Two things happened this Saturday that have to be addressed. 

The first is an important one, and was the use of profanity in one of the songs that was played.  There are absolutely no excuses for this happening and I apologize.  I also commit to you that this will not happen again.  I spent approximately three hours on Friday night listening to all the new music that would be played to insure that they were profanity free; however the CD containing the inappropriate word was created for the players walk up music and was intended to be played for only a few seconds.  This author was unaware of that and played the music for an extended time while the coach was visiting the mound.  Regardless, I sincerely apologize and regret that this occurred.

The second item is not as important but one that I would like to address.  This is the matter of the ejection of a person from the scorers’ booth or press box.   While there was definitely no profanity used, (as some have suggested), there was loud vehement disagreement with the calls on the field.  Initially the point being made was that no call had been made, and when the umpires insisted that a call had been made the dispute was that it was the inappropriate call.  Regardless, it was the wrong thing to do.  Never should a spectator enact his first amendment right (freedom of speech) and embarrass an umpire.    Think about it, what if someone came to your job and the minute you made a mistake (or a few of them) and they started yelling at you and embarrassing you, wouldn’t you throw them out too? 

After all why is there an expectation that the umpire will get the call correctly all the time or even most of the time?   Some of you might say because that is the reason why they get paid.  I have to disagree because they get paid whether they make all the calls correctly or not. (Think about that one)  Furthermore, I believe (and I think it has been proven somewhere) that everyone goes to work with the intention of doing a good job.  No one goes to work thinking today I am going to do a lousy job.  But it happens all the time and the reason it does is because sometimes people just don’t have the skills to do the job correctly.  Plain and simple, they are just not good at what they do. And, if umpiring is like most jobs, these underperforming employees keep getting fair evaluations keep doing a poor job and keep getting paid.  I wonder if the umpiring would improve if coaches had to write up evaluations after each game and that would determine if or how much an umpire got paid.  No, this probably won’t work because a bad call for one coach is a great call for the other coach and you would have conflicting evaluations.  Or possibly a coach might be conscious that a bad evaluation could lead to the umpire holding a grudge and to further bad calls against his team.    But this is highly unlikely, because we all know that umpires don’t hold grudges.  Really! Trust me, I know.

So I have another idea, maybe umpires should come with a warning card.  Think about it, everything today does – even when you buy a hot coffee from McDonalds the cup says, “Warning – contents inside is hot”.  Really?  Yeah Really!  This way everyone would know exactly what to expect and there wouldn’t be any surprises, and most importantly any reasons to yell or argue with umpires.  Think about it, what if you were given a card that said,

“NOTICE – umpire has difficulty making a call on the infield fly rule, he is indecisive and has a poor understanding of  Chapter VI, item 24, of the National Federation of State High School Associations Umpires manual which states:

“When the hit ball is judged to be an infield fly, the infield fly-signal is given.  It is the right hand raised overhead, with your index finger pointing at the ball. At the same time yell, “Infield fly! If fair, batter’s out!”

Maybe, it could say something like, this umpire suffers from the inability to point and yell at the same time. Then we would understand what to expect and know that the rules won’t be followed.

Likewise, umpire is not a meteorologist and does not know atmospheric conditions, thus he has difficulty understanding and implementing Chapter XII, item (6) Infield Fly (of the NFHS Umpires Manual):

“….Remember, a fair fly ball that can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort is an out; even if the ball is dropped…..Make a vocal call, “Infield fly, if fair, the batter is out!”  Do not call the play too soon; wait until the ball is on its

Downward arc, especially on windy days, so you can be sure the ordinary effort part of the rule is met.  A good guideline for ordinary effort is whether the infielder can turn and face the infield while waiting to make the catch.

If only we had this warning, wouldn’t this have saved a lot of grief for everyone?

Also,

“ CAUTION: while this is a fundamental and basic concept, the umpires have difficulty keeping track of the number of strikes on a batter and the number of outs.” 

-         Then we would for sure understand what is going on when the field is cleared after only two outs and two strikes.

And lastly,

“DANGER – umpire ignores rule #5, Chapter 1 of the NFHS Umpires Manual”.  This states:

“5. Umpires are encouraged to ignore spectator comments.  If warranted, the umpire should request that the game management handle unruly or unsportsmanlike behavior from spectators.  Every crowd will include a number of people who heckle an umpire.  Many persons believe that to do so is a legitimate part of a ball game.  Fans not only lose respect for an umpire who in any way reacts to criticism, but if he gives evidence of being conscious of heckling, their criticism becomes more intense.  Umpires must ignore any and all spectator comments.”

Believe me, I am not making these rules up.  If you don't believe me, I encourage you to look them up.  Its truly amazing. 

In a similar manner I am sure that the person ejected would agree to have his own warning card for the umpires stating: 

“NOTE – these stands include parents and grandparents who live and die on every pitch and would appreciate a little effort and some better calls.  Failure to do so will result in loud obnoxious outbursts so we urge you to abide by chapter 1, rule 5 of the NFHS Umpires Manual.  And we will try to remember, no one goes to work wanting to do a lousy job, some just don’t have the skills.

All in all, I have it on good authority that the ejected person is sincerely remorseful for the incident and will not be conducting him self in this manner in the future. So as you rush to condemn him, let the person whom has never disagreed with an umpires call throw the first stone.  Just as I suspected, no stones.