[PeteBooth]

Just a quick opinion here. I've seen this situation from other boards and I've made the same comment....and I can't state this strongly enough. Drawing a line like that at ANY level of baseball is a no-no, and merits ejection without delay. I've heaved three high school players and yes, one adult when they thought a pitch was off the plate. This is one thing a player can NEVER be allowed to do.

Vern, as I thought, there are many opinions out there concerning this issue. I posted this thread on the URC as well and Jon Bible mentioned he was going to author an article in referee magazine concerning this subject matter.

The reason (and I'm not justifying it) I send messages is because other than ejection, there is no other recourse we can use to keep a player in the game.

As I mentioned in one of my responses, in the NBA or Football, they have penalties such as a Technical Foul and unsportsmanlike conduct before that actually eject someone. In baseball we have no such "animal".

So I guess it comes down to style. I do not use this technique all of the time. It doesn't work on "hot heads" and I NEVER use in youth ball. At least in my experiences with mens leagues, I found this method useful.

The Team knows you are not going to take their guff and actually appreciates it when you keep them in the game. These guys play maybe once a week (normally double headers on Sundays), pay decent bucks to join
the league and if I can keep them in the game by sending a message I say OK.

Now if they keep it up thats another story but most of the time they indeed GET THE MESSAGE and the game continues smoothly from that point.


Pete Booth