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Base awards are always tough for coaches. This story just happend to me about a week ago.
I was calling games in a Legion All-Star tournament. The players were some of the best players in the entire country.
When I arrived at the field, I was suprised to find that neither of my 2 partners were there yet. I guess they are just not as dedicated as me to show up 2 1/2 hours before the game.
I had a bunch of time to waste, so I figured I could spend some time cleaning all my gear. After I had cleaned everything, I figured I should take a look at my uniform. I came to realize that one of my 14 pairs of plate pants needed to be pressed. I got my iron out of the trunk, but I had no where to plug it in. I then realized that there were probally outlets in the dugouts on the field. So I carried my pants, iron, and ironing board to the home team dugout. The manager was sure suprised to see me, but he was glad that at least one of the umpires would for sure be here for the game. After I had finished ironing my pants, I looked towards the parking lot, and I could see my partners had still not arrived.
I figured I might as well make myself useful, so I hopped on the teams "Gator", and dragged the infield for them. After I had finished, I decided to put down the baselines. I took the chalk machine (one of those roller things) and put down the first and third baselines. Now it was time to do the batter's and catcher's boxes. I work the GD stance, and I hate it when catchers scoot too far up to the plate. So instead of the BB being 3 feet deep from the center of the plate, I extended it to about 4.5 or 5 feet. Now if the catcher scoots up to far, he will for sure take a whacking from the batter's bat. Solved that problem.
So fast foreward to the base award issue. It was the 5th inning, with the visiting team batting, winning by 2 runs. Of course I was doing the plate, because I am just so good at calling pitches. No one was on base, and B1 hits to the right side of the infield. F5 makes a great diving stop. I can hear calls of "Great play!" from the dugout. F5 hops up and fires low to first. The ball skips past F3, and rolls into the home team's dugout. U1 sends the BR to second base.
The offensive manager, not understanding that he is being wronged, does not come out to argue. I then call out to U1 "Hey Bob, would you like to ask me anything about that play?" (Yes that is the same mechanic taught by Wiederlanders. I bet you are wondering if this game was last week, how did I already read the article? Well, because I enjoy Wiederlanders' articles so much, I have him email them to me as soon as he writes them. That way I don't have to go through the agony of waiting a whole day for his next article.)
So, U1 looks at me and he says "Huh?" So I shout back, "You messed up the base award you idiot, come and ask me for help." So the offensive manager hearing this decides to come out and talk to Bob. I went out to join in the conversation. The manager says "Bob, what is the rule on the base award." Bob repiles "Well skip.." I then cut him off and say "I'll take it from here Bob, you are an incompetent umpire. You need to study the eteamz rules myths more." I then look at the manager and say "It is a two base award from the BR's position at the time the ball entered DBT." I then send the BR to third base, for he had touched first before the ball entered the dugout. The manager replies "That is what I always though. I asked that question once on a internet umpire forum, but I just got flamed for asking a stupid question. Only one person ever answered my question. I think his name was Mitch Fives, or something like that. He also informed me that he was a coach, so I assumed his ruling was wrong. Thanks for confirming his incorrectness for me."
This of course brought out the defensive manager. He says "How does the BR get third? If it is the first play by an infielder, then the award is from TOP." I reply "But it wasn't the first play. Remember when F5 made that diving stop? You yelled from the dugout "Nice play". F5 fielding the ball was the first play, therefore the throw is the second play." The manager replies back "Whatever man. You are crazy." I told him that he better shut up or he is going to be gone. He says back "You are one of only 3 people on the field being paid. You must always act professional and have a willingness to listen to reasonable arguments WITHOUT threats from you to eject us!" I said "I have had enough of you telling me how umpires should act, you are out of this game."
I knew I would have to fill out the ejection report after the game, but I always refer to the managers as "Sir" or "Mister", I never use their names. I better figure out this guy's name quick. As he was walking away from me, it was on the back of his shirt. His uniform number was 4, and his name was Ignitor. So I pulled out my lineup card and wrote down "Ignitor4".
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