UmpAgain Posted March 30 Report Posted March 30 This one is from last year, but I never got around to typing it up. As the title suggests, I hate ejecting kids especially little ones. But hey, if you need to go, you need to go. U10 machine pitch/kid pitch hybrid. I’m working alone. We are in the kid pitch portion of the game. F1 is decent for a 10 year-old. He’s doing fine and his team is doing up by a few runs. R1, R3. B1 hits a grounder to F6 who throws to F3 who drops the ball near the bag – B1 is safe running through the bag, R3 has scored. F3 picks up the ball and throws it over to try to get R1 at 3B, ball arrives slightly before the runner but the ball bounces off F5’s glove dribbling towards the pitchers mound. Play is now semi-relaxed despite the live ball. F1 visibly annoyed, trots over to the ball. I’m thinking great, he’s gonna pick up the ball and go back to the mound. Kids pick up speed and kicks the ball. This kick is not like he stumbled trying to get the ball, but more like a soccer PK. I watch and am now thinking what the heck did I just see? My brain quickly clicks in and as I start to walk over to his coach to warn the kid, F1 takes off his glove and throws it hard against the other team’s dugout fence 25 feed away loudly rattling the fence. WTF? I then proceed to the coach to and inform him that his pitcher needs to go. -Steve 2 1 Quote
SeeingEyeDog Posted March 30 Report Posted March 30 It's a good ejection, no question @UmpAgain. As we know, kids develop individually...psychologically, physically, emotionally and so on. Some kids don't ever develop certain parts of their humanity and we end up with adults who either know better and make bad choices or never learned what a good choice is in a given situation. Some players learn that throwing your glove as described is ejectionable because their coach(es) have talked to them at some point in their development. Some players learn that throwing your glove is ejectionable because...the umpire ejects them for that act. Try to be stoic and unemotional about it yourself. I have had my own struggles with this and have had lots of mentors break it down for me...it's not an umpire's job to have feelings of like or dislike about this call, that call or that situation. It's a bit of a cliché but it's a great truth of Our Craft, too...we pause, we read, we react. At no time do we inject our feelings about it. Maybe the closest we come in a situation like you had is to give a more restrained ejection mechanic and voice. Is it appropriate here to give the full Magilla Gorilla swooping point and our biggest, baddest umpire voice, "#5...you're OUTTA' here!!!"? No. No it is not. And it sounds like you didn't think so either. You went to the coach and simply announced the ejection. Nice job, brother. ~Dawg 3 Quote
The Man in Blue Posted March 31 Report Posted March 31 I agree with @SeeingEyeDog that at this level, the quiet and to the coach EJ is absolutely the way to go. Sadly, it had to be done in that case. I hope I never have another EJ in my career (not realistic), but I am really working on the “quiet EJ” as my go to. I threw six kids out of class last week and they didn’t even realize it. It was glorious! 3 Quote
mac266 Posted April 12 Report Posted April 12 Agreed on all counts, the only thing you could do in that situation was eject, and your style of ejection was perfect for such a young game. I've only ever ejected one player at any level, and it was a 16U game. All my others have been coaches. 1 Quote
Velho Posted April 15 Report Posted April 15 45 minutes ago, JSam21 said: I think Michael Jordan said it best... "Republicans buy sneakers too" ? Quote
MadMax Posted April 16 Report Posted April 16 On 4/12/2024 at 3:16 PM, mac266 said: I've only ever ejected one player at any level, and it was a 16U game. All my others have been coaches. Same, in 16 years at all levels 9U (yes, I did umpire this level. Yikes.) thru Adult. A 15U R2 completely trucked an F2 at the plate. It wasn’t even a “bad slide”. Casebook, Exhibit 1A Malicious Contact. HC knew it the moment I called, “Time!” Otherwise, yeah, my 4 other ejections have been coaches. 2 of them were the same coach, on successive plate jobs by me.* There’s a certain panache in not only when to eject, but how. You, @UmpAgain, are showing that panache. * – it’s here where I get the punchline: “You were right the other night, but there’s no way you’re right twice.” 😆 Quote
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