[canadaump6]

With my trip to Cooperstown Dreams Park coming up, I thought I'd ask about a situation I had last year.

I was the plate umpire in a two man system. The coach of the defensive team goes out to the pitcher's mound and stands there as the pitcher throws his warmup pitches. By the rulebook, a mound visit starts when the coach crosses the foul line. I politely inform the coach that that counts as a mound visit. He gets PO'd about it, "you've gotta be kidding me", that sort of thing, but finally says exclaims "alright, if that's the way you want it, fine" and leaves.

He brought in another pitcher in that same inning as the original pitcher had been struggling. He stands out on the pitcher's mound again as his pitcher throws his warmup pitches. Now in this case I know I was wrong. I believed that if the coach who removed the pitcher stays on the mound as his new pitcher throws his warmups, that is a visit. However the rule actually states that "If the coach goes to the mound and removes a pitcher and then the manager goes to the mound to talk with the new pitcher, that will constitute one trip to that new pitcher that inning"; the manager and coach are two separate people.

When I inform the coach the second time that he is charged with another visit, he more or less goes ballistic. He's got a really angry tone of voice, so much so that my partner is close by to watch my back. I ask him whether the manager is charged with a visit, and my partner tells me it's not a visit, so I say that's fine no visit afterall on the second incident. The coach is still pissed off even though he has (rightfully) gotten his own way. He says to my partner "wow this guy I dunno", referring to me when he says "this guy". Then he says "I'm a former professional baseball player, I know what I'm talking about". I politely tell him that "you need to calm down a bit" and he tells me "you need to calm down!". As I go back behind the plate and he heads back to the bench he is still fuming and saying stuff, so I tell him "that's enough" and he quiets down. He showed off his hot-headed attitude later in the game by chewing out some of his players who didn't perform to his expectations, and speaking angrily in Spanish, ending many of his sentences with the words "god dam".

At any other ballpark I would have probably been more strict, immediately telling him to get himself under control after he chewed me out on the mound and if he doesn't comply, eject him. However at Cooperstown Dreams Park, any coach who is ejected from a ballgame is immediatly escorted by security to the lodging site, where he packs up his stuff and leaves the park. If he ever enters the park again, as coach or fan, it counts as tresspassing. I don't believe they get their money back either. The park does not go back on ejections either, no matter how uncalled for the ejection might be.

What do you guys think about the entire situation? Should I have tossed him? Should umpires be more lenient when the penalty for ejection is so severe? And is the owner of the park on a power trip, to the point that he needs to enfore such severe penalties.

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