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My First Ejection – Only Umpires Should Count


MadMax
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The games you are referencing- did they actually have players and coaches? Seems like a high number never having to dump some one.

discussed on page 1 of this thread.

just because someone has X number of games, and has zero ejections, doesn't necessarily mean it correlates to anything........

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When was younger and dumber I used to EJ for just about anything.  I basically went into a game looking to EJ someone.  Since getting back into umpiring last year I have 3 EJs.  One was for an AC cursing in a 10u game, second was for coach arguing a balk call in 12u and this seasons lone EJ was in a frosh single-man game and an AC telling me I was terrible.  Some guys go looking for a reason to eject.  My association has one guy that I hear horror stories about because apparently the game is all about him.  Anyway, there is no direct correlation between years umpiring, games worked and number of EJs.  Game management is a skill that some officials never develop and it has to do with their attitude usually. 

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To answer @constable's question (and thank you @Thunderheads for explaining), the majority of those games are tournament / travel-ball games, wherein the Tournament Directors encourage us (the umpires) to not Eject coaches unless absolutely necessary. Why? Because an Ejected coach, on a rant, will poison the rest of the tournament, and may issue a stop-payment on a check to the TD. In reciprocal, the TDs I've worked for have been exemplary, and have supported us to the nines. Frequently, they recruit and sign on quality teams with upstanding coaches, while also recruiting umpires who maintain a high standard of conduct. 

There are times I think there are some umpires either lack the confidence in their skills and/or game management skills so as to mitigate a tense situation. They feel they have to demonstrate that they are in charge. There are still (a few) others who walk on to the field with the pin pulled on the Ejection Grenade.

If there are two things that my four years at Cooperstown Dreams Park has taught me, it's that baseball is (should be) about participation, not penalty; and that we (as umpires) are just as human and fallible as the coaches and the players, and that an Ejection should be considered as the last possible measure, once all other reasoning or actions have been exhausted.

In this case, would I have Ejected the coach I did had he answered differently to my question of "Are you really keeping count?"? Honestly, no. He could have blew me off with a wave of his hand and gone back to the dugout, and I wouldn't have cared... It was a simple 14/13U baseball game with a few disinterested parents (chauffeurs) looking on. His disengagement wouldn't have been showing me up, not in the slightest; however, he "wrote his own ticket" when he confirmed that he was specifically counting calls.

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There are times I think there are some umpires either lack the confidence in their skills and/or game management skills so as to mitigate a tense situation. They feel they have to demonstrate that they are in charge. There are still (a few) others who walk on to the field with the pin pulled on the Ejection Grenade.

 

This sums up what I was trying to say. 

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