Leaderboard

I’m a little late to this thread, but this is absolutely the BEST sentence I’ve ever read on this forum. This should be quoted on page 1 in every umpire manual.

I’m really diggin’ Mark Carlson (in AL WC) and Dan Bellino (Game 1, ALDS) actually vocalizing pitch locations, in addition to calling “Ball”s. “Out”, “Low”, “In”… “No, that’s up”… at one point, Carlson clearly says “down and out”. Huh! So that means those evaluators and feedback “dishers” saying “Don’t say pitch location. Big League guys don’t give pitch location, why should you?” are full of 💩. And I was especially keen on Bellino whippin’ a new ball out there on a ball exchange. No bellowing of “Time!”, no needless mechanics. Zunino is flippin’ the potentially scuffed ball to the dugout, and Bellino’s got a new one already enroute to the F1. Three cheers for situational awareness.

The thread has moved on a bit since last I checked in, but I want to respond to this. The point I hope your leadership was trying to make is that you should never be the aggressor (although, frankly, I'm not even sure that is 100% accurate). If a coach is yelling or talking loud enough to you hear, you're not the only one that can hear it. By not responding in kind, you're not being, well, unkind, you're standing up for yourself. You said earlier that what we allow we promote. At best, by not immediately responding to an accusation yelled at you from across the field, it creates an impression that it's okay to yell at umpires in the minds if the fans and players/coaches that are not informed of your later communication. That's the best case scenario. Switching gears, being liked (especially in the form of respect) does not preclude having disagreements or confrontations. There is a particular team that I had quite a few times this spring. Very, very good program. Before and after the game, I had nothing but positive interactions with the coaching staff. In fact, after the spring season ended, I had the 3rd base coach in a travel ball game, and he immediately recognized me and greeted me warmly. We chatted for much of the game as he was coaching first (which, yes, is generally not great idea, and I do not recommend this be emulated). As far as I could tell, that coaching staff liked me quite a bit, they told me on multiple occasions that I had done a good job, and I liked them as well. But, in nearly every game with that team, I would have some sort of confrontation with them. And to echo what many others have said, it's much better to be respected than liked.