[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by jumpmaster

I had an in depth discussion with one of the umpires in our association today regarding ejections.

This was his premise -
In amatuer baseball, mental mistakes by the umpire result in more ejections than player/coach snafus. i.e. An umpire makes a bang, bang call - in amatuer ball - he will probably get the call wrong. An umpire's gross miss on a pitch will bring the coach out to argue, resulting in an ejection. Granted things like BR dropping a shoulder into F3 to break up a play will also result in ejections, but these are the exception rather than the rule.

I am curious to hear what the board has to say about this.

I disagree with the aforemetnioned statement. The main problem IMO is Umpire InConsistency that causes the ejections, meaning how many times have we heard the phrase "Hey Blue you are the first one to call that" or something along those lines.

From my experience, the coaches that do give umpires a real hard time were not delt with from Game one. By Game 50 it's too late. I realize we all have our own thresholds of tolerence, but in an association there needs to be some consistency and if a coach goes nuts over every close call then they should have been delt with in the beginning of the season not at the end.

Remember for the most part there is going to be a new crew for this coaches next game and if you allow a coach to behave in an unsportsmanlike manner and do nothing about it, you just made it more difficult for the next crew.

The other main point is that some umpires do not want to make the "tough" call which also causes havoc among coaches.
I do not mean the "nit-pickn" call but the tough call like batter's interference when it warrants it.

If you look at most associations, it's probably a good bet that you have a hand full of what the assignor calls his "bread and butter" guys that he/she needs to do his/her "bread and butter" leagues. In other words to have consistency, so that the contract gets renewed.

The rest of the games are filled in.

Therefore, IMO in a nutshell it is Umpire inconsistency that causes most ejections and the fact that behaviors are not tamed right from game 1.

It's like being a parent. If you allow your kids to get away with "murder" and do not discipline them right from the beginning what do you think is going to happen.

Pete Booth