News Travels Fast

I was officiating a basketball game last week (this IS Indiana, we have nothing better to do here in the winter other than go to basketball games), and I worked with a gentleman who also officiates baseball in the spring/summer. He and I had a good game but most of pregame and postgame we spent talking about baseball.

He would tell baseball stories and I would tell stories. We then started talking about different people we officiated with. We talked about an officials that we enjoyed working with and even discovered that we both worked with a gentlemen from Anderson. Inevitably we talked about a fellow man in blue that had some serious issues keeping his mouth shut and keeping a "professional" attitude on the field. He had all the skills to be a good baseball official, except for his great ability to "burn bridges." This gentlemen has, for all intents and purposes, quit umpiring because he has burnt so many relationships with other umpires and Athletic Directors.

I learned that he sent a fairly nasty email to a local athletic director about some situation, and that athletic director showed it to another athletic directors who in turn will not hire him this season.

I am writing this as a cautionary tale to all umpires out there. Not only to umpires talk to each other about other umpires, coaches, and AD's, coaches and AD's talk to each other about umpires. It not only will effect your ability to get in to the local state tournament, but if you get a bad enough rap amongst athletic directors, you may be forced out of officiating.

Just be professional, firm but polite on the field, and respectfull to athletic directors (and everyone else for that matter) and you should not have any problems finding work.