Exactly when I umped it was simple if you didn't notice during warm ups, which I usually tried to do, as they get to the box, hey you forgot about your earings, to which the girl would say oh I'm so sorry run back to dugout and hand them to coach and 15 seconds later it's "play ball".No- that wasn’t what I meant at all. Didn’t mean the jewelry thing.
What I meant was when I watch softball at better tournaments with better umpires there comes a point in the weekend when I notice that I “haven’t noticed“ the umpires at all. That’s a good thing.
Locally it seems like the umps insert themselves into the game and try to become the center of attention. The jewelry thing is an “opportunity” to stop play, wave their arms, yell to the coach that there is a player wearing jewelry, warn the player, warn the coach, chastise the parents, send an email to the tournament director and create a press release. I think it’s because the same umps are dealing with the same coaches players and parents every weekend and they are all holding grudges, settling scores and get away with saying things like “you know I don‘t like that rule“, “I call strikes where the batter is not at the plate“, “I won’t call strikes above the belly button“, etc etc.
I will say that I am glad that in the summer at the bigger tournaments they allow these kids to show a little personality. These players spend all summer traveling all over and it’s a really small way that they can have some control over their lives, control over their appearance, maybe feel unique/prettier or something. Not sure how to explain it but I know it is important to the players and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t hurt anything. Talking about 16’s and up where issues like that become more important.
Again, talking about kids who are spending every weekend of the summer 4 plus hours from home missing all the stuff that teenagers do with their friends.
Maybe. And I’m just spitballing here. Maybe at the better tournies with better umps you have better teams with better coaches. So the umps don’t have to enforce these rules that everyone in the park knows.No- that wasn’t what I meant at all. Didn’t mean the jewelry thing.
What I meant was when I watch softball at better tournaments with better umpires there comes a point in the weekend when I notice that I “haven’t noticed“ the umpires at all. That’s a good thing.
Inexperienced umpires call attention to themselves... partly by screwing up.
"TIME!!!! COACH I HAVE SPOTTED JEWELRY! STOP EVERYTHING WHILE I MAKE EVERYBODY HERE AWARE THAT I AM THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON HERE! COACH, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! THE PLAYER HAS BEEN WARNED. WHO ARE THIS PLAYERS PARENTS? YOU ARE WARNED TOO." It is really noticeable to me. It looks insecure to me.