quote:Originally posted by Will:As most professionals know, attitude colors everything.quote:It begins with you attitude and assumptions
Begins with me? Is it not a 2 way street here. There is a call and I disagree. I civilly inquire and the umpire is arrogant and refuses to listen to me? Oh just let it go.
I did it for a long time and the majority of the umpires were fine. We had disagreements on occassion we had our say and moved on. then came the creeping in of this confontational style. It is an opinion based on many years of experience. towards the end of my coaching tenure I had a young umpire tell me to get off his field. Where did he learn that?
Yes, it begins with you. You are the one coming out to initiate the conversation and will set the starting tone.
"Creeping in of this confrontational style", goes against all evidence I have in my 30 year career. In my experience, umpires were more confrontation, at all levels, in the 70' and 80's than today. Today, umpires are encouraged to convene to get calls right and keep skippers in the game.
Where did that young umpire learn that? I don't know, where did the coach who told my partner, "I'll beat the sh1t out of you before you get to your car" learn that? The difference between my bad experiences with coaches and your bad experiences with umpires is that I recognize can recognize that they don't represent every coach and move on. I don't let a minority of incidences color the majority of my experience.
Now, pretending we're on the field, I'll say only, "Skip,we've come to the point where we're just repeating ourselves and it's time to move on."
Then I'll hustle to my next position and put this in the past.
Have a good day.