Did I Miss One?

[tankmjg24]

Playoff HS baseball and I am PU in a 3 man crew. 

 

Bottom of 6th inning with 1 out with R2 and R3 in a 1 run ballgame.  Batter hits a short fly ball to RF and F9 catches it while R3 tags to attempt to score.  The throw goes up the line a few feet and F2 catches the ball right at the start of the dirt as R3 is sliding in.  F2 tags R3 high hitting him on the shoulder, but R3 has yet to reach home plate.  I bang the out call.  As the manager is walking back to the first base dugout he decides to comment on the play.  He looks at me and says  calmly "that is a big run (it would have tied the game) looked like the tag was too high".  My response was "Coach your runner had not made it to the plate yet".  The manager now has paused and is looking at the home plate area.  He then responds with "No way, you can see where he slid".  (You in fact could but the slide over the plate was after the runner was tagged).  I respond to this with "Coach there is no discussion here, your runner is out now let's play baseball".  I then turn and walk away from the conversation.  Coach wanted to continue the conversation but I am far enough away from him now that he is yelling in my direction.  It was loud enough that everyone in the park could hear (even over the PA system).  He yells "No way, there is just no way, you are making stuff up now".  I yell back in his direction with a stop sign up "Coach that is enough".  He then walks back into his dugout as he is shaking his head.

 

I feel as if I handled the situation well.  In our postgame feelings were mixed.  U2 says he agreed with the way the situation was handled.  U3 (who had walked down and was listening and watching) felt as if the coach should have been dumped when he yelled that I was making stuff up.  In his opinion everyone in the park heard it and that this was the coach challenging me.  I feel as if the stop sign with warning was enough to shut him up (which it did). 

 

Thoughts?

[bam]

Why are you in his vicinity?  And why respond? 

[maven]

A few thoughts:

1. Coach thought you missed it. So what? When he expresses his opinion, to which he is entitled, why do you feel compelled to argue? When he says, "that's a big run," just say, "OK." Ignore statements (but respond to the coach — don't ignore him), and answer questions.
2. Probably, at that point, he just keeps walking. But you started arguing with him, and then suddenly announced, "we're not going to discuss it!" You wound him up and then turned and walked away. No wonder he was miffed!
3. Now, when you respond "OK," to his initial statement, he might follow up with a question: "wasn't that tag high?" "Coach, I had the tag applied while he was still short of the base." And now he wants to argue, he saw it differently, whatever. Fine! You've told him what you saw and how you ruled, and he disagrees. You're not going to convince him that the way you saw it was the way it was, so what's left to say? "Well, coach, I guess we saw it differently."

Game management gets so much easier when you accept the fact that you're not going to convince the guy who didn't get the call. My mantra: you're not trying to convince him, you're trying to get him off the field.

[tankmjg24]

I walk up the line of the team that is running out onto the field.  The coach approached me a few steps off the dirt and initiated the conversation.  I responded as he started a dialogue not a monologue.  In my opinion it was not an argument but me replying to his statement. 

[Replacematt]

I walk up the line of the team that is running out onto the field.  The coach approached me a few steps off the dirt and initiated the conversation.  I responded as he started a dialogue not a monologue.  In my opinion it was not an argument but me replying to his statement. 

 

Do the opposite (and I know that there is no consensus.) Go to the line of the team coming off the field, especially when you just had a controversial call against the team coming on.

[grayhawk]

 

I walk up the line of the team that is running out onto the field.  The coach approached me a few steps off the dirt and initiated the conversation.  I responded as he started a dialogue not a monologue.  In my opinion it was not an argument but me replying to his statement. 

 

Do the opposite (and I know that there is no consensus.) Go to the line of the team coming off the field, especially when you just had a controversial call against the team coming on.

 

 

In our association, we are specifically instructed to be on the side of the field where the defense's dugout is located between innings. This changed this year - I think it's what Fed expects.

 

That said, my position is on the defense's side, but back between the backstop and the plate.  This generally takes me out of the line of fire if a coach wants to address me.  If I know he's upset, then it's a great time to grab a drink of water if I have some at the backstop.  Once the battery has 2 pitches left, I will then walk to the line outside of the dirt circle to announce 2 more.

[ALStripes17]

I walk up the line of the team that is running out onto the field. The coach approached me a few steps off the dirt and initiated the conversation. I responded as he started a dialogue not a monologue. In my opinion it was not an argument but me replying to his statement.

My HS association requires the same thing unless the umpire has reason to believe the coach from the "soon to be defense" dugout has a beef

[blue23ll]

I have learned not to insist on having the last word (it was a difficult lesson). Coach says something while I'm walking away, I will tend to ignore it, unless it's personal or profane.