[Carl Childress]

Originally posted by SMEngmann
Hey everyone, I'm a basketball referee who reads the basketball forum regularly and I'm also a HS baseball coach and I wanted to ask your opinion on the following: Yesterday, I was ejected from a game for the first time as a coach, and I felt that the ejection was unwarrented, here's the scenario:

I knew the BU from my days in HS where he worked in the athletic department and I played and sometimes he seemed like he had a chip on his shoulder toward me, other times he was fine. In the 3rd inning, I'm coaching 1st and the LHP makes a pickoff move without stepping toward 1st. I ask if his foot was on the rubber, and then ask for the rubber to be dusted off and I get I costic response effectively telling me to shut up which shocked me because I wasn't even questioning a call. Later on, with my team in the field, there is a play at 2nd in which the throw beats the runner by a good 10 feet and the tag is down, but my 2B lifts up the tag slightly to avoid being spiked and BU calls the runner safe. The other coach argued at the time, and between innings as BU was walking toward 1st, I let him know that I thought the call was horrible because of the injury risk to the 2nd baseman. BU brushed me off and effectively gave me the stop sign, and in doing so referred to me by my first name. I felt that I wasn't being treated with the respect to warrant being called by my first name and I felt that doing so BU created an atmosphere of excessive familiarity, so I asked him to refer to me as "coach" from now on rather than by my first name, and as soon as I said that, he threw me out of the game.

I wonder what, given my context, some baseball umpires think of this ejection. I used no profanity, nor did I ever make a personal comment toward him. If I was officiating basketball, I couldn't justify giving a T. I feel that it is within my right as a coach to demand a certain level of respect from umpires, and I also think that, especially within the context of a conflict, that both parties should avoid familiarity. What do you guys think? Sorry for the long post.

I’m posting this against my better judgment. I want it clearly understood from the outset that I will not respond to any posts growing out my message.

I’m not defending the actions of the assistant coach. Instead, I want to focus for a moment on the advice given him by several respected members of this Board.

Instead of pointing out specific statements from individual umpires, I want to explain a little about my philosophy of handing a game played by amateurs. It’s what I do, it’s what I teach, and it’s what I recommend you do.

1. For the most part those of us who post to this Board are not full-time, professional officials. High school and college head coaches, on the other hand, make their living in baseball. We should recognize that fact in our dealings with them. Part of their duty is to defend their players, their school, their fans. Assistant coaches are also professionals, at least in Texas. They’re college graduates, they have teaching credentials, they are entitled to respect by virtue of their positions in the community. They are educators, not “rats.” Most of those posting in this thread are, strangely enough, enforcing a Little League rule, one that forbids assistants from coming out to discuss a play. But there is no comparable rule in either the NFHS or NCAA. Of course, we don’t allow two coaches on the field a one time. But if I make a dicey call on a play at first, (“He’s out. He’s out on the tag!”), and the assistant wants to find out what I saw, or argue that I saw it wrong, he’s entitled by the traditions of baseball to do so. It’s silly to say: “Get out of my face. I only talk to head coaches.” The head coach is all the way across the diamond. If he had rushed over to talk about the close tag play, some of the umpires on this Board would have said: “Get out of my face. From where you were, you couldn’t possibly see what happened.” Pretty good mechanics, huh? For one reason or another, I don’t have to discuss my call with anybody on defense.

2. In my association (109 members this year) a standard practice is: When the base umpire moves from A to B, he calls time at an appropriate moment and kicks the dirt off the pitcher’s plate. Several proposed actions in this thread, espoused as they were by amateur umpires, astonished me. But failing to clean the pitcher’s plate is at the top of the “surprise” list. I cannot think of any reason why an umpire wouldn’t do that. How does that detract from umpire dignity? When a catcher asks me if I would clean home plate, I am only too eager to comply. I ignore the fans – always. But coaches? Batters? Catchers? Likewise, a first-base coach says, “Carl, I can’t see the rubber.” “Time!” say I — and I clean that rubber. It’s simply the courteous thing to do. How long did it take? Why unnecessarily give the coach reason to complain? Umpires should not demand respect; they should earn it. Arrogance has no place on the amateur diamond.

3. My mother was fond of this saying from the Book of Proverbs in the Christian bible: “A soft answer turneth away wrath.” It requires but a moment of the umpire’s time for him to listen courteously to the coach — any coach. Those of you who are newcomers: If you want to succeed as a human being as well as an umpire, take the chips off your shoulders. React to repeated infractions; don’t overreact the first time a coach screws up — or you perceive he’s screwed up.