Thanks for your comments but I have to diagree here.
First as I said in my original thread - We are dealing with MEN here not children. By men, I mean anywhere from the age of say 25 - 45 yrs. old who have played in College / Semi-Pro and even in the Bigs.
Simply dusting the plate and making threats doesn't work, at least in my experiences in mens leagues.
Umpires, unfortunately, do not have an outlet, other than ejection as do our counterparts in the NBA and National Football League. In the NBA, an official can give a Technical Foul and in Football an official can penalyze a team 15 yards, but we do not have such "PENALTIES" in baseball.
When a player starts making a fool out of you, we have 3 choices
1)We can as you say try to reason with them and issue a warning; (2) We can at that very moment eject him or (3) Send a Message.
As with all things, we all have our opinions on things and it all depends upon the brand of ball we umpire. I would not recommend sending a message all the time, but in some instances like the one I gave it does have it's effectiveness. Sending a Message:
'(A) Keeps the player in the game
(B) Lets everyone know you will not be made a fool of
(C) You will gain respect and IMO does not jeopardize one's integrity
Pete Booth