Hi,
Recently at a High School game we had an incident with fans.
I wasn't at the game in question but it got me thinking.
This is what happened:
The coaches put on their closing pitcher they return to the dugout and 2 teenagers run onto the field. They run up to the pitcher and start dancing around him, taunting and mocking him.
The base ump shoos them off the field and they run off back into the crowd. They get given some money by someone in the crowd and they victoriously wave their money above their heads. (So I'm thinking obviously a dare.)
The pitcher was completely put off by this whole incident cause his first impression was that these two guys were going to harm him.
If it had been older players both dugouts would probably have emptied.
From an Umpiring perspective how is this supposed to be handled?
If it had been me umpiring I most probably would have just stood there for a while in shock. Then I'd eject the two teenagers out the park and probably the manager of the home team.
The best thing (I think) would have been to stop them even getting on to the field. But without expecting something like this it would be difficult.
Thanks
SAWolf