Let Me Make The Call Coach

[Mudder]

Very good level ball, tight game, home team head coach is a guy I know fairly well, never had a single issue on the field,  we respect each other, he's an umpire's coach if you know what I mean 

I'm BU, he's 3B coach, BR tries to stretch a double into a triple, very close play but I call him safe.  Before the play is even fully over the coach is yelling "ya ur in there, safe !!", well before I can make the call.  Here's the dialogue that followed:

Me - let me make the call coach  (said calmly so just he and I can hear it)                                                                                                                                                                                         Coach - what? I can say that, we're trying to win a game here!                                                                                                                                                                                                      Me - I understand coach but it was a close play, don't be screaming safe before I make the call                                                                                                                                                   Coach - I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to my player, I can say whatever I want (fairly loud)

Anyway can't recall what was said after, but it shutdown.  It normally does not bother me with dugouts or on field coaches yelling like this, but this one was a banger, and the play was not ever over yet, and he's yelling safe... so I said something to the coach.  All I need is for the other coach making cracks like "who's calling the game here blue?"

How do you guys deal with this, if at all?

 

[maineump]

Some coaches are really into the game. I let it go, unless it turns into my call is different than their call, and we get a discussion out of it.

You see it all the time on bangers at 1B, the coach is making the call before you do.

They just have to guess/assume - you and I have to make sure it is safe/out.

[scrounge]

Just slow your timing down, make your call, don't worry about it unless it's more arguing with you or making an obnoxious display rather than a flash of exuberance/wishful thinking.

 

In all honesty, just between us girls? I kind of sadistically relish it when an overenthusiastic base coach (usually the asst at 1B) starts flapping his arms like an albatross and I'm watching, with slow timing, and come up and pound that out. A little bit of me smiles at the tortured anguish of the flapper.

[Mudder]

In all honesty, just between us girls? I kind of sadistically relish it when an overenthusiastic base coach (usually the asst at 1B) starts flapping his arms like an albatross and I'm watching, with slow timing, and come up and pound that out. A little bit of me smiles at the tortured anguish of the flapper.

​Couldn't agree more!!

[Majordave]

When I coached and was working at first I would make the safe signal and say "safe" safe!" on every close play at first.  I don't remember any umpire taking his time and calling our batter-runner out.  It was weird.

Psychologically, It is a power of suggestion thing.  Maybe @Maven or some other smarter than me guy can explain it. I have never looked it up, I just noticed it and used it.

I admit that some, okay most, of the umpires working our home area and local games just simply were not that good or all that experienced.  We were in kind of a small place.  But we travelled to larger cities and I was still able to get away with it.  I didn't waste my time on plays that weren't close-didn't want to lose my mojo or overuse it.  I did this safe call thing from Little League level all the way to Legion ball for over twenty years. Never got told not to do it by an umpire.  I did hear opposing coaches yelling that "don't let him make the call for you" appeal/whine though.

Now, when I call a play with a coach doing that, I make sure I really take my time on the call.  I am able to shut them out for the most part.  I don't think they influence my calls when they do make the safe signal and/or yell safe. I do not engage them about it.  And, like @scrounge says, I kind of enjoy calling them out when the base coach is being overemphatic with his "safe!"

Hijack:  Another thing I noticed about umpires in general when I was coaching- the larger umpires, be they tall or fat or both, call a higher strike zone than the little guys do.  I asked my pitchers to track it and we kept a stat tally, subjective as it was, but you can tell up/down from the dugout and they started agreeing with me.  Then we shared it with the whole team.  I still observe this when I am umpiring or watching a game. It doesn't always  happen so it's not a hard and fast rule but, in general, it holds up.  Only the highly experienced and trained umpires seem to break this generalization.

Food for thought.  Anyone else notice this?

 

My .02..........

[KenBAZ]

I dislike coaches making the safe sign and will shut that down. That mechanic belongs to us. I don't tell runners to slide or windmill them around the bases. I usually tell base coaches to leave the signals to us and that it's a problem if they differ from my signal because now it's a public display that they disagree with my call. Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

[maven]

I don't care what they do on safe/outs, and probably won't notice. They're entitled to their opinion, and it's usually more trouble to address it than it's worth.

Letting them flap is different from coaches yelling out "balk!" which can affect play. That is something we have to shut down.

As for @Majordave's comment about the power of suggestion: I suspect that what was happening is that as a coach he was judging like an umpire, and getting those plays right! Or maybe he has repressed the times he's gotten them wrong.

Anyhow, coaches always think close plays went their way; I don't think that has much impact on how I rule on them (sometimes I call them safe, and sometimes out — you know, flip a coin, or go the opposite of what you did on the last whacker, any of those methods they teach a pro school ).

[ElkOil]

Eh, let the coaches flap.  It's a good way for them to burn off their energy.  It's not going to cause confusion or affect the runner, so unless some harm comes from it, I ignore their excitement.  Plus, we don't have a monopoly on mechanics.  If that were the case, every parent in the stands wouldn't be better at calling balls and strikes than we are.  

Edited July 2, 2015 by ElkOil

[HuskerUmp22]

I think it is funny when 1st base coaches will signal safe when the BR beats the throw by a good step or two. I always think to myself, "Coach. Come on. Do you really think I'm going to call your player out?"

[webspinnre]

I don't care what a coach signals with his arms, but I don't want him yelling safe in a manner that might make the defense think I called the player safe and leading to further confusion.

[renegadewolf]

Only time it ever becomes an issue to me is when I make the correct call which is different than the coaches imagined call and he decides to start beefing over it, at which point I will tell him to knock off his/her theatrics.  If the DHC thinks I am making the call the OHC wants, they can come talk to me and I will set them straight, after all I don't think too many of us take very kindly to having our integrity questioned.

66

[JaxRolo]

I don't mind when they signal safe. But I will shut it down if they voice it.

[BillKen]

I never really thought much about it until I worked with a former MiLB guy and saw him shut it down immediately.  When I asked him about it, he was adamant that they are showing you up and that you can't let them umpire from the box.  I took it upon advisement and just sorta started watching and dealing with it on my own over the rest of the season.

Now, I don't always do this (different personalities and all), but oftentimes I'll go the the flapper early in the game and with a big smile on my face say, "If you are gonna help me out over here tonight, I expect you to call some out too."  Most of them get it!

[BuckeyeMike]

Had this for the first time this year.   It DID affect me, I won't lie.....but only once, the first time the 1B coach did it.   After I realized my error and the cause, we had a quiet conversation and he changed his "enthused cheering" to HUSTLE, GET HERE, GET HERE.  

[Platejob29]

Just let it go. There are only a few outcomes either way. If you let it go the worst that could happen is the other team yelling across the field at you which you can shut down easily. If you address him you might shut him down but probably not and then all of a sudden you look like the aggressor over something that means literally nothing to the game.