[jkumpire]

Folks,

Something in me rebels a little bit here with just saying "Don't coach the kids". Look, these kids are 13 years old, playing their first year out from LL rules, and the coach has no clue what is going on. This is a teaching moment for these kids, and somehow we need to make sure they start to understand how real baseball is played. Frankly, I sympathize with our poster here, he wants to do the right thing, and not let the inexperience of a 13 year old kid cost his team a bunch of runs.

Nj, your "mistakes" are: 1, Coaching the Batter and F2, though you did it with good intentions. You were giving them too much data for them to deal with in the situation. The F2 and BR have to concentrate on catching or hitting the ball, adding rules to their thinking will only mess them up. Coaches have to educate them here.

2. (Some people say this is modern "best practice for all umpirirng levels," we'll leave that aside for now). In this case, if you wanted to help the players, you should have yelled out when the Batter missed strike 3: "THE BATTER'S OUT, HE'S OUT," and repeat it if you have to, or even point at him as you say it. You will freeze the batter in his tracks if you do it, and probably the catcher too. So you have gotten to the place where you wanted to go, without being a coach, or giving the kids too much to think about.

Because now in this situation, but not communicating he is out, you are going to have to pull the BR off 2nd base or wherever he is, and send him to the dugout, Now you have people wondering what is going on, and at least one angry coach to deal with.

Sell, even oversell, the out call here, and you solve the problem as best you can.