My first USC ejection of the year

[ump570]

I was working 14U travel ball this weekend, and for the most part, the games were great. The players had talent, the pitchers threw strikes, the batters hit the ball around, and the defenses made plays. The games were close and they moved along at a decent clip. But, there was that "one coach" that just kept his mouth yapping all day long.

 

I had 2 games with this particular team, and we had to put on a rules clinic for the coaches regarding the definition of interference in the first game. I talked about this in an earlier post. On the first interference, there was clear contact by the baserunner on F4 fielding a ground ball. His 3rd base coach came out of the coach's box, ran across the field, and got in my partner's (BU) face. I had to corral the 3b coach, he was warned, and then we had to explain what interference was to the guy as he told us that the contact was "accidental". Whatever that means. We pregamed that only he could come out to discuss calls so BU warned his base coach that that wasn't going to happen anymore. The rest of the game there was chirping on every call that went against his team, but nothing that I felt warranted a response. Later in the day, I had to eject the guy.

 

Ejection Report

 Game 14. In the 3rd inning, the Dogs were batting. Runner on second. Runner attempts to steal 3rd, I am in C position. I get into position, throw comes in from the catcher, and 3rd baseman makes a clean tag, I call the runner out. Immediately, the manager and 3rd base coach start shouting. "Come on, he was safe!" I ignore the comments and start heading back to A position. As I am jogging across the field, Dogs manager shouts, loudly enough for me to hear, "That's ok, this umpire's just not gonna give us anything today!" I look at the coach and put up my hand, and give a warning, "That's enough coach. Were not going to argue calls by shouting across the field." He then jumps up and shouts, "Man, you got rabbit ears, I wasn't even talking to you. I was talking to my player!" I then continue to warn, my hand is still up, letting him clearly know that he is close to crossing a line. He continues to argue. I walk over to him and say in a calm but firm voice. "You can disagree with a call, but you can't take shots at our integrity. I'm making the calls that I see." He then takes a step out of the dugout, and shouts, " I was talking to my player, it's none of your business, and that's not even the first one you missed today!" At that point I ejected the manager. After the ejection, he shouted, "That's fine, now I'm getting my money's worth. You're horrible, you've blew 3 other calls today. You're the worst." I walked up the right field line and he left the playing field.
#This concludes the report.

 

My partner felt that I jumped the gun and that I shoudn't have ejected so early. I strongly disagreed. In fact, he even tried to talk me into reconsidering and letting the guy stay in the game since it was a semi-final round and emotions were running hot. I told him, "Even if I wanted to do that, I would lose all respect. The guy crossed a line, he was warned, and he continued to argue. I gave him his chance to stay in the game and he didn't heed the warning."

 

I'm not the kind of umpire that goes around with rabbit ears. I've worked a few dozen games already, and this was the first USC ejection I had. Did I run him too quick? Should I have ignored? Thanks for the input. I love this forum. I always get great honest feedback.

 

[mstaylor]

Absolutely not. You watched him, he questioned you integrity, he continued to argue. No brainer.

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[cemyster]

Good ejection.  Putting myself in your shoes, I would have ejected at the same time you did.  I might not have said as much as you.  I prefer to just hold up my hand, give a stern look, and say "That's enough coach!".  If you let him keep going, he would have continued and gotten worse as the game went on.

[spiritump]

you dumped no one the RAT did it himself

[JHSump]

Absolutely, positively not too quick!  I don't understand how your partner could have thought so.  And, he asked you to reconsider??  Reconsider??  Wow!      

[scrounge]

Something tells me your partner goes through life with the word "WELCOME" written all over his chest.

 

No, you weren't too quick. Maybe a tad late, but certainly not too quick.

[BigUmpire]

• "The more you say to the coach, the more the coach can use against you."-plateumpire

Bumper sticker

[ump570]

Absolutely, positively not too quick!  I don't understand how your partner could have thought so.  And, he asked you to reconsider??  Reconsider??  Wow!      

