june carifications

[Softball910]

Good day fellow officials. I have been following this and other forums for the last 5 years but have not joined any until now. I have witnessed (read) posters degrading, belittling, disrespecting...each other, and for some strange reason half reading, omitting, over looking, not paying attention to...what fellow officials write in their post. Then comes the replies/remarks that baffle anyone that (a) picks up a rule/mechanics/case book and actually tries to learn what is in it, and (b)has actually been on a ball field applied these rules/mechanics and dealt with directors, coaches, parents and players.

True, someone sitting behind a desk somewhere in ASA has come up with something unrealistic. We that get on the field know if we start protecting players in even half of the instances that their brain shuts down, and they without the right to step off of a base do so, we will be dealing with the other teams coaches having to explain why we stopped their team from having the opportunity to get an out, or score a run(many a defense have tossed the ball and headed for the dugout thinking there was 2 outs -do we call "time" and protect aginst the ensuing chaos here also). I was tempted to reply to my state ASA UIC and just suggest that he ensure ALL of the coaches in the state get this "clarification" and be ok with it, since it has been put out as direction for ASA umpires.

Back to my opening, enough with the name calling fellow officials, Irish Mafia had good points in his post, and he had the answer to the "time" situation that I myself use, just loudly give the count, or the outs, that usually re-engages all of the brains(players, coaches, parents and fellow officials)that may have momentarily shut down. I hope ASA revisits this and gives different "clarification".