Making sure this rat gets things right

[BlueLawyer]

My personal preference: if you have a problem with a call I made, tell me about it.

More than half of the time, if you are in the two-man system especially, two pairs of eyes are not going to be on the same thing. Telling my partner I booted a call gets you nowhere except looking like you are trying to avoid me. My partner, if he's doing his job, won't have anything different than I did because he didn't see what I did.

There are some reda$$ umpires out there who you can't approach no matter what. Then again, there are some reddera$$ coaches who have no idea how to approach an umpire.

My advice:

(1) Realize that you are going to disagree, sometimes vehemently, with at least one call an umpire makes in every game you are coaching. Usually it will be several. For that reason, pick your battles. Complaining about every call has one of two effects: the umpire either deafens his ears to you or dumps you. In either case, overcomplaining is counterproductive.

(2) When you have picked a call you want to question, call time and walk (don't run) to the umpire who made the call. If you charge, you may get dumped.

(3) Be respectful and reasonable when you ask what happened on the play. Avoid personalizing the argument: "You're awful today . . . I hope you (insert umpire's day job) better than you umpire or you're going to starve . . ." These are tickets to an early trip home. Also, "you got that call wrong" doesn't tell me much. "No I didn't." "Yes you did." On the other hand, "Steve, I think the tag was high and his foot got the bag" tells me specifically what you saw that I didn't. I'm still not changing my call, but it lets me know, specifically, what it is you think I missed. If it's a "help" play, you can ask me to get help. I still might tell you "no, it's my play all the way," but I'm not going to dump you for suggesting my partner had a better angle.

(4) Know that when the argument's over, it's over. I'm going to let you have your say. What I am not going to do is have a 10 minute discourse on the merits of the force-play slide rule (that's what this board is for). "When it's over, it's over" means two things, by the way: (1) know when to leave that particular argument and go back to your dugout/position and (2) don't bring up the last call you think I missed when you come out to argue the next one . . . also shortening the effectiveness of your complaining time.

Good luck, Coach.

Strikes and outs!