actually told me, "I see you have no game tomorrow, so I was wondering...." It makes it easy on all of us.

I have known those opportunistic umpires, and have very little, no wait, make that no respect for them.

[HugoTafurst]

Sheesh....
Here's our story.

SB HS District play-offs were last week.
Friday Crew 3 is assigned to a regional 1/4 final Tuesday (tomorrow)

Assigner gets a phone call this morning.
U1 from Crew 3 wants to get off his REGIONAL game to do a district BASEBALL game -

[Bandit]

Ok, the story behind the original question/post......High school games (in season tournament) were scheduled last MAY AND ACCEPTED. Thursday before the weekend of the high school games and late morning an umpire called to cancel the high school games for the oppurtunity to do a DIII conference tournament. The unfortunete thing was that the umpire stated to have a sprained ankle to the high school assigner ( i'm pretty sure that constitutes a LIE !!!). When the high school assigner saw on Arbiter (as mentioned by Skahtboi in earlier post...this is a great tool) he wasn't real happy. According to the story the umpire told the College assigner that it was a mess up and took his (college) assignment two months ago because he/she thought it would just be a couple of games and be able to do both assignments. (Please note... these assignments are a good 60 to 90 minutes away from each other) When it was found out that it wouldn't be workable it was told to the high school assigner that a sprained ankle had occured in a earlier game that week and couldn't work. The funny thing......if it hadn't been found out via Arbiter BEFORE it happened it would have been discovered later due to the umpires that worked the college games AND the umpire in question had their NAME put into the box score of the game and it was published. What goes around....comes around.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by Bandit

What are some thoughts or opinions about umpires who "double book" dates or cancel out of games or commitments from one game to take another? For instance...book a high school game and then get an oppurtunity to do a college game on the same day. Calls the high school assigner and makes himself or herself all of a sudden unavailable to do the high school game.

Whoever you ask this about needs to re-read the ASA Code of Ethics. This is NOT done --- not if you want to keep working.

At the very most in this situation, the umpire should let the college guy know he has a commitment and with whom. If the college guy wants to call the high school assignor to see if the high school assignor has others who can fill the spot, he can do so - but unless and until told by his high school assignor that he's off the hook for the game, he's working the high school game. Period.

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by HugoTafurst

Sheesh....
Here's our story.

SB HS District play-offs were last week.
Friday Crew 3 is assigned to a regional 1/4 final Tuesday (tomorrow)

Assigner gets a phone call this morning.
U1 from Crew 3 wants to get off his REGIONAL game to do a district BASEBALL game -

If one of my regulars gets an NCAA assignment offered and I have any replacements available that won't make us look bad, it is done. I owe them that, the opportunity to work into better ball any time, anywhere.

If I know I have a solid replacement available in your scenario, I would do it. And that U1 just dropped lower on my list for preferring baseball; not the same as getting a higher level softball game offered.

If I don't have a solid replacement, if that U1 insists he is dropping the assignment, he is replaced, and drops to the very bottom, or even OFF my list going forward.

[Multiple Sports]

Originally Posted by SE Minnestoa Re

I am an assignor and I have no issue with someone taking a higher level game provided I can sent a qualified umpire to the lower level game. For our association, JV is the lowest we work with, then high school. However, four of my umpires (me included) work quite a bit of NCAA ball and most of the time I will let them bug out for the college game.

What I will not put up with for long is dumping one high school game for a supposed better one. If I find out you are doing that, your schedule will be getting thinner in a hurry!

I read through all of these posts and here is where i am going on this................

I assign both hs baseball and hs softball and for the last 17 years, I have officated a different sport collegiately. I have no problem if a guy gets a college assignment and wants to turn back my game. Here is why - now the JV guy gets bumped up to a V game, the freshman ump gets a jv game and
someone sitting home gets a freshman game. Now what I detest is the guy
who is asked to work a game in another district between the top two teams and I have given him a jv game. Sure I will let him off my game, but he better
not be waiting by the phone during the post season.

In College basketball, if you get a call from a D1 supervisor at 10am asking if you can work that night and you have a D3 game that evening, you would be a fool not to call your D3 assigner $1,200 > $150..........

[Bandit]

Multiple Sports.....you state...."now the JV guy gets bumped up to a V game, the freshman ump gets a jv game"

I hope that this not a "blanket" statement. ??? I have done some assigning. No one gets an "automatic bump up". There are reasons why some umpires do some levels and some do others. Agreed?

$1,200 > $150.......... may we assume that integrity has no room in your thought process ???? And you do this for the $$$$. That is what this last statement seems to imply.

[Multiple Sports]

Absolutely I agree. My officials are not grouped as V / JV / FS. I can put anyone where I choose. I was referencing this based on not having any other
V officials available on that day. Especially if the V game is going to be a blow out, then I will bump everyone up a level.


I know that this is a softball site, but the college basketball world is a different animal. I have heard numerous D1 bosses say that this is a business first. I can guarantee that all the D3 bosses would tell me to take that D1 game and they would get someone else. Remember most assigners were in that position as an official themselves at some point.

I get the integrity / character issue, but I don't think it is applicable here.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by Multiple Sports

I read through all of these posts and here is where i am going on this................

I assign both hs baseball and hs softball and for the last 17 years, I have officated a different sport collegiately. I have no problem if a guy gets a college assignment and wants to turn back my game. Here is why - now the JV guy gets bumped up to a V game, the freshman ump gets a jv game and
someone sitting home gets a freshman game. Now what I detest is the guy
who is asked to work a game in another district between the top two teams and I have given him a jv game. Sure I will let him off my game, but he better
not be waiting by the phone during the post season.

In College basketball, if you get a call from a D1 supervisor at 10am asking if you can work that night and you have a D3 game that evening, you would be a fool not to call your D3 assigner $1,200 > $150..........

Calling to ASK off is completely different than simply returning the game or worse, professing an injury as in the OP. ASKING off is not a problem at all, so long as the asker will accept "no" as an answer if it's too late to replace him.

[argodad]

Originally Posted by SRW

IMHO, Larry isn't implying what you think he is... He's saying that IF your assignor has someone else to cover the lower level games, then OK. IF NOT, then he's saying "get you *** on the phone and tell the higher level assignor that you're already occupied." Knowing Larry as well as I do, he's well above taking the higher assignment for glory.

SRW reads me correctly. In my experience, my assigners have been willing to work with the umpires who call mulitiple levels. We have rec ball, HS, JUCO, and NCAA going on at the same time in FL. If there isn't another qualified umpire readily available, I will undoubtedly stand by my commitment. I would never say yes to a college game until my HS assigner releases me.

These days I'm happy to be able to get on the field for ANY game.