Worked with a Bum....

[CentralOhioUmp30]

I worked with an absolutely horses*** umpire yesterday.  Unfortunately, I was by myself.  lol.

 This made my day....thank you!

[CentralOhioUmp30]

I've worked with a couple of those guys this year.  I'm young, so I've run in to a couple   who think because they're older that they're going to tell me how the game is going to be worked.

 

I've had a couple times where I've grabbed my partner and thrown him under the bus because a) he was probably a prick to me once we met and/or b)  I'm not taking any blame for a call or rotation problem that is my partner's responsibility.  Why should I?  If there's an assigner watching one of my games he'll know who fu**** up and if one of them got lippy with me I'd have no problem letting the assigner know what happened so that I'm covered.

 

I had one similar to the OP with the exception being there was actually a play and we covered this during the pre game .  Let me preface this by noting that I was scheduled to do the plate, but when I got there my partner looked at me and said that I looked "a little young to be doing this age" and he would be more comfortable if he did the plate.    I laughed and basically let him know that I could care less what I do, so he suits up.

 

Now, for the actual play; I go out on a "trouble" ball down the line and the kid tries to stretch it into a double.  There was a play made, but my partner was standing behind the plate like a real   .  There was no call made.  Both coaches come out to me and I let them know that it's not my call.  One of them is an umpire and quickly realized I was right.  They both go to PU to figure out what the call is.  Obviously, he doesn't know so they and everyone else are getting on him. He called the runner safe and then all hell broke loose. I enjoyed every minute of it.

 

I am out there because I love baseball and I am trying to improve.  My job isn't to help an arrogant, incompetent a-hole with the most basic of responsibilities.  As others have noted, working with people you're familiar with helps out exponentially.  I am all for helping guys out on wacky rules and situations like a pulled foot.  You just can't be a prick to someone and seriously expect them to have your back.

[bleacher_bum]

What's wrong with being a Bum?

[semper_fi_72]

What's wrong with being a Bum?

Nothing as long as you stay in the bleachers. 

[BigUmp56]

My point is that I often hear people complaining about working with incompetent umpires and usually it occurs when they step down in competition.  Bad umpires aren't going to work high level ball.  So if you want to avoid bad umpires then don't work the money-making travel ball tournaments.  That is where you will get your bad umpires.  And the reason is that they are not held to a higher standard in order to get games.  They have no incentive to improve.

 It's probably not best to generalize like this. What you say MAY be true in a lot of areas, but it's certainly not true everywhere. I've seen umpires working late in the IHSAA state tournament, NAIA, and even a few Div-II games that wouldn't make the grade in a LL Juniors or Seniors Regional. I believe you'll find bad umpires at nearly every level.

 

JMO

 

Tim.

[KLAH316]

 

What's wrong with being a Bum?

Nothing as long as you stay in the bleachers. 

 

or on the beach!!!

[Pete Peterson Sr]

 When doing this they are going to run across umpires that are just there for the money.  They may have been doing it for 20 years, but that doesn't mean they haven't been doing it wrong for 20 years.  

 

I would say 99% of the time, they have been doing it wrong for twenty years. It ha been my experience that umpires in it just for the money don't care enough to attempt to get any better, and they certainly don't spend any money to get better, I.E. attending camps, buying manuals, etc.

[bluegorilla]

I've worked with some damn fine umpires in travel ball that come here from many surrounding states . Most are experienced high school , juco , and even some D1officials . I like calling with new partners and watching them work !

[bleacher_bum]

Let's face it, there are "bums" in every profession.  Some people just don't have the "drive" or the "want to" to put in the extra work it takes to do things right.  These same people "coast" through life in their regular professions as well (most probably).  I'll bet everyone here knows a person at his/her work that could be much better if they put forth some effort.  -  No different in umpiring, the main reason we don't see it as often in umpiring, is that most people don't get in to umpiring that have those types of work ethics.....but obviously, some do.

[umpire_scott]

I've worked with some damn fine umpires in travel ball that come here from many surrounding states . Most are experienced high school , juco , and even some D1officials . I like calling with new partners and watching them work !

 

I'm not meaning to generalize that all umpires that do the travel ball tournaments are bad umpires.  There are many that do those that also do high school, legion, and other higher levels.  I'm saying that most "bad umpires" don't last when they are umpiring where they get evaluated.  So these travel tournaments out here are where they congegregate.