would you lie to the coach???

[BRUMP]

so I am at Town 1 little league complex........for a game between town 2 and town 3...(I live in town 2).....as im getting changed into my uniform an AC for town 3 comes up to my car and starts casual conversation because he sees the decal in my car of my HS...(note: the HS is not affiliated with any town) and we shoot the breeze a little bit and he asks me where I live.....the guy seemed nice enough but how many people do we know who change when they hit the field??? so I lie and told him im from town 4. game goes well no issues but after game that same AC comes up to me and says "good game blue but you didn't need to lie to me in the parking lot"....so would this be preventative umpiring? or did I overthink this one?

[th3]

overthought, IMO

[noumpere]

Preventive umpiring would be not having the decal of the school (or anywhere else) on your car.  No license plate frames either. etc.

 

And you can't always do this but try not to converse or park where its convenient to converse before the game.

[umpire_scott]

I see no problem with what you did, and the coach should not have a problem with it either.  I would have said to him that he shouldn't have really asked.

[BRUMP]

for clarification the school is a private catholic school that holds no relationship to any town and draws kids from 3 separate counties.....

[mstaylor]

I would tell him generally where I live, I don't care if he doesn't like it.. In my district there is 10 leagues. I get calls from all of them to cover their games. So one night I am an ump for league A doing a game between B and C. The next night I am a B umpire doing A and D. 

[MidAmUmp]

Instead of saying what town you're from, why not tell them how far away you live?  I'm about 30 miles from here (or what ever). 

[KLAH316]

I generally don't tell people where I live....

Here, everything is generalized anyways: East Valley, West Valley, Phx.

[BigUmp56]

I don't see any reason to lie about where you live. It's LL, and they should be elated to have you work their games. If anyone feels that you're not impartial, they can feel free to try and find someone else of your caliber willing to work their games.

Tim.

[UmpJeff]

I would have told the coach where I lived.  I'm an umpire and, as an umpire, I'm an impartial arbiter of the game.  It doesn't matter where I live or who's game I'm working.  Every team gets a fair and impartial effort from me each and every game. 

 

I can't count the number of times I've rang up my nephew while calling his games.  My scheduler provides me with the dates, times, diamonds, and partners when I get scheduled.  It doesn't matter what team's games I'm calling. 

[umpire_scott]

I was working a fast-pitch college showcase tournament in Denver one year.  The tournament drew teams from all over including Phoenix where I lived and taught.  Low and behold I'm walking to the field and I hear "Mr. Carpenter?"  It's one of my former students.  Her Dad is one of the coaches and he says hello to me and what not.  During the game I'm in "A" and the coach for the opposing team (it was a local team) asks where I'm from.  I answer Phoenix.  Well of course he knows that the team he is playing is from the Phoenix area.  I hear him talking in the dugout to one of the other coaches about how me and my partner are from the same area as the team they are playing so don't expect to get any calls.  The first time there was any dispute he brought it up.  To me it's just better for the coaches to not know.

[noumpere]

Sometimes the appearance of impartiality is just as important as the actual impartiality.

 

I certainly wouldn't work a game with my nephew (without everyone knowing it and in an emergency) and I agree with the comment about just saying "a few miles west" etc.

[elares]

I once answered a similar question by saying: "I'm from Sacramento".  I was born in Sacramento.  I have lived in Los Angeles for twenty years and I knew what the coach was after and just chose to provide a correct, but misleading, answer.

[mstaylor]

I was working a fast-pitch college showcase tournament in Denver one year.  The tournament drew teams from all over including Phoenix where I lived and taught.  Low and behold I'm walking to the field and I hear "Mr. Carpenter?"  It's one of my former students.  Her Dad is one of the coaches and he says hello to me and what not.  During the game I'm in "A" and the coach for the opposing team (it was a local team) asks where I'm from.  I answer Phoenix.  Well of course he knows that the team he is playing is from the Phoenix area.  I hear him talking in the dugout to one of the other coaches about how me and my partner are from the same area as the team they are playing so don't expect to get any calls.  The first time there was any dispute he brought it up.  To me it's just better for the coaches to not know.

And the first time he brings it up in a dispute, he's gone. 

[umpire_scott]

 

I was working a fast-pitch college showcase tournament in Denver one year.  The tournament drew teams from all over including Phoenix where I lived and taught.  Low and behold I'm walking to the field and I hear "Mr. Carpenter?"  It's one of my former students.  Her Dad is one of the coaches and he says hello to me and what not.  During the game I'm in "A" and the coach for the opposing team (it was a local team) asks where I'm from.  I answer Phoenix.  Well of course he knows that the team he is playing is from the Phoenix area.  I hear him talking in the dugout to one of the other coaches about how me and my partner are from the same area as the team they are playing so don't expect to get any calls.  The first time there was any dispute he brought it up.  To me it's just better for the coaches to not know.

And the first time he brings it up in a dispute, he's gone. 

 

 

I clearly need to eject more.  I would feel like ejecting him for bringing that up was me making it personal.  Like I ejected him because he pissed me off.  

[mstaylor]

No you would toss him because it's a BS thing that is personal and not germane to the discussion.  

[renegadewolf]

I enjoy the luxury that I don't work in an associations that are is the town I live in. Coaches will justify the most outrageous sort of nonsense, such as an umpire has a vested interest in any given team winning when the game isn't going the way they want it to.  Once I worked a plate game it turned out my eldest daughter was playing in.  After ringing her up on a fastball over the inside edge of the plate she started expressing her opinion on the call and continued expressing her displeasure at a volume i could hear.  All i could do was look at the coach and tell him to wrap her in or i would have to eject her.  Everyone was pretty stunned by that statement, but I explained it that I wouldn't allow any other player to go off like that, she doesn't get a get out of jail free card.  I imagine that would have been an awkward ride home.  My other daughter played on a travel team for a few years, and being separated from her mother I wasn't exactly being made aware of when she was playing.  I was living in another town and was assigned what i thought was a regular house league game, but it turns out i show up, there are my daughters, my ex wife and we are all standing with very confused looks on our faces.  I immediately let the coach from the local team know about the situation, and he just looked at me and asked if i thought that was really going to influence the game because he didn't.  Long story short if i know about some sort of issue in a game i let everyone know, otherwise where I am from doesn't matter, and I usually like to save the fact I don't live in the area I am working in till one of the coaches trys to call me a homer

[JHSump]

 

 

I was working a fast-pitch college showcase tournament in Denver one year.  The tournament drew teams from all over including Phoenix where I lived and taught.  Low and behold I'm walking to the field and I hear "Mr. Carpenter?"  It's one of my former students.  Her Dad is one of the coaches and he says hello to me and what not.  During the game I'm in "A" and the coach for the opposing team (it was a local team) asks where I'm from.  I answer Phoenix.  Well of course he knows that the team he is playing is from the Phoenix area.  I hear him talking in the dugout to one of the other coaches about how me and my partner are from the same area as the team they are playing so don't expect to get any calls.  The first time there was any dispute he brought it up.  To me it's just better for the coaches to not know.

And the first time he brings it up in a dispute, he's gone. 

 

 

I clearly need to eject more.  I would feel like ejecting him for bringing that up was me making it personal.  Like I ejected him because he pissed me off.  

 

Did he bring it up to say you were biased?  Then he'a making a statement about your integrity.  And he should be ejected.

[JaxRolo]

Never ever lie to a coach. Once you are caught in a lie you will lose all credibility.

[MB_Ump]

Never ever lie to a coach.

Once you are caught in air you will lose all credibility.

+1

But as has been said before, you don't have to tell them everything either.