Did I Jump the Gun?

[Rich]

Originally posted by Dave Hensley
I was working the plate in a 15/16 yearold game a week ago when my partner tossed F6 for cussing. I didn't hear what the kid said, but I just assumed he threw an F-bomb.

Between innings pard came in for a drink of water and I asked him if the kid threw an F-bomb. "No, he used the D-word." It took me a minute to realize my pard tossed a 16 yearold for saying "damn" on the field. THAT is over-officous in the extreme.

My policy is, if it's a word you can hear on primetime network television, I'm not going to get my jock in a wad over it. And in case you haven't watched TV lately, that actually provides for a fairly liberal vocabulary to be tolerated.

If it's an R-rated cussword uttered at a volume level that the women and kids in the stands can hear, then you have to run the kid. Otherwise, if the profanity is not aimed at me, I probably am not going to hear it at all. If it's aimed at an opposing player (or the bench, as was the case in the first post in this thread) I'm just going to tell the kid to knock it off.

Damn? What an over-officious buffoon.

In the original situation, I guess I'd have to be there. But I would probably go to the mound and have a little chat with the pitcher rather than eject. Of course, had this just been the escalation of crap that had preceeded, an ejection may have been warranted.

I've only had one ejection this season thus far -- HS shortstop who decided to tell me a call was "f%$#ing terrible."