Umpiring By Committee

No Thank You ....

Who hasn't been there …

• "Get help on that …",
• "I'm appealing that call to you …"
• "Out@#$$!??? … He pulled his foot off the bag?"
• "There was interference on the play, ask the other guy, he had to have seen it …."
• "That was a foul ball, ask your partner ..."
• "That pitch hit him ... ask the other umpire"

Umpiring is a team activity. Making a call is an individual effort, not a committee responsibility. Some umpires have taken this to the extreme levels where the will not make a call without asking their partner several questions. Watching a recent college level game the base umpire asked the plate umpire aloud if he had a tag at first base. The question "Do you have the tag too?" displayed the depths to which some levels of umpiring have sunk.

Won't somebody please stand up and make a decision here!

In another game the ball went out over the center fielder's head. The base umpire went out on the hit watching and signaling the "No-Catch" The plate umpire took the runner all the way into third and had both angle and direction on a perfect double-cut to retire the runner and end the inning. "I'm appealing to you" yelled the coach pointing to the base umpire who was now just returning to the infield. The base umpire called the plate umpire over. After a minute's discussion the runner was returned to third, safe. The "experienced senior umpire" (who had neither angle nor distance, nor responsibility) had overruled his junior partner (who had angle, distance and responsibility.) It left everyone on the third base line scratching their heads and wondering what would happen next.

Know your coverage, know which call is yours and make it.

Don't let a manager push you into asking you for assistance. If the call is yours to make in the first place. Don't ask your partner ask you for assistance if the call is not theirs to make. Call it! Stick with your call!

Tell the manager, "It's my call, he's out." or "It's my call, he's safe." And if that manager comes to you as the other umpire then tell the manager, "That's not my call and what I think doesn't even matter here."

It has become so common place to see umpires sent-for-help that umpires who do it right, make the call and refuse to involve their partners, are looked on as being suspect. Those who fake these meetings are even worse for they show both contempt for the ethics of those who play the game and for other umpires who follow later on that same diamond.

Safe and out, fair and foul, ball and strike are not rules interpretations, they are judgment calls. Umpiring places responsibility for making that call squarely in the hands of one umpire and particularly in the two-umpire system, the other umpire is rarely assigned to covering that umpire's butt.

... in my personal opinion only

The opinions expressed above are solely those of the author and do not reflect the policy, practice, teaching or instruction of any individual, organization, association or group.