Player arguing play

[VolUmp]

43 minutes ago, FleasOf1000Camels said:

"Skip, you're the adult in the room.  I consider you responsible for the behavior of your players and coaches.  If I have any further problem with him, I'm going to have a problem with you as well."

This is agreeable at all age levels if the coach cops any sort of attitude.

One year we were told to use the first threat at the HS level, "Coach ... is #17 coming out of the game on your terms or mine?" to goad a coach into pulling a kid in lieu of an ejection, and someone from FED evidently got all over our State Director for it, because we've been told ever since to NEVER do that.

Afterthought: I rang up a 17-year-old in a crucial situation on Saturday with two outs and men on 2nd and 3rd, and he evidently directed some comment at me, because I heard his young HC yell, "Get in the dugout!  Don't you EVER say anything to him!  You could have controlled that!"  Even if I did hear what the kid said, that's where I'm willing to turn a deaf ear ... when the coach takes immediate control.

When my son played at age 15, his 25-year-old coach pulled a teammate out of the game with two strikes on him for showing up the ump on the second called strike.  THAT was awesome.  His dad came up to me and asked, "As a coach, isn't that where you call time out and have a little tough love talk with him instead of humiliating him like that?"  All I could say was, "Maybe he needed to be humiliated."