LakeAmour

Thanks. This is our first year in this league and I honestly have zero knowledge of the hierarchy. My son was recruited by a half dozen or so travel teams but his 16U coach was by far the best and the schedule worked best with our other kids and schedules. I assume they only knew I umpired from talking to my son as I never volunteered. I always worked a village youth league which is very laid back and I know almost all the coaches anyway. I do hope the organization succeeds, and I mentioned that to the HTHC. But that guy is toxic and really an embarrassment to the organization. The HTHC mentioned he was looking for a successor and the top candidate is my son's coach, so there's a light at the end of the tunnel. That coach is as good as you can get. My sincere appreciation for all the help!

Thanks for all the responses. Just to add... The HTHC is the president of the entire organization. We were really in a bad spot. My son actually plays for a higher level of this new organization. I'd never met any of the coaches before. The away team traveled two hours to witness this spectacle. Many of their parents and coaches came up to us after the game to applaud our patience. I had to stick around after the game as my son's team was playing in that same field in an hour. Biggest infraction... A missed tag on R2 going to 3rd. HT 3rd base coach stormed out of the dugout claiming runner was out of the baseline and he wants us to get together. First of all, wrong coach to request it but we got together. Ruled him clearly safe. Coach became more angry and we should have tossed him then. He wanted us to get together, we did and made a ruling, the end. But he kept going. "That kid was the 3 get from the baseline!" Me: "glad you saw, he gets three feet." "No he doesn't! What, is the basepath seven feet wide?" Me: "you're not very good at math." In between innings the HTHC approached me, right in my face screaming that everyone in the ballpark knew he was out of the baseline. I just laughed at him. We were so stuck. Never again. My son (16) also umpires youth baseball so this is great education for him. I'm working together with him this weekend for a great father-son experience! He's already well-known for immediate ejections. I'm so proud.

15U travel, Fed rules. I umpire on the side, maybe 8-12 games per year. Mostly filling in last minute when asked since I'm known in the area as an easy going guy who know how to ump baseball. Upstart travel league called in desperate need of a field ump for a double header. No problem, I'll be there. Plate meeting went just fine. The HTHC says come see him after the double header to get paid. After the plate meeting, the other ump (who I know well) said, "full disclosure, that's the nicest that guy will be all day. Watch what happens." And sure enough, from the first pitch the wheels come off. Chirping from the dugout on every pitch, every call, non-stop for 5 hours. The third base coach was even worse. It was endlessly persistent. Every pitch was a balk, every out was safe, every safe was out, etc etc. Multiple times the HTHC and/or 3b coach came onto the field to get in my face to scream objections to calls. It was surreal and at times completely out of control. Per 3-3-1 we were well within our rights to eject both the hthc and 3b coach. But... The guy has our money! We did limit them to the dugout in the final inning of game 2 but too late at that point. I don't care about getting paid as I have a lucrative career, but the other umpire really needed this money. So we suffered through it. In hindsight I wish we would have tossed them both and dealt with the ramifications. But I didn't want my partner to lose out on the cash. I told the HTHC to never call me again and he gave a very soft apology that wasn't really an apology. Any advice as to what to do better in this situation? Ask for the money upfront? I had no idea what I was getting into and clearly the league lacks umpires because of the coaching antics. I just wasn't "in the know" about it.