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Originally Posted by briancurtin
i wouldnt get involved in managing the fans. pulling the coaches aside between innings and telling them to keep their fans in control isnt a bad idea. however, i wouldnt mention that you will step up and do it if he cant -- make him know that he will be doing the controlling. i might be going about it wrong, and would like to hear better ways if possible, but thats all i can think of.
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I have ejected three fans in my 17 years of officiating, twice in baseball and once in basketball. I think I was right all three times.
Time number one- summer baseball- 1991 or 1992. An obviously intoxicated woman starts berating me with F-bombs and other profanities after I call a strike on her son. The crowd of maybe 50 parts from around her and you can see her screaming and standing/weaving up in the grandstand. Her poor son turns to me, literally in tears and says, "I'm sorry, Blue." I called time and got the league president, who happened to be at the game, and said, "There won't be one more pitch in this game until that woman is out of here." He took care of it.
Time number two- high school baseball, probably 1995 or 1996. A run-rule is at issue, and the teams are disputing what the score is. I go to the official scorebook (home team mom) and get an answer, which I considered to be authoritative. I turn around to start the game again and hear a large commotion behind me. A fan from the other team, unhappy with the scorebook, starts in on her hard, cussing her. She looks horrified. I get the home coach and tell him to take care of it. We eventually had to get the police there.
Time number three- high school basketball, 1999 or 2000. Running the floor on the sidelines with the stands about 18 inches from the sidelines. A drunk (see a theme here?) fan slurs something to me about "youbetterstar'callin . . ." That's all I heard before I was out of earshot. The next time past him, he obviously and deliberately stuck his legs out in an attempt to trip me. Whistle- (no "T") get the home coach and say "This game stops until that man is out of this gym." Luckily, the cops were already at that game and as they were escorting him out in cuffs he yell/slurred at me "Youcan' kick me out!" I said to myself, "I just did."
I let the fans be fans right up until the time they cross the line. Where that line is depends, in my opinion, on their behavior vis-a-vis the level of the game. In my first fan ejection, for example, I was not going to continue a game with 15 year-old kids while a steady blue streak of profanity was coming out of the stands. In the scorekeeper incident, the fan was interfering with her ability to do her job. And drunk jackass in the basketball game was literally a physical danger to me. Most of the time you can and should ignore the fans, but sometimes, you have to deal with them.
Strikes and outs!