Is it Blues or Coaches Responsibility

[Saltydog]

Seems there's two issues here. The first is the 'I'm mad throw' and the second is the 'I can't hang on throw'.

As a Coach I've never had a kid (9-14) dumped for the first. However, that is probably because I pounce the kid before Blue has the chance and somewhat harder I'm sure. Plus we have an impromtu team meeting right there that ends usually with 'the next guy.....' However, if he got dumped all you would hear from me is a sideline conversation of 'remember what we talked about in practice!' I feel part of being a quality athlete is self discipline.

With regard to the guy that can't hang on... as the Commish in our 9-10s, I wrote a local rule similar to FED; first time 'you're out' and a team warning. Second time and that player is out and ejected'. I told the Coaches and parents it was a SAFETY issue. No complaints, and the bats stopped flying. Sometimes a tough call though... tracking the ball and trying to figure out if the bat rattling against the fence was flipped or flung, but believe it or not, almost to a man the Coaches backed Blue up on this one and would 'call' their own guy out if Blue missed it.

I've always wondered why OBR didn't address this. One time when I was filling in as an 'Umpire', I had a Coach during the inning change mention to me after a warning that I couldn't really dump the player could I? I just smiled and said '9.01 (c), (d) say I can... and don't pull your book out either'. (I'd say if you can't hang onto your bat, then you're not exhibiting the sportsmanship necessary to play the game.:-) But then again, I'm untrained.

SD