When does an umpire need to retire?

[default]

Was the female umpire by chance named Lori, Blair, Kari or Crissi? Those are four female umpires that I'm aware of working that tournament. I know because I tried to get each of them to work some make-up games for me this past weekend and found them all to be busy!

And, they are all ASA or NFHS certified umpires.

By the way, openly criticizing your partner's calls, especially to players on the field as they are happening, is BAD, BAD form for an umpire. Way to throw your partner under the bus. You'd better hope that you never blow a call and need the other umpire to cover your back.

 

[default]

Bear, what summer ball team do you coach, and what age level? Thanks

 

[default]

Buckeye Heat 16U(May)

 

[default]

bretman
She wasn't saying it loud enough for him to hear. Anyway she would have had to have a BULLHORN for him to hear it. I don't think she was trying to "throw him under the bus", I think she was just disgusted. She was an excellent umpire. Even the calls that weren't in our favor were fair calls. She did a great job.

Someone needs to tell this guy in a nice way that it's time to stop.

I also found out from this umpires friend (who is his field umpire for almost all his games) that he has been removed during a tournament as an umoire not once, but twice. Not during a game, of course.

I guess he refuses to take breaks because he thinks they are trying to "rip him off" and don't want to pay him, etc. His friend says he's a little paranoid. He did take 1 break this weekend, though.

I just hope he finds something better suited for him. I am sure he's a great guy outside of softball.

 

[default]

At Berliner, not sure of her name. She was about college age or a little older. Very sure of herself, shoulder lenght blonde hair. Her umpiring skills were without question exeptional. She was not on any of my 12U games but was in the 16U age group on Sunday and I think she told me Saturday as well. I really wish I had asked her name when I was helping our 16U team. She was very very good. If anyone knows who she is (I'm not sure this is the place to provide this information, maybe just her first name) so I and others that had her can pass the good word on. We need to encourage those that did a nice job so they do not become frustrated with a handful that may have struggled. Possibly others like this young lady will see her getting praised for her efforts and would decide to also become umpires. This young lady had a confidence about her that kept the game in comtrol and was nice to see.

Jeff Klopfer
Classics 12U

 

[default]

Classics,

The young lady your referring to could be any one of three from the four Bretman mentioned. Lori, Kari or Crissi. Kari and Crissi are twin sisters. I have had the privilege of having all three of these ladies umpiring one of our games at one time or another and I have always considered all three to be at the top of all the umpires we have had. Of course Bretman falls in that category as well. ;D

 

[default]

Are the twins in their 20's, blonde hair? ?I think we had them during the Westerville Summer Slam All-Star Rec Tourney last year. ?They were GREAT! ?Very confident. ?One of them approached my dd at the end of a game and told her she had great pitching mechanics. ?That meant alot to us seeing that was dd's first year and Mom was her pitching coach! ?(trust me Mom.....has no pitching skills!) ?

 

[default]

Yes, the blonde twins did that Westerville tourney. They were on the front diamonds at Metzger Park. I was doing the younger age groups on the back diamonds at the same time.

In fact, I did a game last night with one of them. Though I have known these girls for a few years, it was my first chance to work a game with one of them. I was impressed! Very solid work.

They are both good umpires and both high school (NFHS) trained and certified.

As for which one might have been doing the game at Berliner, one question could narrow it down for me. If she was behind the plate, was she wearing a conventional mask or a hockey-style mask?

 

[default]

If those were the same twins that did Zanesville last year.
Two of the best that I have seen. Very good field presence.
Ran the games very well.

 

[default]

Conventional for my games...

 

[default]

yeh i rememeber at a tournament we had a umpire tell a coach
"well i cant see a darn thing"hahaha good to know. ;D

 

[default]

Bretman....Have you heard anything about this years Westerville Tourney?

 

[default]

The last I heard, I thought that it would be held this year, but I have not heard any specific details as of this date.

It was my understanding that adding a boy's recreational baseball tournament was also being discussed.

I have a suspicion, if I'm remembering my email addresses correctly, that one of the organizers of this tournament (Tony?) has posted earlier in this very thread.

Keep your eyes on OFC for future announcements!

I hope they have it! It was a fun tournament to work and was well-run and organized.

 

[default]

Bretman, thanks for the compliment on last years tourney. Unfourtatley do to a busier softball schedule I am not running the Westerville tournment this year but I have posted a new thread on where to get information for this years tourney.

 

[default]

Thanks for the info! I'm looking forward to working games again this year.

It's always nice to do a tourney just a few minutes from home.

I'll keep coming back as long as they'll have me...or until I turn 86, whichever comes first! ;D

 

[default]

My personal experience with NSA umpiring, most of which has come through my association with the Columbus Recs & Parks adult slow pitch leagues, has not been a good one. But that might be the exception to the rule. The city of Columbus supplies umpires for approximately 5000 games each year and I'm sure that getting umpires to cover all those games is a tough job. That might be a case of a "warm body" being the best they can find.

Bretman, I am a little puzzled here? Since you are so well versed in how to umpire, I figured that I would see you at our slow-pitch training meetings that we had this off season. There were 3 rules intrepretation meetings and 1 mechanics clinic. I would know this because I have made every one of them for 4 straight years now.

When you say that your experience with NSA slow-pitch umpires hasn't been a good one, I question as to whether you are talking about league or tournament games? Since we don't assign the leagues around here, we hold separate meetings for tournament calibur umpires that only deal with tournament rules. League rule meetings are administered by CRPD and there assigner.

