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Umpire calling a game for personal reasons

2016/7/15 17:25:41


Question
Tonight was my niece's last softball game of her middle school career and we were playing an away game. Before the game we heard the umpire inform the coaches he had never worked a middle school game before and asked how many innings there were, so that made us uncomfortable from the start but assumed he would call it correctly since he was a licensed umpire.

The opposing team went up by one run in the bottom of the fifth when the umpire asks what time it is and says he has to go for personal reasons and calls the game over. Should they be allowed to call a game like that out of nowhere for personal reasons and just award a win to the other team since there was no time limit, it was not getting dark, and we were only down by one run? I know the right thing to do would be the other coach offer to finish the game if they could find another umpire or make it up at a later date but this team is known for not exactly showing sportsmanship and fairness. I also feel the umpire should not have made a commitment when there was any doubt if he could stay for the whole thing and rob the kids of a complete 7 inning game. Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer
If the umpire accepted the contract for the game, they have the responsibility to make sure they are there of the whole game.  If they are unable to complete the game, they should have made arrangements in advance for another umpire to call the game.

Based on your description of events, your team got the shaft.  I would document it, notifiy the state sports association and the umpires assignor if they use one for middle school.  I would also send the home teams AD a bill for all the expenses your school had involving this uncompleted game.  The home teams game administration has a responsibility here.  You could also send a note to the surrounding schools AD's advising them of your experience with this umpire.  Unless something very serious happend during the course of the game with this umpires family, he should have finished the game.
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