Ejections: The adrenaline, the rush, etc.

[David B]

Originally Posted by UMP25

OK, a unique thread I must admit, but I wanted to post it more so out of curiosity than anything else.

Last night I was chatting with a fellow NCAA umpire buddy of mine who lives in southern California. Frank was talking about his first ejection of the season occurring in his Oklahoma St. @ Cal. State Northridge series recently. We got to discussing EJs in general, and the conversation took an interesting path.

We were debating whether, as much as most umpires would prefer NOT to eject someone, that we're all secretly guilty of some kind of instant, twisted pleasure when it comes to dumping an individual. We also talked about how there often seems to be a rush of adrenaline when we eject someone, but not in a necessarily negative sense. Perhaps it's due to what I sometimes call the "totality of the circumstances." Some EJs are instantaneous, done as a direct and immediate result of a transgression, while others may have been building for several innings, etc. Whether there is this weird, internal, sadistic satisfaction from dumping someone ( ), I can tell you this much: I never like the whole situation surrounding an ejection. It creates a tension or other weird feeling that just isn't good.

I generally am not known for having a lot of ejections during my entire season, which usually sees me working 150 games or more, but I've got two already since March 17th, which is more than I've had at this time in years. I'm not worried at all; that's just the way it goes sometimes. Nevertheless, the topic of ejections has always intrigued me, especially, I suppose, as an assignor, where I receive Umpire Reports from those whom I assign and for one of the conferences here where I assist the Supervisor with staffing and observations.

So, what are the thoughts of those here? Who has how many EJs this year? We're among friends here, so I don't think we need worry about the quantity, reasons, etc. As I said earlier, I'm more curious than anything else.

I've never had to eject many coaches, mostly players.

This season I've ejected no coaches, one player (for profanity and disrespect)

I've warned at least 10 players, and put a stop sign on two different coaches.

Of course, some of this has to do with my experience and relationship with the coaches.

Now that its playoff time and the coaches and players don't know me, it might be a little different.

I never like to eject anyone, and my opinion is that they eject themselves.

I know of other umpires who look for ejections situations and even antagonize the situation to further their purposes.

I have no respect for those umpires.

thanks
David

[UMP25]

My two this year involved a player and an assistant coach.

The former took a belt high fastball on the edge of the plate for strike three, and as he walked away, he drew the traditional line in the dirt to indicate where he thought the pitch was.

The latter involved an assistant coach who was coaching first base. I called a batter out on strikes to end the inning--BTW, the batter didn't say a word--and as I began to walk to my typical between-inning position down the third base line, the first base coach starts running toward me screaming about the pitch. He took a couple steps, and I tossed him. My partner, Mr. Jenkins, BTW, and the head coach, had to restrain him.

It turns out this coach used to be in the minor leagues, and a few of my peers had him there. All of them said the same thing: he was a menace then, getting ejected repeatedly, and is a menace now.