A First: A Head Coach's Letter of Apology

[lawump]

Ump25,

Nice story.

I will say that I have never received a written apology. However, once in MiLB, I had a manager appologize at the plate meeting for getting ejected the night before. At that plate meeting, he said many of the same things that the coach in your post wrote to you.

One difference, however, was that 3 innings into the ball game I had to run the manager again, after a play at first.

We also ran him the next night. 4 game series, and we ran him 3 times.

True story.

[Klokard]

Two years ago I had to toss a Pitcher for fielding a bunt on the first base line and purposely barreling over the BR and knocking him on his behind. Head coach actually thanked me saying that this kid needed an attitude adjustment. 2 weeks later I had the same team, this time I was on the bases. Uneventful game. After the game while PU and myself were changing in the parking lot, the kid and his parents come up to my truck, excuse themselves and proceed to offer up a well thought out apology. I shook his hand and wished him well.

[umpduck11]

In a recent varsity game contested between two ranked teams, a batter checked his swing, and my partner called a "ball". F2 asked my partner to check me, and I replied "no, he did not". Catcher steps out, looked down the line at me and said "Thank you, sir". I asked F3 if the catcher was being a smarta$$, and he said "No sir, he's just a really nice guy". Nice he was indeed.

[greymule]

I've never received a letter, but over the years I've had many players take some opportunity (he's approaching the batter's box before F1 gets the ball, he's an infielder and I'm BU, etc.) to apologize for incidents in previous games. I must say I have always appreciated those gestures.

In a reverse situation, long ago (in the wood bat era), I lost a one-hitter 1-0 and over the course of the game had some disagreements with the PU. The next time we had him, he told me before the game, "I missed two big pitches on you last Sunday." I just laughed and responded something like, "Don't worry about it. Part of the game." He asked if we were still friends, and of course I said yes.

[Publius]

I've had a few verbals offered up over the years, too. I "accept" them, but I don't "appreciate" them for a couple of reasons.

First, given the same situation again, 95% of the perps will react the same way again. Second, I don't take it personally anyway. Guys get frustrated during the heat of competition and do things that are mostly out-of-character for them. They can't stay if they do those things, but outside of a few that can be counted on one hand who have demonstrated otherwise, I don't take it as a measure of their character.

The apologies are meaningless to me; I don't think more of players who make them or less of players who don't.

[TussAgee11]

I had to run a kid several years back (he was about 15). He basically made a threatening motion with the bat, like he was going to swing it into me.

Parents dragged him by both arms to me in the parkinglot, and forced an apology out of him.

They then told him to get to their car where they not only thanked me but informed me that the kid had been having some "emotional issues" over the past couple months and they were trying hard to help him overcome them.

That was sort of weird, but sorta put the whole thing into perspective too.