Adult League in Turmoil

[CO ump]

The Canadian dollar is strong but not that strong. $40 for a nine inning game!! That's ridiculous.
Last year we got $75 around here and that's probably 5 or 10 too low.

I agree with all the above posters as well, change the culture of the league quickly with fast and fair ejections, suspensions and bannings. Pay a fair game fee and find a way to speed up the games and you'll prosper with better players, better competition and plenty of umpires.

[socalblue1]

We had an issue with a regional (Non-MSBL) men's league a while back. Went from fairly mellow (At least as much as large group of over age adolescents will ever be) to a real PITA.

The four umpire associations got together and began sharing all ejection/incident information, then wrote a very strongly worded letter to the league and each manager outlining the problems and advising that a zero tolerance policy would immediately be put into effect.

Short story - no changes. So we took the path of "you want you get". Each ejection report was e-mailed out every day to the assignors. They added the next scheduled game information and forwarded it out to the group. If the player showed up to play he (Duh) and the manager were both ejected, game forfeited and the crew left.

Two weeks later the trouble makers were forced out by peer pressure and the league has been for the most part no problem. The BOD went further the next year - 2 game suspension 1st ejection, 5 for second & balance of season for 3rd.

[BretMan]

I played in our local MSBL for about eight years and can't recall any real troublemakers or problems. The expectations for conduct were laid out up front and known to all participants.

It also helped that the umpires were generally well-trained, experienced and had great game management skills.

Now that I'm not playing in the league, I umpire in it from time-to-time and haven't had any problems.

Due to time constraints and scheduling, I'm now playing in a men's fastpitch softball league. The league is pretty mellow, but there is one team with a couple of noted hotheads.

Last year that team was involved in a bench clearing incident, the first thing like that I've ever seen in that league. It got pretty ugly.

The following week, the league commissioner got all teams together before the games and read them the riot act. Those involved in the bench-clearing incident received two week suspensions.

Haven't seen another problem since.

[umpduck11]

A few seasons ago, a pitcher in the local MSBL league was ejected for histrionics on the mound over balls and strikes. He proceeded to get in the face of the umpire, and in the process, made contact with the umpire. The BOD expelled him from the league immediately. There have been very few ejections since.