dleavitt39

Guys, I just want to apologize now. This is what happens when you use the same password for every log in. My emails, facebook, and now I find this forum, along with a few others was "hacked" by someone. I've never had this situation on a field before. But I will say this. If I ever had this situation come up, I'd NEVER act in such an unprofessional manner. Again, I'm sorry for this happening, and making me look like an ass. My passwords are changed, and hope this won't happen again, and also hope this won't affect how I'm perceived around here. I really am a good guy with good morals and am NOT an ass on the field. I'll leave it up to management for whether they want to delete this thread or not. Thanks, Dan

Ok, let me preface this with this: The coach in question has been known throughout the league as being a hothead, and what happened this day was his 9th and 10th EJ of the season. Next, I know this situation happened last year, but want some other opinions before heading into the next season on what to do if this situation happens again...no matter how improbable it is. Ok, here goes. Semi-finals and Championship of the local travel league last year. Semi final game, Team A is walloping Team B by 15. HC A brings in one of his "he can't pitch for SH*#, so good luck" sort of pitchers. It starts getting ugly, 7 walks and 3 hit batters later, and Team A is only up by 4. HC A brings in his "stud" pitcher. This guy must be having an off day, b/c he can't get a pitch within 6 inches of the plate. But of course HC A decides to start yapping. "hey blue, where was that pitch", my response "in the dirt". next pitch comes in at they eyes. "blue, where was that", i say "at the eyes". Next pitch is about a foot outside. "blue, where was that" me:"coach, i'm not doing this, that's enough." start tirade A: "What do you mean you're not doing this! This is an all-star team, they know how to hit their spots, so you BEST tell me where they are missing!" me:"coach, the only thing that BEST happen is you walk back to your bench and we continue the game, and if your team is such an all-star team, why don't you ask your catcher where it missed. I've been letting him know all game, and he hasn't questioned me once." coach responds:"you don't tell me what to do, you punk ass 18 Y.O.(about the only thing he managed to get right on the day). me: coach:" you don't have a clue what you're doing out here. You better get off this field and go read your rule book so I don't have to do your job." Here's where it gets a bit out of hand. Me seeing that this is going to spiral out of control quickly, inform the coach "coach, as you should know the league rules, you have 1 minute to vacate the field or your team will forfeit." Coach turns around and starts walking, gets to his dugout, and turns back to me "hey, here ya go(he throws a rule book at me), read up on these before you even think of doing one of my games again. He starts to leave, no sooner than he leaves the dugout does the AC, now HC, come out to talk to me. He asks what that was all about, I tell him "Well, he wanted to be a smart ass and lose his temper" AC " he lost his temper? Are you kidding me!!!(while poking me square in the center of my CP), you think you were any better!!! me:bye coach He knows he screwed up, apologizes and said he deserved it and then promptly left the field. Game goes on, this team wins the game, and moves to the championship game. Unfortunately, there is no rule saying an EJ'd coach can't return/is suspended for 1 game etc..and in all my infinite wisdom, I assigned the tournament, and assigned myself to the championship game here's where it gets fun Between games, I talked with the director of the tournament, and we disused how the championship game would proceed, and if he wanted me off the game. He said no, do it like any regular game, and if he gives you any trouble, don't hesitate to give 'em the hook, he's been a pain in the ass all season, and this'll just help our cause to kick him out of the league...Now that being put in my head, I "accidentally" filed that little thing in the back of my head...So I walk out onto the field in my plate gear, partner to my side, and call for HC's...here comes HC from semi-final game. Get's to the plate, takes the time to look up from his clipboard of scouting, looks at me, and says "no way in hell is this happening again. DIRECTOR!!!" I remember my conversation with director, and tell HC "don't waste your breath, I already talked with him and the game is going on as planned" HC:"like hell it is, get YOUR punk ass off of MY field(his team happens to be be located the furthest away from said field). I give the coach the wave and as he walks I take out his rulebooks and say "coach, I think you forgot these last game" he turns around, looks at the rule books laying on the ground and storms up to me "you you can't do this to me, you can't EJ me this is the Championship game!!! I say "coach, remember the rules, I'll end this game before it starts if you want...remember the rules he turns and goes...due to rain, game gets put on hold til following day...after postponing the game and recording all of the information, I talk with the director, he gave me a big thank you for being the first ump to have a pair and not back down from HC(this coach is 6'7 375, and I'm 6;0 220). So the next day comes around, at the field, and what do you