Scary Moment... and a Rat
 

Kid squares to bunt fully around, and gets drilled directly in the chest. I thought it hit right on his heart and was pretty much ready to get on my knees immediately and start CPR.

Kid just shook it off and jogged immediately to first, and the Rat defensive coach started whining about how the player didn't pull the bat back. I walked a ball out to the mound slowly to give the kid some time, slowly walked back and brushed off the plate, still hearing it from the manager. Exchange was something like this.

Coach: (repeatedly) That should be a strike. He never pulled the bat back. Blah blah blah blah. I'm a rat. I smell. Blah.

Me: Coach, he did not make a strike at the ball. There was no attempt to hit the ball, he gets first base. (now putting my mask on and walking behind the plate.

Coach: That should be a strike

Me: (taking mask off and now taking a couple steps towards the dugout and giving him the stop sign). Do you want to argue balls and strikes?

Coach: I'm argueing your interpretation of the rule.

Me: There's no interpretation, that's the rule. Now lets play (and ignored everything else and put the ball back into play).

Didn't hear anything more after I put the ball back into play.

Thoughts on how I handled this?

I would have gone to my partner, and asked if the batter attempted to strike at the ball. You're gonna have a bad angle on it from the behind the dish. You're (hopefully) tracking the ball, and not the bat. I'd find it hard to believe that the batter didn't try to defend himself with the bat.

If you were driving solo, just tell the manager what you did/didn't see.

But don't take off the mask and walk toward the dugout. Yes, we see the showboaters on TV do it all the time, but that still doesn't make it right. We aren't in the entertainment business like they are.

First of all a batter never has to pull the bat back. If the bat never moves then by rule it is not an attempt. I might have said that to the coach but it would depend on the proximity of where the coach is and how angry that coach is. Other than that I have no problem with the way you handled the situation.

Peace

This is a serious question, how do you handle coaches in the dugout that are continually complaining about balls and strikes or a judgment call?

I can't tell what age group you are talking about, but when you say "kid" I think small bases. So, if you are getting complaints from the dugout about balls and strikes warn the coach, get your notebook out and write it down, then if he does it again toss him.

It wasn't my sitch so I don't know what age group either, I was asking a more general game management question.

Nothing showboating about it. When it's serious enough, the mask comes off and when the mask comes off, somebody is leaving.

Easy.

The hand goes up, then "That's enough".

Anything else gets an ejection. Quite simple, actually. It's only happened to me once in eight years that someone didn't get it.

What I won't do is go looking for it. I won't take my mask off and walk over to the dugout. No need. I can make my point without it. I'm with Garth though. When the mask comes off someone's going home. Someone has just run the stop sign.

Excellent. You warned as necessary and the chirping stopped.

TussAgee11,
You did just fine.

Try this next chance:

"Coach, he never offered."

:)

Tuss, remember, 5 words or less does the trick everytime. Anymore than that and you are having a discussion and that is not what you want to do.

And following this 5 words rule, perhaps: "No attempt. He gets first."

And then maybe expand to 6 words for: "Are you arguing balls and strikes?"

I don't ask them if they want to argue balls and strikes, because this gives an opportunity to say "yes," and continue arguing, since they were asked if they wanted to argue. If you ask "Are you arguing balls and strikes," they have only three possible choices. 1) Say no, and shut their pie holes, 2) Say nothing and slink back into their rat holes, or 3) Say yes and get run for arguing balls and strikes.

Handled it Well
 

First of all, he doesnt have to pull the bat back. As previously stated, he can't offer at it. If he does, he stays right there. I do not allow coaches to yell from the dugout. Tell them if they want to discuss anything, to see the umpire who called the play. This will stop his ability to get the fans riled up and start on you, and now he has to talk to you face to face, in a professional manner. Also you can politely tell him to know what the hell he is talking about before he wastes anymore of your time. When you talk face to face, it takes out 90% of the theatrics they use to take the focus off of the play and players, and put it on the umpires. If he doesn't heed your warning, dump him.

A few years back, in a legion game, I had a kid square to bunt on a breaking pitch. He offered at the ball, which he missed, and which then caught him in his manhood.

I called time and a deadball strike.

He dropped like a sack of potatoes and puked in the dirt.

After they cleaned him up, he started walking to first. I motioned him back and informed him that he had another opportunity to get a hit. Didn't have to eject anyone, but the on-site legion adminstrator had to escort his mom from the field.

Had the exact same situation with a 10 year old the other day where the pitch was coming straight at him and his defense mechanism was to try to hit the ball towards his dugout, he missed and it hit him square in the chest. I yell "Time. Strike Two".

Kid is crying, coach is yelling that the pitch hit him and the kid's mom is running from her lawnchair to check out little Jimmy.

Had to explain to all three that if the player tries to hit the ball it doesn't matter if he gets hit it is a deadball and a strike. Needless to say none of them were too impressed.

Here's where some of you are going to jump all over me. The next time this little guy came up he was the first up in the inning so I walked over to him and asked him if his coaches had ever taught him how to react when the ball is coming straight at him. He said no so I continued and explained to him how to always turn away from pitch and bend over so as to "protect" the bat and himself from getting hit somewhere where you don't want to get hit.

Two of the coaches overheard the conversation and immediately started to explain this to the other kids on the bench.

A 20 second discussion that hopefully helped the kids learn to protect themselves.

At the end of the game, the little guy, his mom and one of the coaches came over and thanked me for further explaining the call and what he should have done differently.