Should the game have continued

[blp79]

I'm asking this after an ejection I had last night where I dumped a coach in the sixth.The rat that I gave the hook to had no assistant,but my partner let the trainer who was with the team step in and finish the game,personally I did not agree but thats how it went and we finished the game.Good call or not?

[Mr Umpire]

As long as I have an adult responsible for the kids, I let them finish. Now, this is outside of FED or NCAA. FED may say forfeit and NCAA may.

But, for kid ball, anyone willing to step up and be responsible, game on. I don't like deciding a game b/c of some idiot adult.

[BrianC14]

I'm asking this after an ejection I had last night where I dumped a coach in the sixth.The rat that I gave the hook to had no assistant,but my partner let the trainer who was with the team step in and finish the game,personally I did not agree but thats how it went and we finished the game.Good call or not?

I agree with your approach. There's way too much to consider here in terms of liability.... in my area, a trainer could be a "per event" contract person, with no accountability to the school for this sort of thing, so you can have all kinds of legal ramifications if something bad (injury or what have you) happened. But, if your UIC calls it, there's little else you could do with that.

It's too bad that Mr. Mouthy Coach didn't consider the consequences of ejection from the game.

The thing is, a game can always be suspended - it wouldn't necessarily have to be forfeited.

[Umpire in Chief]

Around here they just need a representative of the school it could be an administrator or another teacher.

But I believe the official ruling will come from your state.

[capnumpire]

Here in Mass. any coach/asst. must have a Criminal Offender Record Information done on them. (CORI) If not you may not coach. I would have to make sure this had been done otherwise game over. We can't just take a parent or adult out of the stands to help out. It gets a little complicated here in the NE.

At least we'd have an excuse. If we let anybody come in to finish the game and anything happened we'd be up the creek. Liability and such.

I guess it's different everywhere though.

[LMSANS]

Here in Mass. any coach/asst. must have a Criminal Offender Record Information done on them. (CORI) If not you may not coach. I would have to make sure this had been done otherwise game over. We can't just take a parent or adult out of the stands to help out. It gets a little complicated here in the NE.

At least we'd have an excuse. If we let anybody come in to finish the game and anything happened we'd be up the creek. Liability and such.

I guess it's different everywhere though.

Is an ID card given after the CORI is done?

I don't think it is the umpire's job to determine the qualifications of any adult that takes over a team after the solo coach EJ. If there is somebody willing to babysit for the rest of the game, I'm fine with that.

[capnumpire]

Larry;

There is no ID with the CORI, the leagues are responsible for getting them done.

As long as someone from the league or school is willing to take responsibility for the anonymous someone from the stands to take over I'm fine with that. If I, however, have to be responsible it's not happening.

I agree with you that we are not there to judge the qualifications of coaches or their assistants. We must assume ( I hate that word ) that they are qualified and that any protective procedures put in place are done. Just as they assume that we are qualified to do our job.

It's funny but the kids may be better off sometimes with the anonymous someone than their actual coach. It would certainly seem to be in this particular case.

The CORI is not a perfect system but it does protect the kids to a point. Someday something better will come up but until then we can only use what we've got and sometimes that is simple common sense.

Thanks for reading

Mark OB

[HokieUmp]

The CORI is not a perfect system but it does protect the kids to a point. Someday something better will come up but until then we can only use what we've got and sometimes that is simple common sense.

I'm not disputing protecting kids, but there's a logical flaw here. We're not talking about a practice, or a travel situation, where A Bad Man could do some harm with no one around to check it. We're talking about a game situation - we're the participants are all in an open field, and there are witnesses and others hanging around. Would it REALLY be necessary to worry that the sheep have been handed to a (potential) wolf in this instance?

[LMSANS]

Don't worry, he's a priest.

[capnumpire]

Hey Larry;

That's low man! :crybaby2:

[noumpere]

I'm not disputing protecting kids, but there's a logical flaw here. We're not talking about a practice, or a travel situation, where A Bad Man could do some harm with no one around to check it. We're talking about a game situation - we're the participants are all in an open field, and there are witnesses and others hanging around. Would it REALLY be necessary to worry that the sheep have been handed to a (potential) wolf in this instance?

The issue isn't that anything would happen at / during the game, but rather that the person would become known to the kids and use that information at a later time (hey -- remember me? good game last week. let me give you a ride home.)

[HokieUmp]

The issue isn't that anything would happen at / during the game, but rather that the person would become known to the kids and use that information at a later time (hey -- remember me? good game last week. let me give you a ride home.)

That's a fair point, I suppose, but to me, that starts to get into the "wrap-the-kids-in-cotton" and/or "helicopter" parent school of thought.

Cliche or not, life is a risk, every day. There's risk management, and then there's risk avoidance - it would appear that society is trying to get us to the latter, which really isn't possible.

[capnumpire]

I guess the bottom line would be to check with the associations/league officials in your area. They may or may not have rules that would clear this matter up. We all have our own opinions and they are all valid but where I live and work there are rules in place that would prevent somebody coming out of the stands to finish a game unless they had a CORI done. If there are no rules in place then have at it.

If you did suspend the game the punishment for the coach should be to pay the officials that have to come back and finish the game, for you may not get the same people the next time, and we all know we don't work for free!

We are here to enforce rules that are written for the good of the game so if there are rules written that validate coaches shouldn't we enforce them too.

Again I agree that we can't be checking every coaches credentials before every game and that we have to assume ( there's that word again! ) they are qualified to coach. I'm talking about the OP about bringing someone in from the stands to finish a game.

Just my:2cents:

Thanks for reading

Mark OB

[blp79]

I finally got an answer from the state assoc.First let me clear something up the trainer was a school employee and had a cori done,he was not just a parent or someone out of the stands he works for the school and is the trainer for the baseball team.The state director told me even though the he is a school employee he is not a registered coach or assistant that play should have been suspended,but he also said in the situation where there was only an inning to play he did not have a problem with it but if it happens again that play is to be suspended,And the game finished at a later date.I should have stuck to my guns with my partner because in the back of my mind I knew I was right,but now if i ever encounter this again I now what to do