[Rich]

Originally posted by Carl Childress

I am glad to see that someone is admitting the "rat" stories are for entertainment and do not represent the umpire's attitude toward a coach. It is the first I've read of that, though. Your compadres always seem so serious. One of your friends called coaches "sleazy." I prefer the term "competitive." I like coaches. If it weren't for them — even the bad ones — a lot of kids would sit around doing nothing constructive.

Finally, you of all people know that irony and homor are the hardest discourses to recognize on the internet. I apologize for not picking up on your one-liner.

Coaching is a job. Umpiring is a job. Conflict is a necessary intersection of the two. What annoys me is when they act like the rodents we talk about on the Internet.

I had a college coach come out twice on me yesterday -- actually each one came out once.

First time was on a balk. Did I eject the coach for arguing a balk or warn him to get off the field? No. He asked and I told him why the balk was called (the pitcher came set and after doing so moved his glove forward -- a start-and-stop hard to see from the first base dugout, but painfully obvious to F6 who told me on the pitching change that this pitcher does that all the time) and he made a change. As always, I headed to the outfield for the change and that was that.

Second time was when a batter may have been hit in the box with a batted ball but (1) we didn't see it and (2) the batter didn't react as if he'd been hit. We only work 2-man in WI for D-III games, so I was pretty well straightlined in C. I can only call what I see. Coach wasn't happy, I met him halfway and told him that had I seen it I would've killed it immediately, which is what my partner told him as well, but he was encouraged to come out and talk with me so he did. He still wasn't happy, but I'm still not convinced we actually missed it.

Oh, but here's a little rat story just to keep on topic:

First game I was working the plate. Every play at first base the first base coach would yell SAFE right at the time the play at first was happening. Yes, this was a college game and I think this was a player or grad assistant coaching first. Partner didn't say anything because there were no truly close plays during the game.

First whacker I get the second game, runner's out by about a quarter-step. I hear the coach yell SAFE and I call the runner out. The runner turns around to argue/question the call and I turn myself away from unneeded confrontation. Once the batter was out of there, I called out to the coach and told him that I didn't need any help. He asked what I meant, and I clarified.

We were close enough to the dugout that one of his teammates/players said, "You better be careful -- if you two get into it, I got 10 bucks on the umpire." Of course I laughed -- once my back was turned.

And one more light bit before I take a nap with my now 3-month old daughter: An inning of two later, we had an attempted steal of second. R1 tried to slide headfirst, but did more of a belly-flop onto second base and broke his nose, shattering his Oakleys.

Players and coaches were trying hard not to laugh as, apparently, this has happened before. Pitching coach says, "He's a real piece of work" while laughing. Almost immediately, Queen's "We Will Rock You" plays on the loudspeaker and when the line "blood on your face" played I wondered if they had it queued up on purpose. When the head coach came out the first thing he told the kid was that he may be able to get Oakley to get him a new pair of glasses. Then he asked about the nose.