Once again

[Typhoon]

It started out with a loudmouth Assistant coach bitching about my 15 year old partner's strike zone. The PU was rather intimidated by this guy, as this is his first year.  I went over to the dugout and politely asked him to tone it down. He said that the PU did not know the where the strike zone was, and this guy was loud. He said the pitches he called strikes were outside. I said they looked ok to me. He then said in his loud voice that I should get a pair of glasses. I replied by saying that he was no longer in the game. He started ranting about knowing the rules better than the umpires blah, blah ,blah. The TD came over due to the ruckus and escorted him to the parking lot. He was back in the finals but he was pretty quiet. They lost the final by 1 run and this Jackwagon  says to my 15 year old partner "thanks for losing the F---ing game for us". I didn't hear this but the kid told me when we were changing to go home. I said you should have run him right then but he thought he couldn't because the game was over. I told the TD and she said there were many other complaints about his behavior and their team would not be invited back .

Tony

[ricka56]

...  and their team would not be invited back .

Unless, of course, they pay the tournament entry fee. TDs often tell the paying customer what they want to hear and the umpires that work for them, what they want to hear...

...time to take my anti-cynical meds...bartender !

[ElkOil]

Another example of one guy ruining the fun for everyone.

I hope your partner doesn't let this get him down and sticks with it.

[BuckeyeMike]

I hope you post-gamed with your 15-year old partner to boost him up and not let this outing be the end of his career.  Umpiring is a fragile avocation; we should be constantly recruiting and spending efforts to retain. 

Solid EJ btw.....that's an easy one.

[maven]

I told the TD and she said there were many other complaints about his behavior and their team would not be invited back .

That's some consolation for you, I suppose.

But he'll take his money and his obnoxiosity to the next one, figuring his fee buys him carte blanche to verbally assault the umpires there. Until he gets tossed every first inning of every tournament, we won't get this butt booger's attention.

[Typhoon]

Oddly enough the association he belongs to is in the town next to us and I have umpired a lot of their older games. I know the association president and will be having a conversation with him in the next few days. I was talking to my daughter-in-law about this and she knows this guy and said he has caused a lot of trouble in the past. I doubt if they will have him back as this tournament has to turn away teams every year. I like doing it because the TD and his volunteers treat us very well. Due to the standings they were able to cut a game in each division and they still paid the umpires for the games that were cut. Very classy in my opinion.

Tony