before we start (an equal opportunity post...)

[Tim C]

" . . . i know the PU well. VP of my local association."

OK, so here comes Mr. Arrogant:

I would walk into the the PU and say: "Hey Mark, how long have we known each other?

Mark: "Mmmm, 10 Years?"

Mr. A: "OK, let me get this straight you have just told this coach it was OK for him to be outside the dugout AFTER I told him he couldn't be out, right?

Mark: "Yep!"

Mr. A: "So not only are you going to over rule me and set aside a rule you have decided that our friendship can 'just end' right now and right here, right"?

Mark: "Well I told him it was OK . . . "

Mr. A: "OK, you have a choice right now: 1) tell him to get into the dugout or 2) I will not only leave this game right now and go home and leave you and your partner to do the game AND I will never work with you again or speak to you again. YOU MAKE THE CALL.

Perhaps this will be easy for him maybe he would rather NOT work with me again.

I am with BigUmp . . . my ball and I am going home.

Regards,

[bluezebra]

Originally Posted by bobbybanaduck

posted this on another site, but thought i'd throw it up here for those that don't do both...

the following took place at a legion state tourney game.

game one of three game set of first round in playoffs. 3 man crew. i ask to work 1B cuz i have an indy ball plate job the next night. assignor says no prob as he would prefer i be out on the bags to kinda direct traffic due to the lack of three man experience of the guys i am working with. i know the PU well. VP of my local association. the guy working 3B is fairly fairly young, mid 20's i'd say. i've heard of him, but never met him.

so we head out to the field for the plate meeting, and everything is kosher. PU goes over his stuff, then asks if i have anything to add. i say, "yep. keep everyone and everything inside the dugouts, please. those guys sitting on the buckets gotta move back so their feet are inside." (the dugouts at this field sit at ground level. they are about 30 feet long, with about a 10 foot wide opening in the front for player access.) both managers say no problem and we break the meeting.

i head down the 1B line and out to short right. when i head to my starting position for the beginning of the game i notice that all three adult coaches on my side of the field are outside the dugout. i wait to see if they are headed inside, but they aren't. the PU points down to me to see if i'm ready (which i HATE, but that's another story for another day) and i hold my hand up to him shaking my head. he steps out and looks quizzically at me. i point to the coaches outside the dugout. he looks over and tells them they need to be inside. skipper apparently doesn't hear him, cuz he says, "what?" and starts walking out toward me. he asks, "can i have time?" (game hasn't even started yet... )

he walks out to me and says they have been outside all year and nobody has said anything. i inform him that i'm not overly interested in the rest of the year, and for this game everyone is going to be inside the dugout. he continues to argue with me about it and says that the district supervisor has been at most of their games this year and has made the players stay inside, but has never said anything about the coaches. my response to that was that i had spoken with him about the need to keep everyone inside, and he agreed with me. (i DID actually talk to him, though it was at the high school state tourney where the same guy was the TD.) he asks me the guys name cuz he thinks i'm making crap up or something, and i told him. he's agitated, but he now retreats. however, instead of going back to his dugout, he goes back to talk to the PU for a minute. i head back over to my starting position.

their meeting breaks up and he heads back over to the dugout. he sends his two coaches inside, but he stays out. PU points down to me again, and i again hold my hand up and shake my head. PU looks over at the dugout, then motions for me to come talk to him. i walk down and he says, "i told him that one guy could stay outside."

what do you do?

i'll tell you what i did later.

This isn't a pre-teen chat room. Use capitals where necessary. It's difficult to read with all lower case letters. If you can capitalize PU and VP, you can type properly in the rest of your post.

Thank you,

Bob

[bobbybanaduck]

nO. iF yoU doN't lIke It, don'T Read iT.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by bluezebra

This isn't a pre-teen chat room. Use capitals where necessary. It's difficult to read with all lower case letters. If you can capitalize PU and VP, you can type properly in the rest of your post.

Thank you,

Bob

Sorry Bobby and Brian Curtain....I must agree. It's a forum, not a chat room or a text message. Proper punctuation is the norm.

