Peter,
I am suspecting that "AD in his pocket" has a lot to do with the "policy" as well as the specific application. Guess I'll find out the next time I toss a public HS coach. Last time I know it wasn't appealed, but I suspect there may have been a "gentlemen's agreement" between my commissioner/Board and the AD that what C'ville didn't know wouldn't hurt anybody we cared about.
I like your approach to the unsafe bat/ cheating EJ. I am a no-good lawsuit-monkey [aka lawyer] in "real life": I can see major sorrow resulting from a Sesame Street treatment of these matters. As you wrote, the EJ firmly establishes that you were doing your job diligently. Also your response to the AD about following the "proceedure".
Last time I had a disputed HS EJ was with one of our private schools. Coach A was giving me a ration of crap about a fair-foul call, and failed to take several polite suggestions that he STFU. I was on our Board at the time, so I was fully aware of what was going on. Seems that there was an appeal to the District or Athletic Assn. this school plays under concerning the suspension: Coach A was going to be out for the first couple of games of the playoffs.
Since the EJ was for general USC, and not anything like a physical challenge, or threat to the umpires, our Assn. took the position [with my concurrence] that we take care of business on the field at that specific game. Additional consequences like fines and suspensions are between the Coach, his school, and Higher Authority. If he misbehaves again, whenever his next game is, we take care of it then, too [at least in theory].
The punch line is that we fast forward a season: I'm back at that school and we have a rain delay, during which Coach A is telling us about a controversy he had in an away game recently. Somehow, Coach starts talking about how he got EJ'd, last year: "that Ump tossed me for arguing a foul call, but they ruled he was out of line ..."
ME: "Wait a sec. Coach: that was me, and our Board said we didn't care about the suspension; but you stayed ejected, I wasn't found to have been out of line, and the fact that I am here today proves it!"
I got some interseting sideways looks from him after the game resumed, but no static!
--Carter
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