Dear fellow umpire: As I prepare for yet another baseball season as an amateur umpire, and a board member of my town's youth baseball program, I thought that it would be a good idea this coming spring to add a message to the managers' packets that encouraged more respect for the umpires in our league. Although this has not been a major problem in our town, each year a few coaches always tend to get under our skin a little bit. Plus there is always the unknown factor of the new coaches that will come on board. Rather than simply tell the coach to show respect to the umpires. I thought, I've got to give a reason why it is to their own advantage to treat these umpires properly. The idea that came to me when I put my mind to it was so obvious I was surprised I never thought of it before. The coaches must teach their players "poise" and set an example themselves. The reason: "It will make all your players better players!" What coach could ignore that kind of advice? The letter below will be my Coach's Letter. I offer it to you to perhaps use in your organization as well to spread the word to coaches that dealing with adversity is another skill they need to teach as well. Let me know what you think!
RBS
Poise - A Life's Lesson
By Richard B. Siegel
As a member of the board of directors of our town's youth baseball program I am often asked for advice by new coaches and managers when they enter our league. One of the most common questions is "There is so much to teach…what skills are the most important? What should I teach first?" Without hesitation my response to that query is one word: "poise." Expecting to hear something more like base-running, bunting, or sliding, I often will get a surprised look and then the follow up question, "What do you mean poise?" This is what I mean:Poise means composure, the ability to maintain a good attitude and not let the disappointments of the game drive one's behavior. Keeping your cool. In a game where even the best players are unsuccessful two out three trips to the plate, keeping one's poise can get you through the day.
Since many managers see their players' failures as their own, the manager must make poise his number one behavior trait as well. Poise is the example you have to set for your players to emulate. Sometimes the disappointments of the game are connected to the rulings of the umpire. So let's go there for minute. If you've ever thought, "That umpire cost us the game." You're fooling yourself. What about your players that got put out during the game? At least 18 batters or runners had to make an out during every game! Perhaps some of those outs could have been hits that might have scored more runs? Maybe some of those outs cost your team the game. If an umpire's call was, in your judgment, incorrect and it benefited the other side, chances are good that the same umpire made other incorrect calls during the game or the season that benefited your side too. If you're going to complain about bad calls that go against your team, are you prepared to go out and propose that a bad call that helps your team be reversed as well? I don't think so. So, in effect, complaining about a call you don't agree with is hypocritical. If you're going to silently accept the benefits of an incorrect call that favors your side, you have to accept the questionable calls that hurt your team with as much calm composure and nary a protest. What you have to recognize is that any amateur umpire is very much like yourself. He's out there because he loves the game and wants to do his part to help kids have fun playing it. Fairly and by the rules. Like you, he's not an expert and he's not a professional. He doing his best and he has no desire to favor either side. He only wants to make the best ruling he can at the time he sees the play. His decisions are final. So why argue them? Why would one deliberately to be rude and disrespectful to the one person one the field your team really needs support from? The umpire is a human being just like you and the more abuse that is directed at him, the more distracted he will become. You know it's hard to think clearly when you’re the target of harangues from players, coaches or spectators. Allowing this situation will unfortunately cause the distracted umpire to become even more likely miss another play or mistake another ruling. Your objective as coach is simply to win the game, which usually includes some playing and mental errors. But you can still win despite those errors. Remember, the umpire's objective is to go out there and get every play right. No errors! When an umpire makes a bad call he usually knows it and feels just as bad about it as you do. If you lose your poise and blast the umpire for a call you don't like, think: are you making the umpire the scapegoat for your strategy failures, or your team's failures? If that's the case, you fail as a coach and you're making it harder for the umpire to do his job well. Help your players to learn to play better instead making excuses for their poor play by blaming the umpire. No doubt a bad call will cost you an occasional run, or hand your team an undeserved out. However, one of the most important lessons you can teach your player's is that you'll never agree with every call the umpire makes. Baseball is officiated by humans who are not perfect. It has always been like that and it always will be. Learning to live with an occasional bad call is as much a part of learning to play this game as learning to hit the ball. The sooner your players accept that, the more successful players they'll be. Have you ever seen a player or manager just completely lose control and end up getting ejected over what was a bad call? It happens. Part of being successful is the ability to keep your poise and stay in the game, literally! I have seen innings where a defense had given away five or six outs to the other team by their poor play: dropping balls, making wild throws and committing mental errors. Then when a close "banger" at first base doesn't go his team's way, the coach hollers, "Get in the game, Blue!" I continually notice that the most successful players never react to an umpire's decision that goes against them. They always maintain their poise. No matter how incorrect an umpire's decision seems at the time, they calmly dust themselves off and get back in the game without comment or complaint. These successful players know that this time it didn't go their way. However, next time it might, and sooner or later it will. They know the law of averages will keep it fair and things will eventually even out. Successful players know that as long as they keep their poise they're going to continue to enjoy the game. We often hear that participation in youth sports is a valuable experience that helps prepare children for the competitions and conflicts of life. As a coach participating in this valuable experience what could be a more important life's lesson than teaching poise? Probably none of your players will ever advance to become a professional baseball player. As a working adult, it's been a long time since I was told to get my mitt and go in to cover first base, or to get a bat and try to bunt the runners up a base. However, as adults we all deal with adverse and difficult decisions made by others that effect us every day. From the assignments that our bosses hand us to the traffic ticket the policeman hands us. Learning how to handle those disappointments in a mature and dignified manner is the same lesson you as a baseball coach can teach right now! Keep your poise.
Richard Siegel umpires in central New Jersey, where he is certified by the NJSIAA. He belongs to the Hunterdon County Umpire's Association. For more information on him [click here]
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