[BretMan]

Had a coach come out to me as I was in short right just three days ago and it was a first for me.

He wanted to give me grief for not having called what he thought was a balk about five batters prior to the last one of the inning. He had run his mouth about pretty good when it happened, but no one from his team bothered to ask for time and come out then to talk about it. Generally, I'll explain a call to any coach who is civil about it, but ignore random yelling across the field about a call.

It just so happens that this particular coach was coaching first base, so he was kind of in proximity to right field to begin with. He was also the assistant coach for this school, though he is a well-known head coach for other area travel teams, a well known pain in the rear and a bit of a legend in his own mind.

Our coversation went like this:

Coach: Are you gonna call that?

Me: Call what?

Coach: The balk.

Me: "The balk" for what exactly?

Coach: For not coming to a stop.

Me: Are you the head coach?

Coach: No.

Me: If the head coach has a question, he can ask for time and come see me.

Coach: Are you gonna call that!?

Me: If the head coach has a question, he can ask for time and come see me.

Coach: Grumble, grumble, grumble...(returns to dugout).

Okay, I was kind of a hard *** and that usually isn't my style. But I don't feel it's appropriate for an assistant coach to come out between innings and vent about a judgment call that happened five batters ago. Maybe if this guy's reputation as being a tool hadn't preceded him, I might have handled it differently.

Same game, a couple of innings later. Following a close play at first, the head coach does request time, approaches me, I walk to meet him hafway (kind of scratching my head as to why he is coming out on a routine- though close- judgnment call where I was set up right on the play and he was in the third base dugout, about 100 feet away).

I then get the dumbest question from him I've had all year- so far.

Coach: (With his best "I'm astounded and shocked by that call" look on his face) Did you call him safe?

Me: Did you see me hold both arms out to my side?

Coach: Yeah.

Me: Did you hear me loudly yell "safe!"?

Coach: Yeah.

Me: Then why are you out here asking me a question that you already know the answer to?

Coach: Grumble, grumble, grumble (returns to dugout).

I'm not really sure what this guy was getting at, other than maybe just trying to get under my skin. Certainly, he couldn't have any real expectation that I was going to tell him anything differently than that I had the runner safe, or entertain any notion that I would possibly reverse the call.

I guess that it was just Stupid Question Day at the ballpark and somebody forgot to tell me!