So if a coach is smiling, he couldn't possibly
be serious,right? Backstabbers often smile at
your face.Unless I know that I have a mutually
respective relationship with a coach, I'm not
going to appreciate any comments of that sort.

Umpduck,

I do have mutual respective relationships with many coaches, and the joking around goes both ways. I know which coaches I have trouble with, and which ones I don't. If a coach is actually stupid enough to say something like that in a serious manner, and if it is a coach that I know hates me, I would wait until I'm on the field, bait him, then run him. How can one actually justify running a coach for something said in the parking lot before the game? I could see myself trying to explain my way out of that one.

Tone is not something you can see with a written word. I was not there, but I presume that it wasn't a cheerful delivery. I know the umpire involved and he reacted with more grace than many under volatile circumstances. If he felt the need to eject, I don't question it.

Toss'em early
 

I had a sit several years ago that I posted on this site once before. I was doing a tourney, had the plate for the last game on the first night. Long story short, home team head coach didn't like the call I'd made on a balk, came out and discussed it, went back without much fuss. Next morning, I was BU, during the plate conference, the same coach starts asking my partner (different from the night before)about the balk call I had with him the night before. He didn't think that the ruling was right, and that I was a real A$$HOLE about it. My partner knew about what happened because I had discussed it with him in our pregame. We stood there in shock, I really don't think that he realized that I was the person he was referring to, and since it wasn't directed at me I let it go.

Over the years, the more I think about it the more I know I should have dumped him right there.

Re: Toss'em early
 

If you and the coach "discussed" the balk the night before, then he knew who you were at home plate the next day. Coaches avoid eye contact sometimes and talk "about" you, when they are really talking "to" you. To quote a famous poster, "Ba-bye"!

JJ

Would that be famous or notorious? ;)

Happy 2006 JJ!

That would be both WWTB and in case you didn't see it before it got deleted HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'd never dump a coach for something said
off the field prior to the game, and did not
mean to imply that I would. I would, however,
toss his arse at the first comment about balls
and strikes, or a judgement call. That way, you don't
have to "explain" your way out of anything. As you
said, "bait him, then run him".

"How can one actually justify running a coach for something said in the parking lot before the game? I could see myself trying to explain my way out of that one. "


The coach walks out to your car and tells you that he is going to file a letter of complaint with your assignor. He calls you the biggest pile of beetle sh-t he's ever seen. He looks at your partner and tells him that you don't belong working t-ball games after the last few games he's seen. He mentions a play you know you kicked and one that he is dead wrong about. It doesn't matter because he is spitting mad and cursing up a storm. He looks at you and says that he wishes you'd pull a "McSherry" right there in front of his team. He walks back to the field and into his dugout. At the plate meeting, he is accompanied by his assistant and team captain. The team captain hands you the line up card and the assistant explains the ground rules. The head coach just stares at you. He never says a word and the other coaches don't have any sense of any animosity. The meeting ends and he walks away with out shaking hands. He goes into the dugout and doesn't say a word. He just stares at you, smiling about that letter he's composing in his head.

Do you still feel you should be better served ignoring it? Sure you could bait him, but what if he doesn't bite? You call him over to discuss a line up card question and he sends the assistant. You ask for more baseballs and he sends the kid on the bench. He keeps both feet in the coachs' box and never says a peep to or at you. If you pull the trigger at anytime after it starts it makes you look like a newbie with a hardon for the guy. Explaining your actions at the plate meeting is a lot easier than baiting him and having two coaches think you're clueless.

Like I said before, I wasn't there and don't know the history, but if he felt it necessary to dump the chump, he was correct. My trigger is pretty well guarded, but if my buttons get pushed...

That's an easy one! Quick phone call to the assigner explaining the situation and fact that the coach will be ejetected the moment the umpires enter the field (In some areas or levels we just go to the site admin before the game & handle it there).

The attack was personal - no way it get's by.

That being said I have baited coaches / managers to KEEP them in the game. Get 'm out by 2B, let them vent, smile & ask if he feels better now. (I come from the OLD school. Perhaps not as old as T but old in any case).