Can you believe that? I was shocked when he said that.

[JHSump]

 

Absolutely, positively not too quick!  I don't understand how your partner could have thought so.  And, he asked you to reconsider??  Reconsider??  Wow!      

Can you believe that? I was shocked when he said that.

 

I would have been shocked also!  I'm not sure what I would have said to my partner.  I probably would have literally looked like that first emoticon I put in my response above!

[BigUmpire]

You should " Reconsider" calling with him anymore.

[Mike Prince]

Good EJ.

[Kevin_K]

I would definitiely reconsider the ejection...... he should have gone sooner.

[mstaylor]

Tell your partner that once he is tossed he is staying tossed. It was a solid toss, certainly not too fast. Your partner sounds like the kind that brags he hasn't had an ejection in ten years, that's because he takes tons of crap and is afraid to toss. 

[Jbpump15]

I'm not entirely sure the 3b coach would have been allowed to continue with us after storming out of the coaches box onto the field. Big time no no. And they wonder why their kids get mouthy after watching performances like this.

[thunder6661980]

I guess your partner didn't need a jock that day... As soon as you give your warning and he breezes throught it,

 

Reconsider??? How about changing a strike for a ball if a manager argues while at it

 

Good EJ!

[BigUmpire]

• "You will only regret the ejection you missed"-.mstaylor

Bumpersticker

[flastyle727]

The only thing I noticed that I would avoid was the part about you waking to him, make the RAT come to you or point at him and tell him have a nice afternoon, BOOM! I'm always for having the coaches come to me so everyone present sees him as the aggressor.

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[RichMSN]

The words "rabbit ears" would've marked the end of his day with me.

 

And your partner?  I would've told him to go the @#$% back behind the plate and STFU.  But I'm a nice guy.

[blue23ll]

3b coach leaves the coaching box, runs across the field to argue with you? And he's not dumped on arrival? Or actually en route to you?  This is youth ball, not MLB. There are very few, if any, reasons that I would permit this to occur.

 

And as for your partner, I would ignore him, and possibly not work with him again.

[ump570]

3b coach leaves the coaching box, runs across the field to argue with you? And he's not dumped on arrival? Or actually en route to you?  This is youth ball, not MLB. There are very few, if any, reasons that I would permit this to occur.

 

And as for your partner, I would ignore him, and possibly not work with him again.

 

That incident ocurred in an earlier game in which I was working the plate. The 3b coach came out to argue with my partner about an interference on F4. I came out to corral him and he went back to his box after mgr. was told by my partner that he wouldn't discuss the call until his assistant left the field.   I was just giving some background on the type of team we were dealing with that day. These guys were out of control. I always make it a point during the pre-game meeting to let the coaches know that only head coaches can come out to discuss a call, but once in a while these guys cross the lines and come out. Usually, I just tell them to get back to their hole or their gone and they stop flapping their gums. I will say this though, base coaches tend to be the worst when it comes to arguing close and even not so close plays. I have very little patience for them. They love to make the calls for you, and then some of them love to jump around and demonstrate their discontent. Last year, there was one guy who would constantly say, "That's a balk", on what seemed like every pitch. I don't know what he was seeing, but I didn't have a balk. Sometimes I just want to yell, "YOU, Shut UP and COACH! I'll Make the calls!" That's my fantasy.

[mstaylor]

 

3b coach leaves the coaching box, runs across the field to argue with you? And he's not dumped on arrival? Or actually en route to you?  This is youth ball, not MLB. There are very few, if any, reasons that I would permit this to occur.

 

And as for your partner, I would ignore him, and possibly not work with him again.

