Missed Call-Umpire Etiquette

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May 29, 2015
3,731
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Just went through a local scenario where we had to deal with a situation with a local umpire that did something unacceptable.
He has been a known issue, and no one wants to assign him, but there is NO ONE ELSE. He was being assigned to games where he could do the least harm (i.e, low-level high school games where the score was going to be 30-5 with zero hits from either team) and he still managed to mess it up. So he is gone... but that also means at least 3 games this week just wont get played. There isn't some pool of local umps waiting to be assigned.

We had dinner after to discuss numbers (again); and at one point we decided to go through our membership lists from the past 10 years. Apart from age & physically unable to continue retirements, plus those no longer in the area and some other reasons there were 43 umpires who had just out right quit because they didn't want to deal with it anymore. In that group were at least 25 good umpires who have just been chased from doing it by coaches, parents and others.

So you can go on and on about needing umpires to be 'held accountable'. which we would love to do more than we do to be quite frank... but that means coaches and parents need to be held accountable as well to help us keep the ones we have and develop the ones that are new and there is nothing more than cheap talk when it comes to that.

This, this, this!

I have seen two things this past week as fallout (not involved in either, so it was told to me secondhand).

One was a memo sent out from the baseball side of the world about an incident at a game. It boiled down to: take care of problems in the fences (bat flip, taunting, intentionally throwing at batters) and let administrators take care of problems outside the fence. Stop the game, do not play. Do NOT talk through the fence to anybody. If administrators won't take care of the fans (that is their job), then end the game. DO NOT EGG IT ON. (The memo also emphasized do not yell across the field. Go to the person you need to talk to and have the conversation that is needed.)

The second blew my mind, and is to @marriard 's point. A known problem umpire caused some issues at a game. I'm going to try to be nice and not judgmental, but I make no guarantees. This umpire has had substance abuse issues for years. It is known. Hell, two hours after our clinic (where he acted like an rear), he was arrested for "Criminal Trespass to Property and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charges" in the vicinity of a sleazy drug-motel. The coach of that game is a friend and I haven't had a chance to talk to him directly, but have heard from others at the game (alcohol on his breath, cussing at players and fans, bonking the catcher on the head with the ball, etc.). Why does this guy keep getting hired? Because coaches and parents continue down that path rather than postpone/cancel a game. Because the assignor is more concerned with collecting his check for putting a body on the field. Because people (including the assignor) viewed the teams in that game as low quality, so they don't care.

Yes, good umpires want us to be held accountable, too. But we don't have the power to do that. Sure, I can (and do) refuse to work with a few people (that list is currently at 3), but I can't control who you hire.

You can't take this guy home and then wonder why the Empire won ...
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Jul 27, 2021
276
43
Just went through a local scenario where we had to deal with a situation with a local umpire that did something unacceptable.
He has been a known issue, and no one wants to assign him, but there is NO ONE ELSE. He was being assigned to games where he could do the least harm (i.e, low-level high school games where the score was going to be 30-5 with zero hits from either team) and he still managed to mess it up. So he is gone... but that also means at least 3 games this week just wont get played. There isn't some pool of local umps waiting to be assigned.

We had dinner after to discuss numbers (again); and at one point we decided to go through our membership lists from the past 10 years. Apart from age & physically unable to continue retirements, plus those no longer in the area and some other reasons there were 43 umpires who had just out right quit because they didn't want to deal with it anymore. In that group were at least 25 good umpires who have just been chased from doing it by coaches, parents and others.

So you can go on and on about needing umpires to be 'held accountable'. which we would love to do more than we do to be quite frank... but that means coaches and parents need to be held accountable as well to help us keep the ones we have and develop the ones that are new and there is nothing more than cheap talk when it comes to that.
I have been asked/told (even here on DFP) to put on the stripes or shut up. I have ..... a long time ago and a place far far away. Yet my big NO WAY is because 'why would I join a group who's standard is so low' and there is so little/no support within the organizations.

I also need to put my time in to T-ball and tearing my hair out.

