Dealing with players who have disabilities

[ljvavs]

This issue has come up twice in one week for me, different leagues. Want to hear how some of you have handled these scenarios.

 

1) Boys Rec Ball, 15U, with a female coach. Bang-bang play at the plate. Runner from 2B slides into home and touches the plate before the Catcher tags him. I call him safe, checked on the batter's location and call time to clean off the plate. The Catcher all the while is screaming at the top of his lungs, "I tagged him! I tagged him! I tagged him!" I remained silent, brushing off the plate during his little tantrum, which lasted 15 seconds or so. His Coach is 3 feet behind the fence from him, not saying a word. I was about to address his inappropriate reaction calmly, when he vigorously tossed the ball to the pitcher and yelled at the top of his lungs, "SCREW IT!" I tossed him immediately and informed his coach that she needs to suit up a new Catcher. (fun fact: this ejection dropped their team down to 8 players). After the half-inning ended, I went to remind the Coach that when the ejected player's position comes up in the lineup, it becomes an automatic out. She told me, "Fine, but I want you to know that he has Turrets Syndrome!" Without responding, I returned to my spot and finished the game.

At the end of the game, I checked the rule book and found out that ejected players have to sit out 2 additional games due to an ejection. I informed the coach of this matter, and she said again that he has Turrets, and that “she’s had to deal with it for 5 years now because it was my son you ejected!†I didn’t say another word, but walked to my car and drove away.

 

2) Boys Rec Ball- 12U. Batter hits the ball and throws the bat in a way where it spins and hits the Catcher square in the back of the head. I call time, check on the Catcher, and per the league rules warn the player and the team not to throw the bat. At the end of the half-inning, the violator’s coach come up to me and says that the Batter was Autistic, as if to imply I should let it go. I emphasized that he still shouldn’t be letting go of his bat and his team still has an official warning.

 

My basic reason for this post is to hear how you are all dealing with what seems to be a phenomenon of having players with limited skills for whatever reason expected to be given passes on basic rules of the game that can also be detrimental or injurious to other players, if not also adding to a bit of mockery to the game.

 

Vavs

[Rich Ives]

Tourette's Syndrome info can be found at:

 

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tourette/detail_tourette.htm

 

The utterances are involuntary - the person with the condition cannot control them. If he truly has the syndrome then you should try to remedy the ejection.

 

Jim Eisenreich   was  a MLB player with the syndrome.

[noumpere]

First, the coaches should be instructed by the league to let the umpires and the other teams know this in advance.  That way, you can help manage the situation when it comes up.  For example, in the first situation, maybe you can address the player who starts screaming, or let the coach come out and deal with it (and you will know in advance why the coach is coming out).  if the other team knows it, they can be more understanding of a non-EJ.

 

Second, you can't let go of any safety issues.  You need to enforce the bat rule.

[GreyhoundAggie]

I would hope that a coach would address this at the plate meeting. Warn you of a potential issue.

 

I blame it on the coach for not coming and taking care of her son and calming him down if she knows he has tourette's.

 

You handled it like you should have because you had no idea you shouldn't.

 

And Rich I blame the ejection on the coach for not taking care of this issue from the beginning.

[cyclonehokiece]

After an ejection and I file my report it is out of my hands. It is up to the powers that be. Although in my report I would write that I learned of the disability after the ejection in a footnote.

Also, I wouldn't inform a coach of potential suspensions, that is out of my hands and not my responsibility. The powers that be should inform the coach.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[immaculate1976]

In the first one I would have ejected him if I knew or not. You cant have a player out there who gets to say whatever he wants if it is his fault or not. If he is that bad why did the coach not put him in right field? 

 

In the second one I would have warned dont care what he has if you throw a bat you can hurt someone bad.

[ljvavs]

To Cyclone,

 

I appreciate your feedback about not needing to inform the Coach about the reporting and the suspension, however she was appointed prior to the game to be the Official Scorekeeper as well. The league usually provides their own, however they were short staffed that night and just went ahead and appointed the Home Team's coach to take care of the Scorekeeping. It would have been her responsibility to report the ejection being the Official Scorekeeper. I wanted her to know that I was aware of her prior game appointment and that she had the duty to report this to the league as the Officla Scorekeeper. Otherwise, I would have let this go and let the powers that be handle it.

 

Vavs

[cyclonehokiece]

@ljvavs

That was not meant to be personal. It was to caution you and others about announcing suspensions because I have seen powers that be not enforce minimum suspensions for one reason or another.

I understand that you league has a rule that official books must report ejections. That is fine, remind her that she must report, but leave the suspension out of it unless that is part of the reporting requirement.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rich Ives]

In the first one I would have ejected him if I knew or not. You cant have a player out there who gets to say whatever he wants if it is his fault or not. If he is that bad why did the coach not put him in right field? 

 

 

 

You forgot the "just kidding" icon.

[Jocko]

Sunday, I saw something that totally baffled me. Kid hits a grounder to the left side of the infield. I clear the bat and trail him up the line. About 2/3 of the way to 1B, he stops running. He didn't stop advancing to 1B, but looked like he just gave up. For whatever reason, he still beat the throw. His coach immediately called time and went to attend his player. @Pete Peterson Sr. And I met at 1B to see wtf happened. Mitch informed us that this kid has 'silent seizures.' Pete n I got together just to be sure nothing ELSE funky happened, like it hit his foot in the box. Nope. We gave the kid a minute, he confirmed he was fine and that he'd had a seizure. Game continued without further incident.

[Rich Ives]

Sunday, I saw something that totally baffled me. Kid hits a grounder to the left side of the infield. I clear the bat and trail him up the line. About 2/3 of the way to 1B, he stops running. He didn't stop advancing to 1B, but looked like he just gave up. For whatever reason, he still beat the throw. His coach immediately called time and went to attend his player. @Pete Peterson Sr. And I met at 1B to see wtf happened. Mitch informed us that this kid has 'silent seizures.' Pete n I got together just to be sure nothing ELSE funky happened, like it hit his foot in the box. Nope. We gave the kid a minute, he confirmed he was fine and that he'd had a seizure. Game continued without firther incident.

 

 I had a kid like that once. His eyes would kinda glaze over like he was off in space (which he was).  Only lasted a few seconds at a time. Had to keep watch, especially when he was at bat and get time called if necessary.

[Replacematt]

If your league doesn't require it, then don't. NCAA, for example, requires us to inform of the requisite suspension.

[Rulekeep]

IMO if you have a disabled player, you need to tell the umpires before the game starts and detail exactly what could happen with said player and the proper course of action. IMHO, that coach dealt with the ejection in completely the wrong way, like she was trying to guilt trip the umpire. There's a team I've called games for several times who has a autistic player with severe communication problems and even though the coach knows me, he still comes to me before the game and says "Okay, my shortstop can't control his communication and doesn't really have people skills, and if it seems like he ignores you, he probably isn't, just keep saying whatever it is you're saying and he'll respond by doing it." To me, as an umpire who prefers vocal indications of understanding, being able to understand why the player won't look at me and isn't responding or may sometimes go off on something totally unrelated to baseball is incredibly helpful and can help avoid unwanted and unneeded ejections.

[BaltimoreUmpire]

To the OP 1st situation you can't really do anything about it there, the coach should tell you before the situation escalates to that point you can't reverse an ejection because new evidence presented itself, 2nd situation is a saftey concern as such it should trump other factors involved such as his disability, more power to kids who play with disabilities though good that they get to be apart of this great sport,