quote:
Originally posted by wvblue:
I went over to the Valley League, a NCAA wooden bat league, this summer and had rough game. 3-1 game in the bottom of the 9th. The home team had been belly-aching about pitches on and off all game. They are in a position to tie the game. Batter says loudly common lets go while turning around on me...I say turn around and swing the bat I have been there all day (the pitch was right at the top of the belt)...he says no you haven't and the bench erupts...I look over there and one of the players is giving me a retarded look ( his eyes were crossed and everything)...I continue looking for about 5 to 10 seconds to give them a chance to settle down...It gets worse so I run the retarded player in the dugout...things settle down and the batter says it was still high...I say if you thought that was high wait til the next one...he runs down to the head coach and tells on me...head coach comes down and says why did you threaten to call a ball a strike on my batter...I say I never said I would call anything...he starts pointing at me threatening to come back if I do...I run him...things settle down tying run is at the plate home team still in the game...next pitch just off the black (an inch or less) I call strike three...batter throws fit...I run batter...next batter is from Arizona State and I had warned him about arguing pitches in the 3rd inning...batter fouls off a couple and the third strike is just off the black (an inch or so) and batter draws a line on me...I run batter...I tell the new head coach to keep letting them talk because I'll keep going until there is nobody is left...coach tries to calm dugout down...first base coach comes down and says he wants to protest the game...I tell coach he has no grounds because you can't protest me ejecting someone for arguing balls & strikes...he says what about an umpires integrity, hustle, so on and so on...I eject the first base coach...the next batter grounds out to end the game...owner of team proceeds to tell me how awful I am as he is counting our money out. I might have avoided a couple of ejections but I had bent over backwards throughout the game to accommodate both teams and I had enough. This is the most ejections I have had in a game and they all came about 10 minutes apart.
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I've written for years that when a professional coach gets ejected, it's almost always because some umpire kicked a call.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't eject them; it means we should give them a little more rope before we hang them.
I think Hugo nailed this call right down to the ground. Perhaps the players planted the seeds, but you certainly watered them until they sprouted.
I recommend: Don't talk to players when they are questioning you. Just look at them, and keep your mouth closed. Don't say: "That's my zone." Don't say: "Get in the box." Don't say: "Anything." Just stare at the player.
You'll be surprised at what happens in your games.
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Papa C
Editor, eUmpire