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Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve
lawump,
Out here in San Diego, the intensity level at the Varsity HS level is very high. This area is heavily laden in talent, and there are scouts at most of the big games. The coaches here will kick the occasional dirt on the shoes, will try to get tossed to fire up their team, and we have had quite a few historical beanballs and bench clearing brawls, including one in the 1989 CIF Finals. It was started by the plate umpire not calling (or ejecting for) malicious contact when a runner did a Pete Rose number on the catcher. The next inning or so, the other team returned the favor by knocking the crap out of the catcher, and a bench clearing brawl resulted in I believe 6 or 7 ejections.
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Wow...All I know is my state (High School) instituted a mandatory $100 fine and one game suspension for a FIRST ejection of any coach, several years back. No questions asked. While that $100 means nothing to a pro manager, player, coach...it has done a great deal to shut down a lot of non-routine situations in high school.
I know a lot of our area coaches live in fear of that fine. $100 means a lot to a guy who is scraping by as a HS PE teacher with a little additional stipend for coaching.
Does it eliminate all coaches' ejections? No. Does it eliminate a lot? Yes. Does it eliminate a lot of the "nastiness" in the arguments that do occur? Yes.
The intensity level in our games is very high too.
IMHO, MLB could do the same thing if they wanted to. Instead of setting some automatic fine amount for an ejection, however, they could institute a mandatory minimum suspension. Tell a MLB player/manager he will be fined a certain amount for an EJ and he won't care. Tell him he's going to sit out a 3-game series or some certain amount of time for an EJ and he'll care.