PWL gets a +1 in my book for the writing of that song

i like how we are talking about wounds inflicted on an internet message board

socalblue1 -

I'm from the old school too, but I don't hand the problem to my assignor and never suggest that to any of my colleagues. My job is to handle the issue and report how professionally I did. In retrospect you can probably appreciate why some vets wouldn't handle it the way you suggested. Newbies may be better served by nvolving a more knowledgeable party.

At many schools, the site manager is the head coach. Leaving the parking lot/locker room to find a sprots information assistant or AD assistant is a challenge few invite. The baseball stadiums are usually fairly far removed from the campus around here.

You and I agree that we do not allow personal attacks. I was very careful with my wording - as careful as the coach who baited the umpire away from the field. My suggestion that it is far easier to handle it right away has nothing to do with being a quick trigger. Either way, we have some explaining to do and will look bad to the casual observer. I suggest that it is not tolerable to ignore and that our job is tough enough without the distraction. I can count the coach ejections I've had in the last few years on one hand. I don't find them very necessary because I'm blessed with really great skippers. They know we each have a job to do and the respect is mutual.

However, I tend to run into one mentally challenged pro washout who wants to vent every year or so. I've actually had a coach knock on our locker room to tell me that he hated my strike zone and doesn't like me. That guy is now heading up a really excellent D1 program and I see him once or twice a year. I remind him of the conversation and he smiles that it was his way of letting me know he was in charge. He figured that since I didn't react I was scared. Unless he reads this forum, he'll never know that I closed the door and told my partners that he wanted to know if I would date him and asked me to call him after the series. (Not that there's anything wrong with it!) Those guys kept a careful distance and it worked out for me too. They were less likely to get in his face and it made me look like I never told them about what he said. I get to see him in early April when he brings his squad up north - one of my old partners will be there too. He's still freaked out about it. Killing them with kindness is far worse than pulling the trigger sometimes! :)

First, these things were not said in the example given. All the coach said was something like "not you again." If a coach went as far as to threaten me with complaint forms or to curse me, then I'm not putting up with that bullsurf at all. The original comment was what I was refering to, but you have now flipped the script and added variables of which I was not addressing with my quoted comment. Since you were not astute enough to figure this out to begin with, I will restate it in terms that will draw you a diagram:

"How can one actually justify running a coach for saying "Oh, not you again" the parking lot before the game? I could see myself trying to explain my way out of that one."

Where I come from, we don't have coaches stupid enough to approach umpires in the parking lot prior to games to start with. But if they did, and made a remark like that, it would not cause me to blow a fuse. If I thought the coach was serious, he wouldn't last long once I got on the field anyway.

Where I live, I don't see umpires with less experience than me act like they do. I provided a specific play and gave sound advice. Everyone else understood it, but you wait a day or so and then start tossing insults. Do we need to retread the "I'm better than the pros" thread? It was chock full of misplaced SDS wisdom. I hope 2006 is kinder to you.

I enhanced the situation because you write that you wouldn't toss a guy for something he said in the parking lot. If you weren't astute enough to recognize that it was a different situation then I know you have bigger issues. Like I said, I wasn't there and I don't question others' ejections. If you second guess those made by your friends and colleagues then my first sentence was more than obvious. The umpires around here know better.

Happy New Year.

WWTB,

I didn't "wait a day or so and start tossing insults." I had not checked the board for several days, and added my post shortly after reading your comments.

You quoted me in your post. That automatically gives me every right to respond to anything you have to say after that.

All I did was clarify what I meant by "saying something in the parking lot." I also never said that this umpire shouldn't have done what he did. I said that I wouldn't have done the same thing myself.

You are the one who felt the need to add to the original situation you posted. I was only responding to one particular set of circumstances which made up the original situation.

Look, I don't care how much college ball you've worked. That alone doesn't make you a better umpire than anyone else. I am very good at what I do, and will not take a back seat to you, or your experience. I have many years of experience, enough to when I say something, it is a qualified comment.

It amazes me that you have the arrogance to claim to be a better umpire than me. You haven't seen me, and I haven't seen you, so since you can't speak from first hand knowledge, it would behoove you to remain silent.