Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy
I think it depends on the situation.
If coach is coming out to question a judgement call, s/he needs to come all the way out to where I am at.
If coach is coming out to ask about a rule interpretation or because something odd happened on the play, I MAY meet him somewhere in the middle.
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Most of the time, the coach is going to have to come to me as I'm heading to my position when the play is over. It is not intentional, its just what an umpire is supposed to do. If I see the coach coming, I make take a step or two in his/her direction.
If s/he is irate, this gives them time to cool off. If s/he is that irate, you coming to them isn't going to make the difference.
I know what I'm going to say, I'd rather the coach get a chance to think how they are going to act.
Only one time in my career did I hold my ground and force the coach to come to me. It was in Plant City and was because his RF was acting like an ass and would not shut up. When I turned and asked the RF to calm down, the coach wanted to know what I said. So I waited in my position behind 1B until the coach hobbled out from the 3B dugout. Yes, it was mean and spiteful and the coach is a great guy. But his team had already had a couple players dumped this game by an umpire from the Bahamas and a few in previous games. I felt the need to make sure the coach understood he needed to take control of his players.
It must have worked as there were no more ejections from this team the rest of the tournament. Like I said, the coach is a great guy and positive for softball, but his players were your typical cry babies we run into in this country.