Balls and Strikes

[tankmjg24]

13U OBR Travel Ball.  I have the plate on the championship game and things start to go down hill in the bottom of the 2nd inning.  Coach is mumbling in the dugout about balls and strikes, but never really goes over the top.  Bottom of the 3rd he starts yelling out asking the catcher where certain pitches are, the catcher does not help by looking at the coach and just raising his shoulders.  Now one problem is the catcher is not the best, and he is honestly costing his pitcher a few strike calls.  He had a really bad habit of jerking pitches and being all over the place.  Bottom of the 4th, 3-2 count and the ball is off the plate.  I call a ball and the catcher stands up and starts to kick on the outside corner of homeplate digging out to where the black of the plate is.  I brush off homeplate and tell him to cut it out and that I have had enough.  At this point the coach runs out wanting to know what happened.  I explain that I am not going to have his catcher act that way, and he immediately starts talking about the strike zone to which I shut him down and tell him we are not going to discuss balls and strikes.  He is upset about my zone and now also upset that I said something to his player.  Inning continues on without anymore problems from the catcher.  Bottom of the 5th coach starts in on balls and strikes again.  I hear him tell someone that he is about to blow up as this is getting ridiculous.  Pitch comes in that is literally on the white of the batters box outside.  Coach starts yelling again where the pitch is.  He then adds that it is a strike and that I know it is a strike.  At this point I glance towards him and he steps out the front of the dugout and informs me that it is a strike and that I know it is a strike.  I put my hand up and he keeps going on so at this point I eject him.  He then runs out to homeplate complaining cause I ejected him.  He feels as if he did nothing wrong etc. etc.  All I say is coach you have argued balls and strikes and that is an ejection to which he keeps saying he does not deserve to be ejected and that I am just doing it cause I know I have missed the pitches and that he is right.  He eventually leaves and the game continues on.  Assistant coach walks out, introduces himself and informs me that he will take over as manager.  Game only goes 2 more batters before 10 run rule.

So I feel as if this was an easy ejection, but I also feel as if I should have shut down the complaining a bit early.  Other than the end it was just your usual babbling about the zone though.  A part of me feels as if in between innings I should have told him to cut it out, but then a part of me feels as if I would have been the aggressor then.  I also feel as if I might have added a "coach that is enough" as an additional warning, but by that point I saw the coach getting ejected regardless.  Regarding the catcher, I feel as if his actions was an ejectable offense, but I got my point across to him and kept him in the game.  After the conversation he stopped with his antics so I believe it worked.  Thoughts? 

[Replacematt]

You let them ride you in some way for two innings. That's about 1 2/3 too many. Do your IAWE. If I'm applying my thoughts as to the quality of this team, there was probably no way he was staying the whole game. Why prolong your misery?

[ricka56]

Not only was coach arguing B/S, he accused you of cheating by saying "that it is a strike and that I (you) know it is a strike". Challenging your integrity can't be tolerated one bit. When that happens to me, we're having words. He has to retract that accusation immediately or else he is EJ'd right there and then.