Deragatory Facebook Message

[Guest Ump]

So after finishing up a tournament this week I received a message to my personal Facebook account from someone I am going to assume was associated with a team we had problems with.  It was from an account "XYZ Travel Baseball" and the last published post was from June of 2016.  The message was basically cursing me out and stating how horrible I am.  So the question is do I ignore this message or do something with it, and if I do something with it what do I do?  I do not feel as if it contained anything threatening, just a person getting personal.  Thoughts?   

[Stk004]

Gotta love the Facebook forums. I've never been on them, but the war stories just keep coming. 

[Rich Ives]

4 minutes ago, Stk004 said:

Gotta love the Facebook forums. I've never been on them, but the war stories just keep coming. 

I think it was a message, nor a forum post.

In any event, with an independent travel team there's no place to file a complaint.  Just have to sigh and move on.

 

[johnnyg08]

Block them so that account can no longer message you. 

[Aging_Arbiter]

see, that's just another reason I don't do that instabook thing

[Thunderheads]

how'd they find you? that's my question ...........

[JSam21]

19 minutes ago, Thunderheads said:

how'd they find you? that's my question ...........

Probably remembered name from plate meeting or asked the TD for the name.

 

[scrounge]

Find the head of their league/association/umbrella organization for that team and forward the email, asking if this kind of unsolicited attack is representative of their group.

[BrianC14]

1 hour ago, scrounge said:

Find the head of their league/association/umbrella organization for that team and forward the email, asking if this kind of unsolicited attack is representative of their group.

I agree.   To me this is no different than if a coach had followed you to the car and saying the same things.  

[Mudisfun]

You could commit political suicide of course and reply with how bad they played and what a horrible job that team did managing the game. Call out all the simple mistakes and errors and ask why you should be the butt of their poor level of play.

Moving back to reality now...

Ignore, block the account and delete the posting... move on and accept that sometimes we get to be the reason they suck and lose... true or not.

[ElkOil]

12 hours ago, Guest Ump said:

So after finishing up a tournament this week I received a message to my personal Facebook account from someone I am going to assume was associated with a team we had problems with.  It was from an account "XYZ Travel Baseball" and the last published post was from June of 2016.  The message was basically cursing me out and stating how horrible I am.  So the question is do I ignore this message or do something with it, and if I do something with it what do I do?  I do not feel as if it contained anything threatening, just a person getting personal.  Thoughts?   

Treat it the same as you would an in-game scenario. Since you can't eject him, ignore him. What he said is of no consequence.

[MadMax]

Since this was a tournament, this needs to be addressed. While you are (or may be) an independent contractor, you were calling games for a tournament, and the TD chose, and published, the Rules used for the tournament. This sort of contact is outside the Rules and protocols.

So, forward this to your UIC (for that tournament) or TD, and leave it to them to handle – do not feel compelled to respond back to the other party. A good TD will go to bat for you, and will discipline the party accordingly. A great TD won't even make it about you – they'll simply reprimand the offending party for contacting any of their employees (and, as an umpire, you are an employee) in that unacceptable manner.

Going forward, please adopt that an umpire should never say their full name to a coach or other game participant – a first name, or cordial nickname ("Buddy", "Hank", "Gus", "Tiny"... something that you have been referred to, friendly, for years) is perfectly sufficient, and protects you from hassle and harassment. Remember, you are giving your first name / nickname (only) for game management and interaction purposes only!

[Mudisfun]

36 minutes ago, MadMax said:

Going forward, please adopt that an umpire should never say their full name to a coach or other game participant – a first name, or cordial nickname ("Buddy", "Hank", "Gus", "Tiny"... something that you have been referred to, friendly, for years) is perfectly sufficient, and protects you from hassle and harassment. Remember, you are giving your first name / nickname (only) for game management and interaction purposes only!

I agree with this 100% I have a very unique last name and as such only introduce myself as 'Kevin'. My last name is completely unneeded for the coaches... I do not ask their last names and can care less about their last names since knowing that does nothing in my administration of the game. 

Also if you have concerns about people finding you via Facebook... make your account private. Set you account so that you have to approve postings to your feed; lets you cut out these BS posts before they hit for your friends and family to find.

 

[BrianC14]

48 minutes ago, MadMax said:

Since this was a tournament, this needs to be addressed. While you are (or may be) an independent contractor, you were calling games for a tournament, and the TD chose, and published, the Rules used for the tournament. This sort of contact is outside the Rules and protocols.

So, forward this to your UIC (for that tournament) or TD, and leave it to them to handle – do not feel compelled to respond back to the other party. A good TD will go to bat for you, and will discipline the party accordingly. A great TD won't even make it about you – they'll simply reprimand the offending party for contacting any of their employees (and, as an umpire, you are an employee) in that unacceptable manner.

Going forward, please adopt that an umpire should never say their full name to a coach or other game participant – a first name, or cordial nickname ("Buddy", "Hank", "Gus", "Tiny"... something that you have been referred to, friendly, for years) is perfectly sufficient, and protects you from hassle and harassment. Remember, you are giving your first name / nickname (only) for game management and interaction purposes only!

I'm thinking of using this at my next plate conference.

 

[ALStripes17]

You could commit political suicide of course and reply with how bad they played and what a horrible job that team did managing the game. Call out all the simple mistakes and errors and ask why you should be the butt of their poor level of play.
Moving back to reality now...
Ignore, block the account and delete the posting... move on and accept that sometimes we get to be the reason they suck and lose... true or not.

But if you don't plan to go back to umpiring in that area....

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[Mudisfun]

1 hour ago, ALStripes17 said:

But if you don't plan to go back to umpiring in that area....

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 

Too bad it is such as small world now a days... especially with the Internet... anything you say will be available for pretty much anyone for a LONG, LONG time regardless of your geographic area. Think how different the 'Shining' would be in this day and age... 

"Mr. Torrance we see here there was an issue related to shaking/grabbing your child that we discovered during a basic background check online. Thank you for applying but the position is no longer available."

Roll credits.

 

[ALStripes17]

Too bad it is such as small world now a days... especially with the Internet... anything you say will be available for pretty much anyone for a LONG, LONG time regardless of your geographic area. Think how different the 'Shining' would be in this day and age... 
"Mr. Torrance we see here there was an issue related to shaking/grabbing your child that we discovered during a basic background check online. Thank you for applying but the position is no longer available."
Roll credits.
 

Haha, I had fun my last few assignments. Hanging them up to focus on studies.

Should have seen those coaches faces when they had an umpire giving the sass back to them. Actually made it somewhat more enjoyable.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[HokieUmp]

I gotta run with a response similar to @MadMax.  You HAVE to contact the TD and report this team.  Personally I don't know that it does much good - since most, if not all, TDs are in it for the team fees, there won't be much done.  But I'm a cynic.

The other thing I would also suggest:  light that TD up.  Why?  More than likely, he's the one that gave you up to the team in the first place.  I mean, maybe you're well known enough that he didn't.  But if you even suspect he's the source, blast him early and often.  Remind him there are plenty of unreasonable people in this world who take relatively meaningless events FAR too seriously.