You can't talk to the batter!

[Rich]

Originally posted by PeteBooth
. Originally posted by dudeinblue

Alright, I had this happen tonight in the AA USSSA 12 year old world series.

The batter is up and I am the PU. He lets 2 beautiful pitches go by that are belt high on the outside corner. After both pitches, he throws his hands up and rolls his eyes and head as if they were terrible calls.

So what. I do not care what the player is doing as long as he isn't saying something derogatory or drawing lines. Do not say anything to B1 especially at the younger levels because the message as you found out will get mis-guided.

So in between innings the guy comes up to me in a calm manner and say, "Blue our player said you were talking to him while he was hitting."

I do NOT Talk to assistant coaches unless the Head Coach says so and so will be handling all baseball responsibilities. I only talk to the manager

So I say, "Well coach, he threw his hands up at me twice and was rolling his eyes and head at me, so I told him that the pitches were strikes and that he better swing the bat."

Since you made the mistake of talking to an assistant "you dug yourself a deeper hole" by saying his batter should swing the bat. That's like a coach telling you how to umpire.

So the guy points a finger in my face and says, "Don't you ever talk to the batter blue, you do your job.

Since your game management skills were batting zero at this point as soon as the "finger came in my face" is when the talking stops and it's time for the coach to have a nice day. No sense continuing a conversation which can only escalate and get very heated.

Summary: I hope you learned from this experience. Do not COACH players and only talk to the Coach in Charge.

Pete Booth

As someone who has used the phrase, "stop gesturing at me and swing the bat," I think some are being overly sensitive of this phrase. Sounds to me like good advice if he's standing there and looking at strikes and then showing up the umpire.

You don't care if he throws his hands up? Great. Me? It's showing me up and it will stop. And for those rats that say "Don't talk to my players," I'll talk to anyone I wish. I'm the umpire and will do what it takes in the name of game management.