How should I have handled this

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Kevin Finnerty

But I'd be willing to bet that whatever most of us were at 17 or 18, we weren't the level of smart-a$$ed kid that those two are, and if we were ... oh, Hell, what Steve said. The game should be respected and those officiating it should be respectful and respectable, regardless of age and level of competition. There is not a fraction of an inch of room for smart a$$es like those two in the umpiring vocation. This business of treating these children like real umpires who demand respect and should be treated like any umpire is almost laughable. Pay your dues, and do your homework and then you can begin to show an umpire's veneer and be accorded the decorum and respect that an umpire should expect.

Yes, exactly. When I was a young stud, if I had EVER spoken to an adult in that fashion, that said adult would have cheerfully slapped me hard, then told my dad, who would have slapped me harder.

My VP in middle school called my dad to get permission to give me what they used to call "licks," which were very hard swats with a paddle that had holes drilled in it. My dad cheerfully told him to "lay it on him!" The "board of education" it was called back in those days.

Times have changed, and sadly not for the better.