ADRIAN, Mich -- In a watershed moment Saturday night at Adrian College, one fellow umpire proved his overbearing ego and personal misfortune a recipe for an angry, threatening, over-the-top explosion. It led to the easiest decision I've ever made in officiating.
I walked away.
When an umpire accepts an officiating assignment, especially so in and around collegiate competition, there's an expectation that a level of professionalism will follow. Sometimes you get all of that expectation met, and sometimes you don't. For this one evening, I got none of it and moreover, I wondered if my partner was so enraged, he would knock my lights outs.
Last night I walked away with full knowledge I could be fingered as the guilty party. I've seen it before. In these tough economic times, blame gets thrown around easily and assignors are a tricky bunch. They want the pay for the job but sometimes don't want to be responsible for the ugliness that can mar their reputation. I learned that a few years ago when a 400-pound umpire held more stature with the assignor because he had previously been a great umpire turned suck-up with coaches and assignors to keep earning assignments that his weight would ordinarily eliminate him from. The funny thing is I wasn't the one enraged and unrational; I was the one smart enough to know right from wrong as it relates to professionalism, but I might be the easier target for blame because I walked away from the game.
When trust between umpires is broken to this extreme, self-preservation and dignity becomes a priority above your responsibility to the game. The ironic fact I chuckled about as I drove home? Three, maybe fours years ago, my response to this type of aggression might have been an equally-aggressive response. Today, with a wife, three children and a career to think about, that response is more easily muted with common sense.
It's become an angry region in some parts of the Great Lakes. Unemployment is rampant, financial pressure is unrelenting while hopes regarding quality of life and expectations for success slip away faster than water drains out of a brand-new tub. In the locker room before Game One, my partner begged off the nine-inning plate game to secure the seven-inning plate game, and I offered no fight, happily accepting the nine-inning game behind the plate. A few minutes later he revealed he's been out of work since February. I even volunteered I would be willing to make a call on this umpire's behalf for potential employment, an offer that will pass unfulfilled.
I have a lot of empathy for the people struggling to make ends meet. I lost my position at The Oakland Press to citizen journalists -- code for volunteer writers -- this past March and my position with my company is being relocated while my wife is forced to take a healthy pay cut and benefit reduction.
My life isn't any better or worse than anyone else's. Regardless of anything bad that happens, none of this gives anyone the right to curse, degrade and physically threaten others because times are tough. I've been witness to a handful of locker room spats between officials. A couple I've been a first-hand participant but most have been between others. Usually ego and emotion are the greater evils than disagreements and decision-making. Last night was so far beyond anything rational, there was little choice to do anything but leave.
Had I witnessed a player or assistant coach berate and threaten the manager or head coach in the manner my partner blasted me verbally and threatened my physically, I would have lost any and all respect for the manager if that player or coach had been allowed to play or coach in the next game. I'm not the assignor, so eliminating the umpire, clearly off the reservation so to speak, wasn't an option. I would have gladly worked the game alone, but my partner's tirade painted him in a corner without a way out, so that idea wasn't an option.
I walked away with no regrets. Nothing is worth your safety or dignity. The people who suffer are the players and coaches who have to endure this level of idiocy. I just wonder if the assignor and coaches will see the true villain in all this or will the easy out be me?
~T.C. Cameron authored two prep sports books, had his blog syndicated statewide and has worked three collegiate sports for almost ten years. Cameron is the Media Manager for Cliff Keen Athletic, headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Who was it? Email me, I'm curious.
Posted by: Mike | June 28, 2009 at 13:30