 

That incident ocurred in an earlier game in which I was working the plate. The 3b coach came out to argue with my partner about an interference on F4. I came out to corral him and he went back to his box after mgr. was told by my partner that he wouldn't discuss the call until his assistant left the field.   I was just giving some background on the type of team we were dealing with that day. These guys were out of control. I always make it a point during the pre-game meeting to let the coaches know that only head coaches can come out to discuss a call, but once in a while these guys cross the lines and come out. Usually, I just tell them to get back to their hole or their gone and they stop flapping their gums. I will say this though, base coaches tend to be the worst when it comes to arguing close and even not so close plays. I have very little patience for them. They love to make the calls for you, and then some of them love to jump around and demonstrate their discontent. Last year, there was one guy who would constantly say, "That's a balk", on what seemed like every pitch. I don't know what he was seeing, but I didn't have a balk. Sometimes I just want to yell, "YOU, Shut UP and COACH! I'll Make the calls!" That's my fantasy.

 

A coach needs to be told that balk is a word reserved for umpires. Yelling balk is not acceptable, if he causes a balk it will not be enforced and he will be ejected. End of discussion. 

[Dragon29]

 

 

3b coach leaves the coaching box, runs across the field to argue with you? And he's not dumped on arrival? Or actually en route to you?  This is youth ball, not MLB. There are very few, if any, reasons that I would permit this to occur.

 

And as for your partner, I would ignore him, and possibly not work with him again.

 

That incident ocurred in an earlier game in which I was working the plate. The 3b coach came out to argue with my partner about an interference on F4. I came out to corral him and he went back to his box after mgr. was told by my partner that he wouldn't discuss the call until his assistant left the field.   I was just giving some background on the type of team we were dealing with that day. These guys were out of control. I always make it a point during the pre-game meeting to let the coaches know that only head coaches can come out to discuss a call, but once in a while these guys cross the lines and come out. Usually, I just tell them to get back to their hole or their gone and they stop flapping their gums. I will say this though, base coaches tend to be the worst when it comes to arguing close and even not so close plays. I have very little patience for them. They love to make the calls for you, and then some of them love to jump around and demonstrate their discontent. Last year, there was one guy who would constantly say, "That's a balk", on what seemed like every pitch. I don't know what he was seeing, but I didn't have a balk. Sometimes I just want to yell, "YOU, Shut UP and COACH! I'll Make the calls!" That's my fantasy.

 

A coach needs to be told that balk is a word reserved for umpires. Yelling balk is not acceptable, if he causes a balk it will not be enforced and he will be ejected. End of discussion. 

 

My first AC ejection was for just this.  1BC loudly complained the opposing pitcher had balked, but the pitch he threw was hit into play, resulting in the last out of the half-inning.  Before the AC could leave, I walked over to him and said, "Balk is an umpire's word.  I do not want to hear you shout that word again.  Understand?"  Well, of course he didn't and of course he had to point out that it was a balk (it wasn't), but as he did that in a few seconds and nodded his head affirmitively when I repeated, 'Understand?" I let it go.

 

Sure enough, a couple of innings later,  I hear from the 1BC, "That's a balk!" and all play stopped - fortunately, F1 stopped too, so we had nothing to clean up while we waited for that AC to leave the field.

 

I still see him coaching for teams I'm umpiring once in a while - we actually had a pretty good laugh over it earlier this season.  He doesn't say that word anymore.

[ump570]

I had a coach tell me last week that a right handed pitcher has to step off to throw to 3rd or it's a balk. What? Is it me or do the coaches who know the least about the game tend to have the most to say when it comes to rules.

[JHSump]

I had a coach tell me last week that a right handed pitcher has to step off to throw to 3rd or it's a balk. What? Is it me or do the coaches who know the least about the game tend to have the most to say when it comes to rules.

They don't know that they don't know.  And you know they don't know.  But they don't want to know they don't know, especially from you, since they know you don't know.  You know?

[ump570]

 

I had a coach tell me last week that a right handed pitcher has to step off to throw to 3rd or it's a balk. What? Is it me or do the coaches who know the least about the game tend to have the most to say when it comes to rules.

They don't know that they don't know.  And you know they don't know.  But they don't want to know they don't know, especially from you, since they know you don't know.  You know?

 

Surprisingly, I do know that you know of what you speak. You know?