A Mitch Kupchak-er

[lawump]

I assign umpires for games in weekend youth travel ball tournaments.  I have this one umpire who won't stop doing cup checks.  In the first inning, he makes each catcher hit his "mid-section" while he listens to make sure they are wearing a cup.  He also does this with any substitute catcher.

I first found out about this a few weeks ago.  I didn't want to embarrass him (he just moved here from another part of the country...so I was cutting him some slack), so I sent an email to all the umpires stating that we do not do cup checks for a number of reasons...not the least of which is that we play by FED rules and it is the coaches' responsibility to certify that all players are properly and legally equipped.  

This past weekend, my umpire did it again.  Furthermore, I had two coaches come up to the tournament staff and imply that he is a pervert (without using that word...but the implication was unmistakable) and that if he was on their field, they would pull their team off the field.  I met him at his car (a/k/a his locker room) and told him that if he does it again he'll have to find another place to umpire.

Have any of you ever dealt with this?  Am I alone when I think to myself, "WTF????"  I mean, this is the crap that'll get an assignor sued, IMHO.

[lawump]

I should add that when I talked to him at his car, he got mad and said, "so, we don't care about the player's safety anymore, huh?"

[CJK]

56 minutes ago, lawump said:

"so, we don't care about the player's safety anymore, huh?"

We do, and that's why we require the coaches to ensure that their players are legally and properly equipped.

But "player safety" is not carte blanche for behavior that is inappropriate or can be perceived as inappropriate.

[Aging_Arbiter]

1 hour ago, lawump said:

"so, we don't care about the player's safety anymore, huh?"

We do, but with the litigious society that we now live in, documented procedures (asking the coach to verify) will remove responsibility from the umpire.  If you want to keep checking from this point on, I'd tell him to take a hike.  As mentioned, you will start to get more notoriety as the town pervert if you continue. 

[LRZ]

If it's worth your time and energy to try to keep him, you might explain that cultural norms in SC are different from those where he lived previously, and if he wants to continue umpiring for you, he has to accept that expectations are different.

[BT_Blue]

We have an umpire here in my area that would expound the virtues of the Nutty Buddy to anyone that would listen. That would include high school and youth catchers.

He is a good (read decent) umpire and is one of those guys that loves the game, will work anywhere and everywhere when asked, and is an all around good guy  (though I think his politics are a bit skewed lol). But it took us over a year to convince him that talking about such things could cause him some MAJOR issues. Especially with the parents and coaches.