[soonerfan]

i am a bit surprised at some of the responses by my peers, first of all.

as for the situation. it is easily correctible as long as the umpire can swallow some pride and check a rule book. in fact, doesn't the FED rule or case book suggest that an umpire ALWAYS have the rule book handy for things such as this?

Coach, you were the innocent victim of a crappy, inexpreienced, arrogant umpire. i am afraid you will deal with a lot of those in little league. good ones would rather call older kids like legion baseball because the baseball is better and the pay is more...me included. when i broke in and was not sure of rotations or how to deal with angry coaches, i may have been a bit abrasive at times out of stupidity. i would react with an attitude at times just to mimmic umps i have seen or known, but not to the same situations and as i learned more and more i was very easy to deal with. but as i learned more i didn't get into those situations anyway.

as for some of you all that have callously responded to coach, geez let him ask a question or two. i can appreciate coaches that want to know the "manner" in which to approach an umpire.

coach, again, deal with what you have got. i know where i am there is a huge shortage of umpires and they take whatever "child" they can find. we used to run 14 yr old tournaments and have college umpires for a lot of the games. that was a treat for those kids, parents, and especially the coaches. however, i would never suggest that you yell back at an umpire. if the ump is the agressor you may not want to raise your voice.

on coaching your kids, do it according to the rules. if it is a caught 3rd strike everyone in the world knows it's and out. i might also suggest that you teach any kid that might catch to always know the situation that rule exists so you don't have any fiascos like that one. if an ump ends up kicking that call again, deal with it as best you can and if that still produces and unsatisfactory result you may then either pay up for protest or move on. remember that this is little league, the kids won't remember these games at all once they are older. they will recall HS and college games. oh yeah, tell the parents that too. have a good season.