The first sentence in bold.....complete failure by ump organization. Totally unacceptable by ALL invested groups.

The second BOLD needs some action by leagues too. All stake holders get on board.
Move all spectators. Baseball/Softball...no one behind the backstop (move that set of bleachers past the dugout. Basketball...1/2 people per player and no one in the first two rows. Soccer...15 feet from any line of the field.

AD, TD, organizer better be onsite and start issuing warnings and removals. Quick, easy and the word gets out. Places that need a cop....get the sheriff to assign one and charge the teams to pay that cost (here, school games already have a resource officer)(plenty will take that OT and watch games)(the yearly Triathlon here is required to have a cop and car at every major intersection...$1000s in cost)

Umps will see that support. Good ones might come back.

Orgs have to support umps too. If Easton, Mizuno, Wilson, Star, Rawlings want their BILLION dollars in youth money then they can GIVE (and write off) every ump a gear kit to start and a new one every X years. NSA
MLB....they can feed the system more too.
Training and continuing ed......mandatory and free.

EVERYONE HAS HEARD OF THE PROBLEM. TIME TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
I have been asked/told (even here on DFP) to put on the stripes or shut up. I have ..... a long time ago and a place far far away. Yet my big NO WAY is because 'why would I join a group who's standard is so low' and there is so little/no support within the organizations.

I also need to put my time in to T-ball and tearing my hair out.

The first sentence in bold.....complete failure by ump organization. Totally unacceptable by ALL invested groups.

The second BOLD needs some action by leagues too. All stake holders get on board.
Move all spectators. Baseball/Softball...no one behind the backstop (move that set of bleachers past the dugout. Basketball...1/2 people per player and no one in the first two rows. Soccer...15 feet from any line of the field.

AD, TD, organizer better be onsite and start issuing warnings and removals. Quick, easy and the word gets out. Places that need a cop....get the sheriff to assign one and charge the teams to pay that cost (here, school games already have a resource officer)(plenty will take that OT and watch games)(the yearly Triathlon here is required to have a cop and car at every major intersection...$1000s in cost)

Umps will see that support. Good ones might come back.

Orgs have to support umps too. If Easton, Mizuno, Wilson, Star, Rawlings want their BILLION dollars in youth money then they can GIVE (and write off) every ump a gear kit to start and a new one every X years. NSA
MLB....they can feed the system more too.
Training and continuing ed......mandatory and free.

EVERYONE HAS HEARD OF THE PROBLEM. TIME TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.

I wish I cared about something in life as much as you do about the state of umpiring…
 
Jan 22, 2011
1,610
113
I went to a High School AD's conference Thursday through this morning. There was a session dedicated to what you can do to help keep the officials you have. At least 4 other sessions mentioned you need to get the coaches, parents, and players to be respectful of the officials or in a couple years teams will be playing more scrimmages than actual contacts.

A large percentage of AD's in attendance have had to cancel contests this year because of lack of officials.

I did not want to start umpiring HS games until next year but will do at least 15 games this spring. My DD graduates HS this spring.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
I have been asked/told (even here on DFP) to put on the stripes or shut up. I have ..... a long time ago and a place far far away. Yet my big NO WAY is because 'why would I join a group who's standard is so low' and there is so little/no support within the organizations.

I also need to put my time in to T-ball and tearing my hair out.

The first sentence in bold.....complete failure by ump organization. Totally unacceptable by ALL invested groups.

The second BOLD needs some action by leagues too. All stake holders get on board.
Move all spectators. Baseball/Softball...no one behind the backstop (move that set of bleachers past the dugout. Basketball...1/2 people per player and no one in the first two rows. Soccer...15 feet from any line of the field.

AD, TD, organizer better be onsite and start issuing warnings and removals. Quick, easy and the word gets out. Places that need a cop....get the sheriff to assign one and charge the teams to pay that cost (here, school games already have a resource officer)(plenty will take that OT and watch games)(the yearly Triathlon here is required to have a cop and car at every major intersection...$1000s in cost)

Umps will see that support. Good ones might come back.

