[bkbjones]

Originally Posted by Dakota

For all of you who think such things as this or such things as sportsmanship reminders are not required, unnecessary, or otherwise beneath them, one of our former state UICs for ASA used to insist on both of these (wanted us to appear approachable) and our state high school league insists on the sportsmanship reminder. I actually find it helpful, especially with inexperienced coaches. It takes about 15 seconds to say. I guess you COULD consider that wordy and a waste of time, but not many words, not much time. I have never had a coach use it as permission to question everything, or even a lot of things. They seem to understand perfectly what it means.

IMHO you're either approachable or you isn't. 15 seconds of a plate meeting isn't going to change the attitude of either a coach or an umpire.