Because sometimes people's emotions about the situation get in the way of their ability to stay objective about a situation or listen to other people's opinions. You have mentioned yourself that you have been blamed for the outcome of games. That's emotion getting in the way. Clarifying that this issue wasn't a game-changing situation is basically a statement that the OP is trying to look at the situation objectively.
Which batter starts the next inning? A D3K situation.
- Thread starter Lightning
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
Because sometimes people's emotions about the situation get in the way of their ability to stay objective about a situation or listen to other people's opinions. You have mentioned yourself that you have been blamed for the outcome of games. That's emotion getting in the way. Clarifying that this issue wasn't a game-changing situation is basically a statement that the OP is trying to look at the situation objectively.
I guess I'm just not making my point very clear. It shouldn't matter which team this happened to. In fact, that's totally irrelevant.
You did the right thing by initially asking the question with no reference to which team was affected by the erroneous umpire ruling. You did get the correct answer that agrees with your feelings. That should be the end of it in any of these discussions.
But sometimes someone who asks will then mention that the call led to this, that or the other, turning the discussion on how the umpire was the cause of further problems (or the call didn't affect the outcome, so thank goodness for that!). It's when the discussion turns in that direction that I get bothered by it.
That's how I initially interpreted your comment, which you told me I was wrong, and I apologized. That should be the end of it.
And I understand that now, as I mentioned in my apology.
I have/do umpire some so I understand where you're coming from but..... Of course one call can change/determine the outcome of a game. That's the burden you bear when you agree to umpire and the reason you strive to get it right. I guess you could always ask the coach why they didn't just have their girls hit more home runs or strike everyone out, but assuming all other factors stay the same, one incorrect call can certainly change the outcome of a game. Umpiring is a difficult job and no umpire gets them all correct, but I also hate to see them make the excuse that it's the team's fault that they didn't do more when an incorrect call greatly changed the game.
- May 29, 2015
- 3,813
- 113
Oh ... shoot ... better edit that ...
- Mar 7, 2016
- 242
- 28
Because as coaches we have witnessed or seen umpires calls being biased in one direction. I cant even count the number of times an opposing coach argued a call or went off on an ump only to see every close call after that moment go against his team. Heck ive had field umps converse with me in between innings about opposing coaches and the calls hes making right or wrong. That is why i have a strict shut the hell up rule in my dugout for all coaches. i dont care how aggravated you might be take it with a smile, and move on. Great example from this weekend:
team runs trick play we didnt bite
ump rules unsportsmanlike conduct grants our girl next base
coach argues with ump telling him to go back to C ball
ump replies "no thats A ball maybe some day you will get there"
Ump proceeds to talk to my coaches rest of game in between innings about the opposing coaches attitude
last inning same ump tells opposing coach to move his bucket inside the dugout, (he was been there all game) he goes off and gets tossed.
ump was wrong on his original call btw. Did it matter for the game? not in the least bit. What it did though was extend our momentum in a very large inning. Momentum in this sport is huge, and calls can change that very quickly.
I'm not debating that an erroneous call can come at a crucial point in a game that ends up changing its outcome. What I'm saying is that there's a propensity for people to post that during discussions when it has absolutely no relevance whatsoever.
Take as a case in point this thread. A question was asked whether or not the umpire made a mistake by allowing the batter who struck out to lead off the next inning. The question was answered by a number or folks informing the poster that the umpire did screw up. Asked and answered, so that should pretty much be the end of the discussion.
But then the poster added a comment about how the screw-up didn't affect the game. Why is that important? Why even bother to bring that up? I thought (wrongly, as I mentioned before and apologized for it) the poster was suggesting the umpire's call could have been detrimental to the game's outcome. Do we really need to go there? What does that have to do with getting an answer to the original question about the rules? That was my concern.