Orgs have to support umps too. If Easton, Mizuno, Wilson, Star, Rawlings want their BILLION dollars in youth money then they can GIVE (and write off) every ump a gear kit to start and a new one every X years. NSA
MLB....they can feed the system more too.
Training and continuing ed......mandatory and free.

EVERYONE HAS HEARD OF THE PROBLEM. TIME TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.

I will take back every bad thing I ever said about you, @MoJo . Well, maybe just the really bad things. 😋 Seriously though, you hit a LOT of nails on the head there. Some of it may be a little overboard, but it is all coming from the right place.

I really like the concept of having a source to get gear for new umpires. This is something that some strong local associations have been trying to do (none around here, unfortunately) by members donating old gear. Cost-of-entry is a major barrier to umpiring. Most other sports officiating can be gotten into with relatively low entry costs (a uniform or two and a whistle as the basics).

Your point about ADs/TDs showing support is huge also. I have discussed places I won't go back to because of the way they catered to ejected fans and coaches, including one where my partner and I canceled our Sunday schedule with them. Neither of us liked doing it, but when you tell me the coaches who charged us and threatened us are sorry and you are going to let them come back even though YOUR tournament rules say NO ... then you picked them over us. Short-sighted TDs take the modern human resource view: they see umpires as an expense and fans/coaches as sources of revenue. It makes more sense to cut expenses ... except it really doesn't.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
I have been asked/told (even here on DFP) to put on the stripes or shut up. I have ..... a long time ago and a place far far away. Yet my big NO WAY is because 'why would I join a group who's standard is so low' and there is so little/no support within the organizations.

The overall standard will never get higher unless more people of higher standard join in; it is a complex issue but it needs action all around. Most of the umpires have extremely high standards or at least the better ones do - but there is SO many games and so few umpires left. We can't even mentor a new umpire because the umpires we would use to mentor have to be on games.

The second BOLD needs some action by leagues too. All stake holders get on board.
XXXX

EVERYONE HAS HEARD OF THE PROBLEM. TIME TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.
Don't disagree. Written a whole lot of my opinion on this site and many others along these lines.
Not seeing any movement yet. Lots of Facebook posts on behavior or 'don't yell at umpires' but efforts to stop behavior or really improve officiating.... not one thing.

Not one org/sanction wants to make any real investment in any way in officiating. That goes for all the sports I officiate in - it is not a softball only thing.
 
Last edited:
Jan 30, 2019
40
8
This is why I like calling in my state for High School. In Texas, for this year and continuing years the school system (UIL) is working with our state official's association (TASO & some others) on combating how parents and coaches treat officials. We have had our problems over the last few years including an official that broke his hand on a fans face while defending himself after the game. While I don't condone what the official did the fan acted out first and started the fight. An another from my football chapter where an official was escorted to his vehicle after a sub-varsity game, by the visiting teams AD. It has been long standing practice that the home team is responsible for the officials, in Texas.

So this year they decided to crack down on it and are giving the schools 3 strikes throughout the year. The strikes carry-over from sport to sport. If a report is turned in about official's abuse from a coach or fan, then the school gets a strike. After the 3rd strike the school is notified and TASO is notified to not provide any officials to that school until a plan is in place to correct the situation. For a fan, they used the example of a step program where the school will need to limit the number of fans allowed at the games. The example, started with a game with no fans allowed in the stadium, the parents only, then by 50% capacity. You can see how this would affect the game, not only would it apply to the home team but the visiting team as well.

For a coach, an ejection is does not mean an automatic strike, it depends on what was said/done before and after the ejection for it to be a strike. We have to submit a detailed report for several things, and each one gets an investigation by the school system and our state association.

My local recreation leagues have also adopted this strict policy, however, they with either ban the fan/coach for the season or possibly for life if bad enough.

And yes, officials are held accountable as well, there were a few individuals that were removed from games/playoff eligibility in football this year, because of a wrongful ejection and not submitting the reports to the state.
 

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