Handling Coaches

[Kevin Finnerty]

There was a coach who said one of the unspeakable things to me, but I didn't run him because it was an LA City Section game, and if you toss a coach, the game's over. I umpire high school so that kids can have games. I'm not going to let some semi-professional blowhard coach make everyone go home because he can't control his idiocy in a public setting.

So I make him sit in the dugout like a child and stew until the game reaches its natural conclusion, giving every youngster on his team the chance to look like a bigger man than Mr. Coach. Once you put a guy through that, they are never a problem when you see them again. It works out better than tossing them.