The Umpire

"The job of arguing with the umpire belongs to the manager, because it won't hurt the team if he gets thrown out of the game." -- Hall of Fame Manager Earl Weaver

I often wonder why I do it. Sometimes it stresses me out beyond belief. I question myself constantly. Was that the right call? Did I do the right enforcement of the penalty? Did I really see what I thought I saw? Oh no, this is going to bring the coach out of the dugout. Are you serious coach?

Coaches don't help you out, as they shouldn't. 99% of them don't know 1% of the rules for the game that they are trying their darnedest to compete at. The ones that do are easily the superior ones and cause very little problems with the flow of a contest. However, get a coach with a limited amount of knowledge and you can be spending a lot of time explaining the subtle differences in his and your interpretation of the rule book. Or as I like to refer to it as, "The Game Bible." Worse than coaches with limited rules knowledge are the ones that forget the level of the game they are playing. The 8 year old community rec contest is not Major league baseball and the youth league football game may be played on Sunday but its not the NFl. Similar game...different rules.

You better hope your partner is doing his job and keeping his focus. At least you pray he knows some of the rules of the game. If not, be prepared to answer for his failings and every other official that didn't meet the standards of what coaches and fans expect from them in every past contest of the season. Sometimes many seasons.

When I get yelled at, it most often goes back to me making a call that wasn't what was called "last game by the officials" or I must just not "like" that team. Yeah, never liked teams wearing the color red, have pirates as mascots or have idiots for coaches. Oops, idiots for coaches do help me with my officiating. Those games tend to end up as mercies for the other team which makes idiots more likely to blame me. My one bad call (in his opinion) is what caused the whole team to melt down and lose by 100 points. It was definitely the officials fault. How am I going to sleep at night knowing I cheated for the other team?

And I firmly believe, that everyone, coaches included, are entitled to their own stupid opinions. But the smartest of coaches--and fans for that matter--would do wise to heed the "real" Bible's interpretation of how one should act during athletic contests: Proverbs chapter 17, verse 28--Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

Can you hear that blessed silence, where the game can be watched for the simple joy of the sport? Baseball could even be as much fun as fishing, if it wasn't for certain fans and coaches. Though you can fish when it rains. Watch the games for the movement and ignore the mistakes. After all, they are as much a part of the total game as the rest. And for gosh sakes, most of the times the athletes are kids...and other peoples kids at that.

Once you rest your attitude(and shutteth your lips), then you could get a bit of perspective of why I officiate.

"Umpires have the toughest job in baseball. Ever since the birth of the boos, they have suffered more abuse than a washroom wall." -- Ernie Harwell in Tuned to Baseball (1985)