Umpire not calling the game by the rules and no protests

[RJK]

From NFHS today:

View attachment 28192

Makes it almost sound fun!

Saw this, clicked the link. Every sport except softball was there. Go figure lol

 

[Lemond]

Admittedly, I never clicked the link…

 

[RADcatcher]

Why do I, as an umpire, want to get more umpires? (other than to protect the good name of umpires and to ensure I never work alone)

There are other umpires that would agree with that necessity!

Shouldn't the people complaining about the lack of umpires and the quality of umpires be staffing these recruitment booths?

Agree the people who are complaining should be doing something.... besides just complaining.

 

[RADcatcher]

@RADcatcher ... "the folks who run the Umpire business."

The sentence "the folks who run the Umpire business" was as appropriatly vague as the answer to the question who is responsible for umpires LOL

Who is that? That is the problem.

^^^


Good read

It isn't anybody unless you have a strong local umpires' association.

United Softball Alphabet and United Softball Says So Alphabet charge umpires fees, sell us shirts and hats (which we cannot buy anywhere else), run a background check on them, and then send us out to work games. Training is optional and on your own.

United Softball Alphabet does provide access to training opportunities, but even those are fairly sketchy unless YOU make it happen for yourself. United Softball Says So Alphabet ... after some deep scrubbing and accidents have I found a couple of poorly produced crappy Powerpoints and letters from their "national" umpire person online. That's the only training I am aware of from them. Neither have any required training.

Scholastic state associations are slightly better, as most require some form of testing and required training, though those are also highly sketchy depending on the individual person putting on the clinic. I can't speak for other state's cycles, but the Illinois High School Association requires a test every year (open book with the questions provided ahead of time) and a training clinic every three years.

Tournament providers/tournament directors/venues typically don't do anything, as they rely on whatever affiliated association to train its umpires. They then contract out to an assignor (or a strong local association which has an assignor) to get umpires.
Assignors are getting paid to fill slots with bodies. Good assignors will take an interest in their umpires and try to develop them. Good assignors are hard to find. After all these years, I am just now finding one good assignor, and he assigns for an area about two hours away from me.

Local associations are only as good as the people who run them. If it is a good association, then they are working to recruit, train, retain, and promote. In order to do that, they must work with different levels within the game so they can send umpires to those different levels.

So who is running the umpire industry? Not really anybody.

You can assign me to a game, but if you assign me to a booth then I need to see some pay or compensation. Sorry. Until I leave the field and become an assignor, I have no need for more umpires on the field. Not saying that to be a d-bag, but as a fact. I would like to see more umpires on the field, but it doesn't hurt or help me either way. I have no vested interest.

Yes pay for any assignment. Posting a flyer/employment opportunity at fields is an easier thing and does not take someone to be assigned it just needs to be implemented and be done.
*BY ANYBODY

Honestly, I would like to see fewer games with better prepared umpires than continuing to add more games and throwing more ill-prepared bodies into the grinder.

That would hopefully/ possibly get some attention to the situation!

The people who do have a vested interest aren't doing what they need to do, rather they are expecting me (us) to do it out of the goodness of our hearts to fatten their wallets.

 

[_MIA_]

Yeah. There is an umpire/referee shortage because nobody knows that organized games needs them..

I think in order to not be charged with false advertising, those recruitment booths would need to have video playing in the background of parents yelling at screaming at 75 year old men umpiring in 95 degree heat..

You know who future umpires are? The kids right now that have to sit through 10 min delays in their games while umpires have to deal with out of control parents/coaches…good luck with that.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Yeah. There is an umpire/referee shortage because nobody knows that organized games needs them..

I think in order to not be charged with false advertising, those recruitment booths would need to have video playing in the background of parents yelling at screaming at 75 year old men umpiring in 95 degree heat..

You know who future umpires are? The kids right now that have to sit through 10 min delays in their games while umpires have to deal with out of control parents/coaches…good luck with that.

Had an 18u baseball game today where the coaches* and parents started yelling at one another. The kids were in the field laughing at them. The kids were having a blast and didn't care that it was a 1-run lead that kept going back and forth. At one point the outfield gathered together and complained about the adults ruining their game.

*These were the same coaches who screamed at me from the bench that I had to tell them what my partner and I talked about since I changed my call based on a piece of information I didn't have. According to them, it's in the rulebook that I have to tell them. Is that kind of like, "You have to tell me if you are an undercover cop"?

Can't illustrate the problem better than that.