[amusedofficial]

Here is a situation I encountered this year. . Crew of two. AAUgly. Doubleheader, to be paid at field by coaches. We agree to be paid betwix games to get things rollling, no reason to believe we won't be paid. Since its two fees, one will take two game fees from one team, the other two from other team (yeah, bad idea for a lot of reasons, I concede that and move on). H wins Game One handily. I get paid betwix games by V. Game Two, first inning, two close calls go against V while they are at-bat, both by me. Coach yips about it, nothing unusual, he may have been right.. I move to cover first with bases empty, next to his bench and take usual abuse from moms and dads, which I find amusing since I have been in their situation where you pay a lot of coin for kids to do AAU programs and believe that gives you the right to blast officials all afternoon. Coach commiserates with moms and dads who each paid $2K in fees for inter alia, coaching fees and says: "I guess they want to get out of here (and call outs to move the game)" Not a terrible line by baseball standards, I'll live with it. Then C says "I shouldn't have paid them 'till we were through."

I ignored it. Ever since I have thought I should have dumped him as soon as that comment flew out of his mouth. This coach had previously pulled a kid off the field for *****ing and told him he was thru for the day because of it, so maybe I was giving him credit for respecting the game. I'm a rook at baseball, but have done hoops for years and would have slapped an instant T for a similar comment on the court, but was reluctant to chase the coach for one remark.

My question: Would you send the coach to the parking lot for this, warn him, or be stoic about it? My thought at the time was that it was steam-blowing and it was a one-liner (grandstanding to be sure) uttered off-field but within earshot and not worth taking the kids' coach away. On the other hand, I wonder if I put myself in a position of allowing my integrity to be questioned and should have dumped him immediately. Is the fact that I thought about it afterward a sign I should have dumped him? Is the fact that I even raise the question a sign that I should have dumped him?