Since as you put it, you had such bad experiences, I would think you would grace us with your vast years of experience and show us how it is done. Nothing like putting your money where your mouth is. The world could use more people who "put up or shut up". Which one are you going to do?

In the future, you might want to ease up a little bit on your fellow umpires be it slow-pitch or fast-pitch ones. The ones that your criticizing on the 'net might be the ones who you call someday for game assignments. ? :-X
I would hate to see a promising umpire career cut short by a lack of games to call nor by partners who refuse to work with someone who badmouths and criticises them in public.

 

[default]

I will contact Mike at Berliner. He should be able to figure out who she was. Sounds like many others had her umpire their games as well. In the future, I will make sure I get names of umpires. Yet another learning experience on my part. I feel this young lady deserves to be reconized and rewarded. Very nice to see her working very hard to call a fair game.

Jeff Klopfer
Classics 12U

 

[default]

Mike-NSA,

First, let me offer my apologies if I've somehow offended you. From the tone of your post, I seem to have struck a nerve.

You asked if my experience with NSA umpires was in league or tournament play. I thought that I made that clear when I wrote:

"My personal experience with NSA umpiring, most of which has come through my association with the Columbus Recs & Parks adult slow pitch leagues, has not been a good one. But that might be the exception to the rule."

My experience and training is in ASA and NFHS fastpitch softball. I also hold state certification for NFHS baseball. I have done very little slow pitch softball and have no experience with how NSA handles their umpires, other than the ones I have encountered through the Columbus Recs & Parks programs.

That is why I asked:

"If there are any NSA umpires out there, I would love to hear what your background is and what specific training NSA offers."

That was an honest request that I hoped could be answered to satisfy my curiosity, because I really was curious how this is handled. I was hoping that an experienced NSA umpire could set the record straight and maybe fill-in my lack of knowledge in regards to NSA procedures.

The story I related about becoming a registered NSA umpire by simply paying a $35 fee is true. Anyone else can verify this by visiting the NSA website.

That the local NSA chapter offers additional rules and mechanics training is great news. That's the way it should be done and is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

As for "easing up on my fellow umpires", I mentioned no names and don't see how anyone could possibly think that I was referring to any particular individuals.

You have to admit, Mike, that there are both good and bad umpires out there. Maybe the luck of the draw has been that I've had mostly bad ones in my Columbus P&R games. Maybe the better umpires are assigned to higher level games and the recreational leagues are forced to make due. I don't know and that's why I was asking for input.

I can tell you that hardly a game went by where there was not several rules or mechanics issues with our umpires. As they were wearing NSA gear (hats, shirts) and the league is NSA sanctioned, my assumption was that these were NSA umpires.

I have no fear that my general comments, observations and opinions posted on this website will lead to, as you put it, my umpire career being cut short.

My umpiring career is in full swing and, in fact, I have been forced to turn down about a dozen games so far this month due to being already booked.

I am, indeed, "putting up" on a near-daily basis. Just because the 75-100 games I do annually are not under the NSA sanction, it doesn't mean that I have "shut up".

Again, if I have offended you that was not my intent. Thank you for the portions of your post that provided me with real, usable information.

I will close with one final thought.

How long would a post such as yours, which takes a somewhat inflammatory bent, be allowed to stand on the Columbus NSA discussion board, where I believe you are the moderator, and where any post with any hint of controversy is routtinely removed?

 

[default]

You have struck a nerve because you are commenting about the training of the local NSA umpires on the slow-pitch side which I am involved with extensively thru out the summer and winter months.

You are somewhat correct about the leagues structure that CRPD offers. They do routinely assign there better (tournament seasoned) officials to there top shelf leagues. The stronger-feature leagues are actually assigned by my local slow-pitch assignor himself.

When it comes to the fast-pitch side of things, I can not comment on training issues because I am never in attendance at those meetings. I don't know if we have local meetings and clinics other than our state meeting on the fast-pitch side.

Does this mean I was satisified with all of the officiating last weekend? Not especially since it was so much better last season than this season. Would I like to have World-Series caliber umpires at my event, your darn right I would. Unfortunatly, I have to take the good with the bad since I have no say over who is assigned to my tournament official wise. If I had my way, I would go out and recruit as many top tier umpires as i could to work for me every year since my tournament has really gotten stronger competition wise and those teams deserve the best.

I only remove derogatory remarks on my site towards myself or my tournaments along with all spam and "pot stirring" remarks from slow-pitch teams. My board is primarily intended for me to post info since I can access it during the day from work and may not always be near a phone to return or iniate a call.

We can co-exist, I would just rather educate you a little more in regards to what I do slow-pitch wise. They will never cut me loose in Fast-Pitch because I would reel in some of the things that get done and put more structure to the program. I am not as "politcally correct" as they would like in regards to fast pitch. I tend to be too much of a straight shooter at times and some people can't handle that especially parents.

 

[default]

Mike,

Thank you for your candid comments and for the further information you have provided about how NSA does business in the Columbus area.

I know from your website that you are committed to softball and I'm sure that you put a lot of work into promoting the sport. And that's a good thing!

I do have a real interest in how NSA handles their umpire training and assignments. On several occasions, I've posted requests on this board for anyone with this information. You are the first to respond with useful information and it is appreciated.

Thanks again and best of luck with the remainder of the 2006 season.