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Old Fri Jul 13, 2007, 03:43am
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Rich Rich is offline
Get away from me, Steve.
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 15,770
Quote:
Originally Posted by bob jenkins
My take on the whole debate: Coaches (all of them) and umpires (all of them) have different "goals" for the game (little "g" game -- not the big "G" Game of Baseball). That leads to the conflict. And, while not every coach acts like a "rat" during every game, (almost) all are capable of it and we've been hit over the head with a 2x4 often enought that when we see a coach approaching with one we don't ask "what are you going to build?"

And, while not every umpire acts like a redass every time, all that stick in the "profession" learn how to do it as a matter of survival, and you see it enough to think that we're "all" looking to get you.

Shrug.
The longer we do this, too, the easier it is to go from 1 to 10 on the red-*** meter. It *is* a matter of survival.

I've twice gone into dugouts in adult leagues (ejecting a random person and threatening to clear the dugout). I was perfectly in control of myself, although others may see it differently. I knew what I was doing at the time.

In games I've worked, I've heard coaches tell their teams that they "have to behave today cause these umpires aren't going to take any sh!t from anyone." That warms my heart, especially when it's a team known for bad behavior, ejections, and umpires scratching them from being assigned to their games home AND away.

But do I go out looking for it? Not often. I've only had one ejection this season, matter of fact -- a college head coach who argued a call all the way to right field and then (post-ejection) called me every name in the book and some I'd never heard up to that point.

In every 100-game season I work, I probably average 5 that include an ejection/incident of some kind. We ALL remember those more than the 95 games that go off like a walk in the park.
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