Chatty Catcher

[FVB_Ryan]

Had this situation today, no one complained, but am curious about it. I actually thought it was quite humorous. I worked alone today, and took the usual one man position behind the plate. Home team catcher was very talkative, to the other batters (home team ended up losing, so it didnt matter). A couple batters conversed with the catcher, but most ignored him (verbally, though I have no idea whether or not his talking distracted them). Even if the batters ignored him, he continued to talk to them. Never anything offensive such as "nice swing, i needed the breeze" or anything....usually stuff like "number 2...any particular reason you chose number 2?" or "that was a good pitch, wasnt it," "let's see, 2-2 count, how bout a change up?," "you wanna a fastball or a curveball here one five?" Stuff like that. I found it rather humorous because like i said, he continued to talk even when not getting responses from the batters. He did this all seven innings, and did not say anything offensive or negative on a single occasion. I thought it was possible that he was doing it to mentally distract the batters, though I wasnt sure of it. Also, he never spoke as the pitcher was pitching...he stopped before the delivery each time, so i know that his talking wasnt DIRECTLY distracting the batters.
Any rule that says this isnt allowed? I didnt think so, thats why i didnt do anything about it. Any insight would be good.

Muchas Gracias.

[jicecone]

Fed rules 3 sect 3 talks about "intimidating tactics" and OBR talks about (4.06) "language which will in any manner refer to or reflect upon opposing players", but I agree there probably is not a hard fast rule about the catcher talking to the batter.

I will say though, you should be careful to what extent you let this go because it can easily be taken the wrong way and things can get ugly real fast. I once explained very politely to a catcher that if his talking was going to cause problems, it would not be allowed. Just like bench jockeying. You may have to apply some preventive umpiring.

[brandda]

As long as it's not profane or insulting or clearly intended to get a rise out of the batter, I will usually give a catcher a pretty long leash on this kind of thing. If I feel like he crosses the line, or if there is an unusual amount of tension in the game, I will just say, "OK catch, that's enough talk. Let's play ball" and that's the end of it.

[kylejt]

There one kid in our league who's a riot when he dons the gear. He'll talk to batters, me, the plate, his mitt, it doesn't matter. Sometimes he'll sing. Sometimes I'd stop his talking to the batter for fear of distaction. But he never argued calls with me, just the opposite. We usually shared a laugh at his manager on balls that were "stikes in the dugout". I think I'll draft this kid on my PONY team. We need the comic relief.

Kyle

[Boone]

I love those kind of catchers. Keeps the game movin along!