Gotta Rant!!!!
 

State selections came out last week and unfortunately, I wasn't selected. Was bummed but oh well. Then I found out some of the people that were selected. Yikes! Three were selected from my association, two worked state last year and are very good. The third wasn't a name turned in from our association to the state, wasn't on the president or booking agent's top 15 list that were turned into the state selection committee. She has had numerous uniform, rules and tardiness issues this year. I believe that 24 umpires were selected for the state....she's not in the top 24 umpires IN OUR ASSOCIATION. Several members, including the ones selected for state were left shaking their heads.

Only thing I can think of is that the person who selects the umpires said earlier this year in a basketball meeting that the state tournament was going to have "mixed" crews. The umpire who I am speaking about is both black and female. I guess I'm just astonished that this can still be a criteria for selection. And before I get slammed as a racist or woman hater, the other umpires selected are a black man and white female. Both do a fantastic job. We have several other black umpires that would have been a better selection. But we don't have any other black females.

I guess that the state had to get it's quota. Kinda sad that a state that has been hurt for so long over race issues can't seem to figure it out. Oh well....time for travel ball.

Reality of life. At every level.

I promise a very "fair" share of WCWS umpires will be female. No matter if they are the "best", or what percentage of NCA registered umpires are female.

Steve's right....

I learned a long time ago to try not to let this method of selection bother me publicly. I will keep my opinions to myself.

When I first started officiating basketball 25 years ago, I was told to keep my mouth shut and work my games. Unfortunately, I did not heed that advice and I'm sure that it was a determining factor in some of the regular season and championship assignments I received, or more accurately, didn't receive, over the years.

When I started doing softball some years later, I just decided to work to be the very best softball umpire I could be, not worry about other umpires and the assignments they were getting, and let things fall where they fell. I will say that I am much happier as an official and that by letting my work on the field do my talking, I have progressed much further as a softball umpire than I ever did as a basketball official.

I agree with Andy here. I take whatever my assignor or UIC gives me. If it's a great assignment, wonderful. If it's the worst ball imaginable, wonderful - they still need a good umpire.

And if I don't get the assignment, hey, that's fine. If someone else earned it, they earned it. If not, well, it's their chance to rise up to the challenge as an official. If they don't make it, their assignor will probably hear about it, and I doubt they'll make that mistake twice.

The people an assignor sends to cover a game or a tourney have their respective assignors' names attached to them. If the official performs poorly, it reflects poorly on the assignor. So I do the best damn job I can for my association and for my assignor.

Andy...ditto

Well said.