[Justme]

As I enter my second year of HS softball I had the opportunity to experience some interesting things from a coach. Yesterday I was working the plate for a varsity game, although it appears from the level of play that only one varsity team showed up. As the game progressed the frustration in the losing coach increased and so did his questioning what I felt are obvious rules.

1. The coach complained because I didn’t call a batter out for a “slap-bunt” that went foul. I tried to explain to him that there are no slap-bunts that it was a slap hit that went foul.

2. One of his girls was walking back to 3B while the F1 was heading for the circle. F1 was in the circle when the player heading to 3B stopped and looked at her. My partner called her out. The coach came out and asked if we hadn’t heard of a “delayed steal”. That his player was trying to make up her mind.

3. Then one of his girls at 2B, ball ‘live’ (F1 in the circle) was wandering off the bag not paying attention. Again my partner calls an out. The coach, “You can’t call that, there was no action” My partner tried to explain things to him that the ball was ‘live’.

4. The head coach walked by me and told me that I needed to help my partner (a 20+ year HS/college veteran) with the rules. I had to fight the urge to "run" him or at least walk over to his asst. coach and tell him that he needed to help the head coach with the rules (among other things).

5. The coach complained a couple of times about my “generous” strike zone when his players were batting but loved it when his F1 was working (although it didn’t help much). It seemed like he wanted two different zones. Again the urge to 'run' him came back.

With a varsity coach of this caliber there is no wonder why they lost by 15 runs. It also set a record for my longest SB game behind the plate at 2:14. My partner seemed to enjoy my reactions over the lack of rule knowledge demonstrated by the out of town head coach. In our post-game meeting (my partner was there to evaluate me) he explained that I did everything right (maybe a first) and that I handled things like a SB umpire rather than a BB umpire (which I have been forever). I’m not quite sure what that meant but after more than 2 hours of dealing with the head coach I didn’t want to ask, I was ready to go home.