know, HC is sitting in the dugout, I go talk with the director, he says "we're allowing him in the dugout until game time, then he's going to go sit on the park bench 550 feet away." I tell him w/e it's his tournament, and that we're going to get started. First play of the (continued)game, a fly ball to F8, runner on 3rd, 1 out. He waits to tag up, and goes when the ball get's the F8's eye level which is where his glove was. Unfortunately what the player missed was that F8 lost the ball in the sun and lowered his glove to make a basket catch. I see this, sure, it's a split second difference, but in that second, R3 leaves the base before the ball is caught. Ball gets thrown in, pitcher gets it, and is getting ready to throw, and all of a sudden the HC of the fielding team calls for time, and asks to appeal the play at 3rd. I call the runner out, and here we go again, round 2: 3rd base coach comes sprinting down to me, so fast he loses control of himself and plows into me. He goes down, I stumble back into the fence...there goes that coach but not before he gets his words in. While he's yelling at me, 1st base coach starts hassling my partner about how terrible I am, and how he(my partner) should EJ me for being so bad. Partner gives 1st BC the hook There's a Grandma on the fence shaking the fence yelling about how awful we are, which gives me pause and causes me to start laughing uncontrollably. Here comes the 3rd AC from the dugout " what the hell is so funny you by the time we're done here, you're gonna be sorry you showed up he gets the hook I turn to my partner, to catch out the corner of my eye the original HC that I EJ'd the night before sprinting towards my partner from RF, pair of binoculars in hand, screaming about how we're throwing the game. He's already EJ'd, their out of coaches, so I declare the Championship game a forfeit. He loses it, throws his binoculars down and takes off at my partner with a rage in his eyes I'd never seen. Director stepped in between just in time (he happened to be the assistant chief of police in the town we were in), tackled the coach and he's in handcuffs. Now I couldn't just leave it at that, so as me and my partner pack up, we amble by coach in cuffs, and I have to get the last shot in, so I say "coach, what exactly was your plan when you started running out here..to tell me your view from 550 feet away through a pair of POS binoculars was better than my view from 20 feet away? ya, great plan there bud" With that we walked out. Now I know I may not have excercised the best discretion there, but given the situation, did I cause things to get blown out of proportion? Is there something I could have done to minimize what happened, or were these all good EJ's? On a side note, no charges filed against any of the coaches, but this team got kicked out of the league...and for all of those wondering what age group could possibly get this kind of reaction from coaches? It was 10u travel Thanks for listening, and sorry about the essay, but wanted to get everything out there. NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE: Guys, I just want to apologize now. This is what happens when you use the same password for every log in. My emails, facebook, and now I find this forum, along with a few others was "hacked" by someone. I've never had this situation on a field before. But I will say this. If I ever had this situation come up, I'd NEVER act in such an unprofessional manner. Again, I'm sorry for this happening, and making me look like an ass. My passwords are changed, and hope this won't happen again, and also hope this won't affect how I'm perceived around here. I really am a good guy with good morals and am NOT an ass on the field. I'll leave the original post up, so it can serve as teaching material for anyone who wants to find out the bad way to handle things, but again, i did NOT do any of what was said above. UPDATE: Roommate played sick april fools joke, changed passwords and posted something crazy to every forum i belong to. Thanks, Dan

I found this post on "Uh oh!" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Post Of The Month March, 2010"

Alright guys, it's the age old debate on here, but I want some recomendations based on my personal specs. I know I want either the WV Gold or Platinum. My current protector is the ProNine protector, and it just doesn't cut it. I've taken shots in a 12 y.o game that I shouldn't feel. The one that finalized the deal for me was in my last game last season. They have that flimsy piece of crap sewed on collarbone protector. Well, what do you know, last game of the season, foul tip right off of that pad...that pad didn't do crap. I went down like a ton of bricks. Stunned me to the point where I don't remember the next minute or 2 after it, but 5 minutes of being examined by the team doc, I was back behind the plate fearful for my life. So I decided it's time for me to change. I'm 6'0, 235 lbs. I use a "box" style stance, but lean forward more than crouch. So that being said, what do I do, the gold or the platinum, from everything I read, it's pretty much a toss up, but I want to hear from you guys who have experience with it. Does one ride "higher" than the other. That's my major thing, I want that neck/clavicle protection. The pronine, no matter how tight i made it, it always rode low, and I don't want that again. Thanks in advance for your responses, Dan