Great Call

There's an umpire that has worked my daughter's softball games for years that is well past his prime, likely in his eighties at this point.  He's not very mobile anymore and his eyesight is fading, and he should have hung up the shin guards years ago.  But he hasn't, and he still calls games and as you can imagine he's more prone to mistakes than most.  My daughter's teammates and their parents get frustrated when he shows up to ref the game, but I'm more pragmatic than that.  I can't fire him; I have no power to change which games he calls.  As far as I'm concerned he's like the weather or the condition of the field -- he is what he is and you need to make it work.

So I've coached my girls to do what IS in their control when he's the one behind the plate -- make his job as easy as possible so that 75% of the bad calls fall our way instead of the other.  When you put a tag on someone keep it on, then show him the ball.  When you touch home plate jump on it with both feet.  When you get hit by a pitch say ouch and rub where it hit.  This isn't about cheating (of which I've been accused), it's about applying control to a portion of the game that is within your reach when unpredictability is in the mix.  As far as I'm concerned there's nothing wrong with helping an umpire make a factually correct call.

This has proven to be remarkably uncommon advice when I talk to other coaches, so it was with a bit of surprise that I stumbled across this beautifully written quote regarding the NFL Referee strike:

"The underpinning of football is to gain a physical edge and move the opponent out of the way. The difference between a clean, play-stopping hit and an illegal one is a split-second of self-control. But if players and coaches sense the refs are unreliable, then they do everything more physically in order to try to impose some certainty on a crapshoot of a contest. They aren’t taking advantage; they’re just trying to solve the problems on the field by imposing their physical will."

That's Sally Jenkins in the Post.  The full article is here and a good read -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/replacement-refs-incompetence-solely-the-fault-of-the-league/2012/09/25/93f3c7a6-0729-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html

It's rare to see good insight into metagaming in the mainstream media (sports in particular, politics is better but it definitely remains in the minority) and the writing in that quote above is simply excellent.  A writing professor will tell you your work is done when there's nothing left to remove, and Ms Jenkins brought the point home about as quickly and cleanly as I've seen.  I figured it was worth calling it to your attention.

S.