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Conduct
Folks -- I'm not talking about Fed ball, college ball or even well run rec ball -- hell, that's the easiest ball to call because you do have outside controls and sanctions available to restrain egregious behavior -- I'm talking about the kind of ball where the umpire is pretty much it as far as controlling the field for a safe and appropriate environment for kids.
When an administrator is NOT present, or is unavailable, I am not going to bury my head in the sand because "it ain't my job". I have seen too many episodes where taunting between the first and third base bleachers a) distracted the kids trying to enjoy the game when parents were acting the fool, or b) worse, the situation escalated into "fighting words" either behind home plate or in the parking lot. Police were called, in several cases, because the umpires let situations get out of hand when a firm hand minutes earlier would have stopped it cold.
An authoritative umpire working WITH and THROUGH coaches can nip that stuff in the bud -- most of the time it has the effect of reminding the folks that they are there to watch their kids and that they may be deprived of that if they continue.
I'm not viewed as heavy-handed and I have had the opportunity to officiate many games thru the years involving bitter rivals where trouble might be expected -- and I think I've had 5-6 ejections in 20 years
The governing boards where I work know they are not gonna have a bunch of extracurricular crap going on in the stands. They know I expect the kids to play and hopefully have fun but I absolutely expect to grown ups to act like adults.
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