Two calls from last night:

[Intheboondocks]

Barely relevant content follows:

I live across the street from the property where the local middle school games are played (bb and sb). I saw the bus arrive with uniformed players for a bb game and walked over with the dog to watch some baseball. There was no umpire there so the coaches took to calling balls and strikes themselves from behind their pitcher (coaches switched off and came on when their defense was on the field). I guess it worked out. My fire dept pager went off in the 2nd inning and had to run. One of the school facilities guys is in the FD with me and I asked him if they stopped using umpires for the middle school games and he was surprised that no umpire was there and even more surprised that they actually played.

We've had umpires not show for JV games and the coaches did exactly as you described, really for JV it doesn't matter. I'm guessing it's a situation where you have an ump call in to their coordinator that they can't make it, coordinator calls the AD and the AD doesn't see the message right away to let the coaches know.

 

[Lobster Birch]

I honestly don't know why anyone would want to umpire with some of the abuse that is freely handed out. I give you guys credit and try to keep my mouth shut. (Although with my daughter being a pitcher I have moaned once or twice on a ball which I thought was a strike)

Oh, umpires are all psychopaths; they don’t care about other people’s feelings, opinions or reactions.



I’m kidding.

 

[angispeds]

I honestly don't know why anyone would want to umpire with some of the abuse that is freely handed out. I give you guys credit and try to keep my mouth shut. (Although with my daughter being a pitcher I have moaned once or twice on a ball which I thought was a strike)

I honestly don’t know why some of these guys umpire with so little regard for the game and the kids. I come from a family of officials in a variety of sports and the put in so much time studying rules, watching film going to meetings etc. and I can promised you they are the minority. Don’t do something unless you are committed to doing it well.


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[Strike2]

Oh, umpires are all psychopaths; they don’t care about other people’s feelings, opinions or reactions.

Perhaps not "all", but you've got to be able to mentally insulate yourself somehow.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Oh, umpires are all psychopaths; they don’t care about other people’s feelings, opinions or reactions.



I’m kidding.

And, your point is . . . ??

(On another crazy tangent, we've been talking about racial profiling in one of my classes. Today, over half the class was gone. I pointed out that most serial killers are white, middle-aged men who try to hold positions of power. It took them a second.)

 

[The Man In Blue]

We've had umpires not show for JV games and the coaches did exactly as you described, really for JV it doesn't matter. I'm guessing it's a situation where you have an ump call in to their coordinator that they can't make it, coordinator calls the AD and the AD doesn't see the message right away to let the coaches know.

I've got to say, that statement really bumps my shin guards.

Why are you hiring anybody and why are we having these conversations? It bugs me when umpires "won't work JV" and it bugs me even more when coaches treat JV that way.

One local private school will have 8 coaches sitting in their dugout during the Varsity game. Their team is terrible. After the Varsity game ends, they all leave and the JV coach is left by himself for the JV game. Wonder why their team is terrible?

 

[Lobster Birch]

And, your point is . . . ??

(On another crazy tangent, we've been talking about racial profiling in one of my classes. Today, over half the class was gone. I pointed out that most serial killers are white, middle-aged men who try to hold positions of power. It took them a second.)

In China most serial killers are Chinese.

Serial killers in the United States are spread, as expected, nearly proportionally across the racial spectrum. It’s one area we have equity in.

 

[Intheboondocks]

I've got to say, that statement really bumps my shin guards.

Why are you hiring anybody and why are we having these conversations? It bugs me when umpires "won't work JV" and it bugs me even more when coaches treat JV that way.

One local private school will have 8 coaches sitting in their dugout during the Varsity game. Their team is terrible. After the Varsity game ends, they all leave and the JV coach is left by himself for the JV game. Wonder why their team is terrible

Sorry, that was an abbreviated statement. It is definitely preferred to have umpires at JV games, it's great for development (of players and umpires), however wins and losses don't have a post season consequence for JV.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Sorry, that was an abbreviated statement. It is definitely preferred to have umpires at JV games, it's great for development (of players and umpires), however wins and losses don't have a post season consequence for JV.

I didn't intend that as a direct poke at you, but I will continue on that line of thought . . .

So why play the games?

(It does matter.)

 

[Dabears17]

I am under concussion protocol and shouldn't be typing this, but I don't think I told this story, and I willn't look.

I've done two JV games for the school, of which the varsity coach threatened my umpires. He has been given a one-game suspension for "unsportsmanship conduct." CIF does not have a harsher penalty for threatening to beat up umpires. Sad.

The funny thing is if I had not been such a nice guy, the field would of been unplayable for the varsity game Thursday.

Anyway, the single coach of the JV game is an absolute angel. I have enjoyed doing her games, and she respects I treat their low-level JV games with the same respect I would treat an open division section championship (though I'm at least three years away from being good enough for that).

I showed up at her 4:00 PM game earlier this week at 3:20 PM earlier and instead of immediately calling the game with the field unplayable, encouraged the JV to get a wheel barrel of dirt from the baseball team, and two bags of Turface. I spent 45 minutes helping shovel out the water and fill in the lower area around 3B and some other slightly muddy areas on the field. I did not call the game until 4:20PM when the field apparently needed at least two hours to dry out.