I have become much mellower in my old age (I haven't dumped anybody in five years- almost happened the other night- different story), but I still would run all three of those fans.

Cops will arrest folks for most anything here in God's Country. My standard has little to do with what the police will arrest for- it has to do with the time, the place, the kids I am umpiring, the game and the behavior. For example, some drunk jackass cussing me has happened more than a few times since that first game. It happened most recently (that I heard it) in an adult league game last summer. Granted, there were three fans there, and one third of the crowd was drunk and cussing me. But with old fat guys like me on the field, I just ignored it and umped on. I'm not going to put up with that in youth baseball. Anybody who interferes with an official function leaves my field too.

Strikes and outs!

Hell, eject 'em all, let God sort 'em out!
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/18/18_7_23.gif

[QUOTE=RPatrino]Folks, had an interesting JV game yesterday, so I thought I'd relay some incidents and get your thoughts. BTW, I worked this game solo, could have really used a partner.

Bob I do not know about your area but in mine most if not all HS coaches are also Teachers. According to your thread, I would not want any of these coaches teaching my kids.

Therefore, if the game was as ugly as you describe, I would send a letter describing what took place to:

1. My assignor.
2. Both AD's and perhaps more importantly
3. The Board of Education

RE: I have seen it happen in my area. When a coach also a teacher behaved in the manner you described, I know of 2 cases, where the coach was brought before the Board of Education and their coaching days were over and in one case also one's teaching career as well.

b) The second team warning was for coach's addressing the other teams players. That is a violation of 3-2-1, but there is no penalty associated with it, so I pulled both HC's together and told them to have it stopped. Was that the right way to handle this problem?

There is a penalty - Ejection or at the very least Restrict the coach to the bench area.


c) The third team warning was for spectator behavior. I may have over reached here but I did not want to have to get involved in managing the fans, so I pulled the HC's together and told them both to get control of the fans or I will have to. Any other thoughts?

Too many Warnings for one game. Call the HT coach over and simply say, Skip if so and so spectator is not removed we are done for the day. If it's a group of spectators, they all can go. It's apparent that these teams DID NOT want to play baseball. As umpires we are there to officiate what should be a baseball game and if the teams and Spectators want to "duke it out" then they can go on Friday Night RAW (Wrestling) and they do not need us.

d) EJ was for pitcher throwing at batter. R3 comes home on a squeeze, and the pitcher airmails the ball into the backstop, R3 scores easily. Scoring team whoops it up, as that was the go ahead run. F1 then sends the next pitch sailing behind the batter at head height. I tell him to "knock it off". He then proceeds to send the 2-0 pitch behind the batter again... I toss him. I get both HC's together for yet another meeting and tell them, I won't tolerate this and I will EJ each and every pitcher who intentionally throws at a batter, and that I expect them to get control of their teams and coach's immediately, and that we WILL finish this game without further incident. We did, it ended 11-5.

Again, too many warnings. In addition the coach also goes when you toss F1.

Side Note: It's my gut that these 2 teams have had disciplinary problems before. What did other umpires in your association do? Did they turn a blind eye? etc. These 2 teams need to be "slapped hard". The types of incidents you describe (coach talking to opposing players, F1 throwing at the head area) can turn REAL ugly.

Pete Booth

Pete, thanks for your thoughtful response. I appreciate it.

In my area, I have found that most non-varsity teams are coached by volunteers. More than likely the local LL, Pony or Babe Ruth program. I hold them to the same standards as I would a teacher, emphasizing that this is an educational experience as well as an athletic endeavor.

As far as the EJ of the coach for a pitcher throwing at a batter, I don't find that in the FED rules, or in the BRD. That is an NCAA/OBR penalty. I warned the coach's that they would go, anyway, and I would have tossed them if another batter was flagrantly hit.

I know how ugly these type of things can get, I ejected 8 players in one game.

It's important that if we know that these teams have had history, then we need to let whoever works them know that going in.

Bob P.

Yes, but how many pitches?