Chris1015

Edit: these responses are awesome. I appreciate them all. It is some what of a HTBT moment I guess. This has been a learning experience. I have to admit, looking back on it. My ego got in the way as well as ignorance. I didn't realize that this was not an eject-able situation. If I did, I would have not threatened with ejection. I think some are confused though. This player discarded his mask forcefully and frequently. Foul balls that went well out of play, ground balls, fly balls, anytime. I could be moving up the line and away and the mask is being thrown my way. It was not safe and not always predictable either. I would say 99% of the time the mask was dislodged at the crack of the bat, before I or anyone for that matter could move. Not a correct practice for a catcher. Should it happen again, I would likely still request him to stop hitting me with it and I wouldn't warn an ejection. I thought I was in the right to warn an ejection because I needed a solution, wrong. This was a problem, whether some believe an 11 year old's mask exit velocity is or is not a problem and was distracting. I'm not going to give this coach's player a lesson, which is where the potential player ejection came in to play in my mind to the solution. I do not agree that the coach had any business in telling me to "man up." I don't care, I'm ejecting for derogatory comments like that. However, I'm going to play this card here for just a minute. I played baseball in both the NJCAA as well as the NCAA for my 4 years. This is also my 10th season umpiring. If an umpire told me while I was catching to not discard my mask at the crack of the bat behind me because it is distracting him I would be happy to oblige on first request because he is the umpire and I am the player. Just as if I'm umpiring in the field and the shortstop asks me to move left or right. Its a simple and easy request to accommodate. We both have jobs to do. I do not feel like I was requesting this player to do something that is going to in anyway hinder his performance, much to why I requested it and will likely request in the future. If you watch plays at the plate nightly at the professional level, guys keep their masks on. If a pop up goes up and behind the plate, take the mask off, find the ball, move to the ball, get rid of the mask, catch the ball. That's how its done. No one is getting hit that way. The mask doesn't immediately need to be discarded to function and retrieve a baseball. I'm not out there to teach, I'm there to call a game and I understand that. The coach can do that, even if its wrong, and that was a wrong practice. I don't believe I'm holding these daddy ball teams up to a college or professional standard but I don't believe in teaching when I umpire. Throwing equipment can't be tolerated when it could be done much more efficiently. There was no point to what this player was doing. Its just bad instruction and maybe I'll change my name to Ego1015. For the guys who seem to be wondering how a mask discarded by an 11 year old could possibly not hurt, my advice is maybe go in your garage and gently "toss it" at different parts of your anatomy. Try the inner part of your wrist or your hands. Metal is metal to me and it doesn't feel to nice to be hit with at any rate of speed.

That is awesome

I'll keep it on longer in these situations, thank you

New here, second post. Wondering how I handled the situation or if it's happened to anyone else. Final day of an 11U tournament of bad baseball. Games maxed out time limits, barely playing 4 innings, etc. F2 doesn't understand how to remove his mask properly when the ball is put in play. He "flings" it off instead of removing it and holding it or tossing it aside the proper way. The way I deal with this is by picking up the mask, hand it to the catcher, but before I let go I explain "you need to be careful taking your mask off, you hit me/are coming close to hitting me." Usually it's over and done with then. The next time it happens I'm more stern, "you need to remove your mask more carefully, this time it hit me." Third time it happens..."if you take your mask off that way again I'm going to remove you from the game". Just to qualify, I have been hit before in the face once my first year and plenty of times after that. So it is an issue that I do see and I'm sick of it. Naturally, F2 goes to the dugout and tells dad. Dad comes out the next half inning and is perplexed at how I'm going to eject his son for this. I explain I've told him 3 times what he is doing and what I expect. I've been hit before and he's hit me today. He tells me, "man up". Ran him for that. Does this happen to others? Do I have a case here and am I handling this properly? I feel if it's between me getting a busted nose or broken Oakleys (happened first year) and a catcher riding pine, he's taking a seat for the game.

Hi everyone, Came here from a simple Google search. My name is Chris. This is my 10th season umpiring. Really enjoy the thoughts I see on here. Great forum. Hope to learn and share as much as I can with everyone. Stay cool out there this summer. Chris