AD texts me all night to complain about a call

[sroberts9337]

Deleted

[Magic]

Do you want Feedback or are you just venting?

Games Worked Too Damn Many

[scrounge]

I don't think either of you were terribly professional in that exchange. As described, you were perfectly right to make the call but I would encourage you to say less and refrain from making accusations of your own. Specifically, calling the AD "ignorant of the rules of baseball" - while perhaps true - is not a way to win friends and influence people (related: You may want to read the book by that same title, "How to Win Friends and Influence People"). State the rule, your interpretation, perhaps a case play to reinforce it, and move on.

 

Also, the AD tried to backtrack and end it but you were way out of line saying he was just bitter about the result. That comment at the end of an argument would have gotten a coach ejected - why would you say it? This went on WAY too long - about midway, just state the rule and your judgment, copy your assignor, and relay the threat and DON'T get personal yourself.

 

I would have a hard time defending you after this. Whether you like it or not, athletic directors are the customer for your assignor. He was wrong in this instance - but you joined him in the ring and neither one of you wins. But you've got more to lose than him.

[BuckeyeMike]

WOW.   On many, many levels.

[grayhawk]

Nothing about this is good. You should have referred him to your assigner immediately and not entertained a discussion. This is no different than being approached in the parking lot after the game.

[maven]

Nothing about this is good. You should have referred him to your assigner immediately and not entertained a discussion. This is no different than being approached in the parking lot after the game.

 

Agree. Refer him to your assigner. If he continues to harass you, report him to the state.

 

Whether you were right is immaterial. Both his and your behavior is inappropriate.

[Umpire in Chief]

Please do not engage them after the game.

 

First it will never benefit you, only potentially hurt

It sets a precedent that this is acceptable

[Mad Mike]

One of the cardinal rules as umpires is that we have the last act, when we try to have the last word too it usually does not work out too well. 

 

I appreciate you posting this exchange though. There were many things that we can all learn from in this exchange--namely, not to let it go on this long. Keep explanations short. It's not our job to keep trying to convince someone that we are right. Save that conversation for your assignor and/or State entity.

[maven]

It's not our job to keep trying to convince someone that we are right. Save that conversation for your assignor and/or State entity.

 

Right: no need to convince anyone.

 

That includes the assigner and the state. Every call = rule + judgment. If you blew the rule, then you blew it, there's no argument to be had. Look it up; ask an interpreter if in doubt.

 

And your judgment is not open for assessment unless there's video, which for baseball there seldom is. And even if there is, the state doesn't care if your judgment was wrong on a given play, provided you know the rule and were mechanically sound. Everyone misses a judgment call now and again.

 

Our beloved forum has a section for "Rules," for "Mechanics," and for "Situations." You don't see one for "Judgment," do you?

[sroberts9337]

I shouldn't have messaged back, I realize that is wrong. This all occurred int he middle of the night, and I was pretty tired and had a lack of judgment. We do not call his games, he was the visiting team.

[Aging_Arbiter]

Or you could have resopnded in Portugese (or other language traslated by Google) that he had an incorrect phone number.

[ElkOil]

Whether you like it or not, athletic directors are the customer for your assignor.

 

This is an excellent point.  Our associations sell their services to their customers.  If they no longer like working with you and others from your organization, they'll take their money (and your pay) and go with another organization.

[BillKen]

Good job on the game...and when you walked off the field it should have been over.  As soon as you got the initial text, you should have taken a screenshot of it, printed it off, and attached it to your state report.  A coach that texts an umpire in a negative fashion after a game has ended should be reprimanded.  This stuff has to fall on deaf ears...there are too many other schools for you to work at and chances are that if you hang around long enough, you'll work for that school again too because coaches last less than 5 years at most places.  

[Welpe]

 

Nothing about this is good. You should have referred him to your assigner immediately and not entertained a discussion. This is no different than being approached in the parking lot after the game.

 

Agree. Refer him to your assigner. If he continues to harass you, report him to the state.

 

 

I agree with this although I'd be seriously considering submitting a report to the state with the contents of the original message anyways. That's highly unprofessional for an AD to be doing that.

[johnnyg08]

I agree with this although I'd be seriously considering submitting a report to the state with the contents of the original message anyways. That's highly unprofessional for an AD to be doing that.

While I agree, you also engaged in dialogue with him.  It's going to weaken your position by quite a bit.  It might be better to just eat this one, especially since you won't be seeing him again or anytime soon.

 

[Welpe]

I agree. I'm saying what I would have done instead of responding to the AD in the first place. Can't put the toothpaste back in the tube now.

[johnnyg08]

I agree. I'm saying what I would have done instead of responding to the AD in the first place. Can't put the toothpaste back in the tube now.

 

Gotcha

[blue23ll]

I'm not sure how a coach/AD gets an umpires phone number, seems pretty crazy to me. I have never communicated with a high school coach or administrator outside of the field, nor do I ever want to, nor will I. I would have forwarded his first message to my assigner and ignored the rest. 

[conbo61]

I'm not sure how a coach/AD gets an umpires phone number, seems pretty crazy to me. I have never communicated with a high school coach or administrator outside of the field, nor do I ever want to, nor will I. I would have forwarded his first message to my assigner and ignored the rest.

Arbiter?

[BuckeyeMike]

I know one of the hardest things for me when I first started out was the need to try to convince the coach (or whoever) to switch their view and come over to my side and see that I called it correctly.    It took a few veteran umpires telling me about this flaw to finally change the way I thought about and responded to this kind of thing.  

 

@Mad Mike in his post (#8) sums up what I'm trying to say very nicely.    There was a time, early on, where I bet most of us DID engage in this sort of back and forth, but learned very quickly to adjust, and that you're never going to bring the other side to see it your way.

 

To the OP, from the dialogue, it sounds like you're fairly young, so this is to be expected.  Just learn from this exchange with the AD and from all the great advice given in this thread.  You're now aware of how things can get ugly if you entertain such banter.

[Tksjewelry]

I'm not sure how a coach/AD gets an umpires phone number, seems pretty crazy to me. I have never communicated with a high school coach or administrator outside of the field, nor do I ever want to, nor will I. I would have forwarded his first message to my assigner and ignored the rest.

We are required to email AD's 24 hours before a game verifying we will be there. Many of our kids leagues coaches have our numbers also, though I don't know how. We have a private proprietary assigning system and a few weeks ago I started getting text messages and phone calls from coaches about rain outs.

[blue23ll]

We communicate through our assigner to the outside world. AD's/coaches etc, have the appropriate numbers to contact the assigner. Changes to games, cancellations/rain outs are communicated through Arbiter and/or the assigner. 

[Mudisfun]

Our HS association wants us to contact the school several days prior to our games to verify that nothing has changed as well to assure the coaches that we will be there. Most often this involves leaving a message with an admin or a VM.

If they use Ref Pay they hand you a voucher printed straight out of Arbiter with your name and address already filled in so getting a phone number really isn't all that difficult in this day and age.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Replacematt]

Our beloved forum has a section for "Rules," for "Mechanics," and for "Situations." You don't see one for "Judgment," do you?

That's because every forum is a place to pass judgment.