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I've had fun the past couple of weekends myself. USSSA 16U ball. Same teams play every week, and about 6-8 of our umpires work the games every week. We get to know each other rather well. OBR rules with USSSA mods.
Last weekend I'm the field umpire in a bracket game. Runner at 2nd, one out. Dribbler to the shortstop, and the runner takes off for third. The runner is in the basepath, and the ball, fielder, and runner all converge in the same general area at one time. However, the runner never made any contact with the fielder and never made any other actions that could be classified as interference. Team A's (the fielding team) HC wasn't there the day before, so one of the parents has been filling in, but the HC is there this day just not in the dugout. The parent coaching the team calls time, and respectfully asks why I did not call interference -- saying that the baserunner has to avoid contact with the fielder. I concur, but disagree that any contact was made and add that there were no actions by the runner that could be construed as interference. He seems somewhat upset, but understands and walks back to the dugout. No biggie. Happens all the time.
Next thing I know the Team A HC is yelling "You don't have to have contact to call interference." I of course don't grant him with any type of response because, since he's not a coach in this game -- he's nothing more than a spectator. Plus, he missed 95% of the conversation I had with the acting-coach that day.
This past weekend, Team A's HC is acting as coach. I have the team in a pool play game. I'm in the field again, with a runner on 3rd and one out. Team A is batting. Soft liner right to the pitcher, who makes the catch. Everyone just kind of pauses, then F1 throws the ball to F5 in an attempt to catch R3 off the bag. R3 is clearly out, and I call him as such. It wasn't really that close. Since this is the third out of the inning, I leisurely jog to my mid-inning position towards RF. Team A's dugout is on the 1BL. After I get to my position, I see Team A's HC at the edge of the grass. He says "That wasn't even close." I respond "You're right Coach, it wasn't." He just kind of stands puzzled, then says "Your timing is awful." I just ignore him. He's about 20-25 feet from me, so his dugout can of course hear him. "You need to stop anticipating calls." I say "OK Coach, that's enough." He then says "Your timing is awful." At this point I restrict the coach to the dugout (which I know isn't in OBR rules but the TD has allowed us to do because often times these teams only have one coach). After a couple of minutes, I hear him say something to the effect of "I'm not going anywhere." Should have tossed him. Don't know why I didn't. He just stands there outside of his dugout. I leisurely walk up to my partner, tell him Team A's coach is restricted, and he puts him in the dugout. Wish my partner would have done that on his own, but alas.
The next day I'm scheduled to work his bracket game as the PU. No problems through six innings. In the bottom of the seventh and final inning, he's down 7-6. First batter comes up and works a full count. Pitch comes right across the outer third (not corner) and I ring him up. Kid takes three steps towards the dugout, then turns looks at me and says "WHAT?! THAT WAS THREE FEET OUTSIDE!" Loud enough so that everyone could hear him. I dump him. Then Team A's coach wants to argue about the ejection. Asks what he's ejected for, I said yelling at an umpire about balls and strikes. He then says "Well, what's he ejected for?" I tell him that I've already explained it, and he knows players are not allowed to yell at umpires. He then tries to accuse me of baiting him and his team into ejections. Of course, nothing is further than the truth. My partner (different one) ushers him away. The last two outs are made, and his team loses 7-6.
He's a pretty prominent HC in the area (his team's not all that great, but he's been around here a while), and I'm new here. Only been calling in this area for about a month. All of our umpires in the association agree that we generally don't have any major problems with anybody but this one team and their fans. Their fans are generally terrible and want to chase you off the field. We've come to the determination that it's all because the HC gives the example that any problems that the team suffers (they went 2-20 last year) can be blamed on umpires. Even the kids are starting to bicker now. It's just a shame.
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