Are you the right person at the right time and do you know the rules well enough to question the call?

Before I share some of my life lessons from the ballfield, let me share some of my week.

During a recent visit with Water Pollution Control, I had a chance to help raise manholes to match the road level. After the supervisor marks them, the crew comes along over the next few days and gets the work done to solve the problem.

Start with a cut or four and then you can start removing material. When all is clear, they then have to decide the best path to the desired height. Could be some shims or maybe a riser or even a new casting.

Either way, years of experience help make the best choice before calling in the concrete truck to level the roadway again. As always, WPC, thank you for allowing me to slow down the process and learn about what you do.

Podcast guest or podcast host, it didn’t really matter this week as I had a chance to be both. Look for a new episode of the Seymour Moments podcast to hit soon with special guest Kendra Zumhingst.

We had a chance to discuss the Youth Triathlon, Oktoberfest and Seymour Parks and Recreation board. Thanks to a random piece sent to WISH TV 8 that was a short blurb about biking to work, I had a chance to be a guest on the Fitting Indy podcast. Thank you, Drew Blair and Allan Haw, for setting it up.

I also had a chance to visit the 500 Festival breakfast and chat with fellow mayors from around the state. I always enjoy these events because they lead to expanded ideas from other communities that can either work here in Seymour or be tweaked to fit Seymour’s needs.

Now back to that opening question. I have been involved with fastpitch softball for more than a decade now in one form or another.

From parent to coach then on to umpire, I have enjoyed the sport from several different viewpoints. The great part of the different roles is I get the chance to keep learning.

Now, I would like to share what started out with a working title of “How to argue with an umpire and agree to disagree.”

The more I thought about it, I realized it isn’t that you have to argue. It’s that most don’t know how to properly approach it.

So the question is broken into three parts. Are you the right person to question a call? If you are a player, parent, grandparent or anything but the head coach, the answer is no.

I have watched many coaches say they can’t control certain things that fans do. If you are not willing to try, you are 100% correct.

If you, however, allow a player to question an umpire, you are not teaching them to be the best player they can be. Fans, instead of sharing your disagreement, how about flipping it to be supportive of the player.

Is it the right time? While the play is still going on is not the time to start questioning the call. When you wait for the play to be complete, you sometimes are surprised by the outcome.

Many times, the thing you see differently will reveal itself if given a moment. A dropped ball, for example, may not be visible from all angles. Then as players start to get up, more will see the reason for the call. This one is also true in several other areas of life, but many are in a rush before the time is right.

Now the last piece as a head coach, do you know the rules well enough to question the call? What I mean here is telling an umpire he is wrong will not get him to have a conference with their partner. Instead, if you ask a question, it gives the ability to review what you feel you saw differently.

Back to the dropped ball. Ask the umpire if she dropped the ball? Then the umpires will have a conference to see if either says the ball got dropped. This is your best chance to get a call overturned. Also know what calls can be questioned.

Judgment calls cannot be questioned. Called balls or strikes, for example, are not questionable, and heckling an umpire is often a way to help that strike zone get worse before it gets better.

What better way to wrap up a bat-and-ball type of article than with a quote from Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda: “No matter how good you are, you’re going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are, you’re going to win one-third of your games. It’s the other third that makes the difference.”

As a manager, he had plenty of moments that can serve as an example of how not to interact with an umpire and even more that show the best methods to success.

Matt Nicholson is the mayor of Seymour. Send comments to [email protected].