Handling Situations

by Bob Bainter

"Where was that pitch?", says the manager. "I've got it high.", you say. "There's no way that's high, let's go!!!" He retorts back.

There isn't a time that an umpire goes out on the field and doesn't feel pressure. I'ts part of the job to feel like the world is on your shoulders. Every time you make that judgement call on balls and strikes everyone in the park is watching you. You might see 300-350 pitches a game. You could be wrong on 30 of them and still get 90% of them right. But try and tell that to the crowd and the teams playing the game.

You are going to miss pitches. Don't worry about that. But in the illustration above, many umpires respond with, "Hey, that's enough," or, "I don't want to hear anymore." Yes, you might have shown the manager that you aren't a pushover, but two things might happen. He might think that you are a hothead who won't take much, or HE might the hothead who thinks you don't have a right to talk to him.

Bottom line, the best way to get out of that situation is to BITE YOUR TONGUE! Don't respond and you have let the manager have the last word, which is really all he wants. He wants to think that he got his two cents in, and he is 99% of the time satisfied with that. He doesn't want a response, he just wants to let you know that you were wrong (whether you were or not)

Next time that a manager tells you to, "Bear down!" or "Let's go," avoid the sarcastic comments and just go back to work. You will gain respect as an umpire that listens to their gripes instead of antagonizing the managers and teams.