[bobbybanaduck]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

Sorry Bobby and Brian Curtain....I must agree. It's a forum, not a chat room or a text message. Proper punctuation is the norm.

my punctuation is proper. it's my capiTaliZation he has issue with. when the day comes where everyone on here spell checks their posts and uses proper grammar, i will gladly capitalize the needed letters. until then, either deal with it or use the iggy button if you are so inclined. no skin off my back. have a nice day.

[SanDiegoSteve]

I guess I should have specified capitalization. Proper capitilazation is the norm. But, you dowhatchalike, as Digital Underground used to say. Just remember how difficult it is to read long paragraphs when the sentences don't begin with capitals.

[JJ]

Hmmm...
I would tell my partner that at the home plate conference we said "Everyone and everything inside", and the coaches "had no problems with that". Then YOU changed things after the fact. Well, big boy, you're the UIC, but be aware that Legion ball plays OBR with only a few exceptions, and NONE of those exceptions are allowing people out of the dugouts who shouldn't BE out of the dugouts. So now you're not only changing what BOTH COACHES agreed to at home plate, you're also making up a rule that you can't back up using the rules we're playing by. Unfortunately, that sets a precedent for not only the other team, but for the rest of the games being played in this tournament. Are you sure you want to do this? Oh, I will also be filing a formal report with the appropriate commissioner. Your call.

JJ

[Rita C]

Having had similar situations in the past, my answer is simple.

The coach will be following my instructions since they were issued first. I will do my best to deliver this message in a way that salvages any precious male egos that may be offended.

Somebody will have been trying to show me up. It doesn't matter who. But I will stand my ground. It's been my experience that the whole game goes a whole lot better if I do.

Rita

[DG]

If they have been told to stay in the dugout at plate meeting I don't wait for my partner to point at me, if they are out of dugout. They get in the dugout without a conversation with partner. Conversation with manager will be short.

[PeteBooth]

Ok Bobby "let's have it"

What did you do

Thanks

Pete Booth

[bobbybanaduck]

allllrighty then. what i did isn't overly exciting, i just wanted to have people comment on and discuss the situation as they would have handled it, rather than on how i handled it. that being said, after he told me what he had said to the coach i simply turned and walked back to my starting position. there was nothing else to be said, in my opinion, as he had just cut my legs out from under me. doing anything else at this point would have resulted in an argument between me and my partner right there on the field, and that is not something that i am interested in.

after the game when we were in the parking lot...

i waited to see if he would bring it up instead of just starting in on him, as i likely would have bitten his head off and i was trying to remain calm. he did finally bring it up. after we discussed it a bit he said that it kinda caught him off guard when the guy came to him and he didn't want to get caught in the middle of the battle, so he just compromised. i told him that that was unacceptable by me because he had heard what i said both at the plate meeting and in my discussion with the coach. we continued to discuss it and decided that what it came down to was another example of the lack of proper training in our area. different guys enforce different things. nothing is universal. as i said in the OP, this guy is my association's VP. we brainstormed ideas on how to effectively deal with the situation so the whole group can benefit from it.

[Adam]

My God! That sounds.......


reasonable.

[tiger49]

Bobby,

Just wondering if the thought of addressing him as he walked to your partner entered your mind? I probably would have addressed the situation when he turned and headed to my partner and said "Skip, no reason to be going to him he is just going to reinterate what you have already been told, and that is everyone is in the dugouts including coaches, as was discussed at the plate meeting!"

Now if he heads to my partner and gets a different answer then there are bigger problem's...At least addressing it like this gives your partner a better heads up as to what is coming his way.

I am also wondering what was discussed in the pregame concerning this?

[bobbybanaduck]

i see where you're coming from, but, i had walked down to about the 45' line to have this discussion. when we finished, i turned and walked back to my starting position thinking that all was well and good. when i got there i turned around and faced the plate and that is when i noticed the conversation going on. i could have walked backwards to my position, monitoring him like a hawk...but, like i said, i thought all was well and good. had i known, or had any inkling, that he was headed to the PU to make an appeal, you bet your behind i would have been on his heels.

there was nothing discussed in the pregame about this. it came up at the plate meeting because there were kids sitting on buckets in front of the dugout. our pregame conversation was mostly about 3 man mechanics and coverages as i was the only one on the crew with any experience.

[Tim C]

oyaisee's signiture:

"It's for the kids"

Let's take a break while I vomit.

Regards,