Double Booking
 

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.

I think that's someone who needs to find a new vocation.

Honor your commitments, or you have no honor. It's a simple equation.

Not cool
 

It would be the last time you worked for me or any assignor I know. I'd make sure to drop a big black ball on you.

No kidding. That's just a rat b@st@rd thing to do to an assignor and a partner. There's a reason why ASA has it as the #1 item in their Code of Ethics for Umpires.

I don't care what anyone else says, each game is just as important as another, regardless of the level. If you don't value a commitment to a 10U game as much as you do a commitment to a D1 NCAA game, you've got no self-respect as an umpire. Put forth equal effort towards both, and you will have my (and everyone else's) respect.

Honor your committments. Umpiring or otherwise. It is simple. Once you say you are going to be there, BE THERE!!! If something comes up, don't leave your partner hanging 15 minutes before the game.

You can ask your assigner if he has someone else to cover the lower level game. Most assigners understand. But don't try to pull a fast one. You will get burned. An umpire who is dishonest won't last.

I respectfully disagree.
 

You response should be "I'm sorry, I'm already scheduled to call and am unable to make a commitment. However, if my schedule changes I will contact you." You've made a commitment...stick with it.

This time of year, our local ASA assignor has ZERO problems if you have a chance to pick up a HS game, which would get you paid almost double what an ASA fee is, instead some kind of local league action.

Our local ASA assignor is of a similar mindset, though I believe it has more to do with HOW the HS scheduling is handled. Since our assignor has more time on his hands (retired) than others, he can spend a little more time on the phone trying to find someone to fill in. He's been a very gracious and patient assignor and mentor, and I consider myself very lucky to work for him.

Which is why I work ONLY for him. And also why in over 10 years of calling for him, I've only canceled on him 4 times (3 of those times were due to serious illness or significant injury). Not a bad track record when I usually call for him 4-6 nights per week from March until November.

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.

I am on page with most of the others here; double booking dates will ruin you. I assign at a local association and if an ump is asked to cover a HS game, I do not have a problem releasing him from a local assignment if we can cover the games. The guys usually call and ask if they can be released from their local assignment to help out the HS assigner. If we can cover the local games, they then accept the HS assignment. I suppose if one of the local umps burned their home association to call a “better” game, they would not work anymore games at the local association. I agree that we should follow a code of ethics and respect our fellow umpires. I would not be happy with someone if they left me solo so they could call a better paying game. The level of play and pay is irrelevant to having integrity and respect for your fellow Blue.

This is a complicated issue with many variables. From my perspective, one of the responsibilities of an assignor (I am talking high school now) is to give people opportunities to move up the officiating ladder. I have no problem with an official in any sport under the right circustances moving vertically and accepting a higher level game if it is offered to them. I would never condone a horizontal move, one high school game for a better high school game. If an umpire has a freshman game and is offered a varsity game, I think it is truly the responsibility of the assignor to help that official grow and move up. Moving from high school to college is the same way. Now that being said, under most circumstances this change must be made with the appropriate time sequence (whatever that might be...really the biggest variable here) to allow for a qualified replacement to be made. The assignor I think has an obligation to allow an official the opportunity to grow and elevate their game by working higher level ball. As far as ASA goes, I would not condone a move from U10 to a U16 game. I think that kind of move is inappropriate.
Assignors at the high school level may also tell their officials that some games are so important that they would like a committment from them not to move off the game if a higher level game is offered. I think that is fair. However for an assignor to say that every game assigned must be stayed on is not fair to the official who may have the opportunity to break into a college league. If my partner had this opportunity I would be glad for them, and not be so selfishly petulant thinking only of how it is impacting me. Be happy for the person that is given an opportunity. Wish them well!
This may not be the popular point of view, but I truly think it is the right thing to do. Establish a good working relationship with your assignor, ask what their feelings are when it comes to these situations and BOTH try to be professional and understanding of each other's position. If the situation is not to your liking, don't work for that unreasonable assignor
As far the example of keeping a U10 game when offered a D1 one game, utterly ridiculous!! How many of us would really keep the U10 game? The least important factor would be the money involved, but let's see...U10 game...$25...D1 game $150 learning experience PRICELESS!! This is not a difficult choice when you factor in the other variables

Bandit does your particular situation involve the GMC high school league in Wisc.? If it does I got the same message from the assignor you did. I will be expressing my personal distaste to him not only for the nasty tone of the message but also his feelings concerning moving up and giving officials more and better opportunities in the officiating world

Without quoting all of mikeref here...

You're right, it all depends. But I think it also speaks volumes when an umpire stands behind their commitments, even if it is to their own "detriment."

That being said, if an opportunity like that DOES come up (D1 game over a 10U local game), I think that the umpire should approach the original assignor and see what they think. Some assignors have no problem with it, some will. Make it clear to them that you made a commitment to them, and that you intend to keep that commitment if a replacement can't be found.

But if you're smart, you'd better save your assignor some of the legwork and try to find your own suitable replacement. THAT speaks volumes as well.

Wisconsin...Nope
 

Nope. Indiana

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!

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.

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 - :rolleyes:

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.

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.

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.

Very well said.......................
 

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..........

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.

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.

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.

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. :cool: