A First Time for Everything

[yawetag]

Originally Posted by jicecone

The op said "Neither me from behind the dirt circle nor my partner who had moved between the mound and home saw any other punches thrown or wrestling matches ensue, so we only had the two protagonists to dump"

I will admit that the OP didn't state, but implied, that the benches cleared.

Originally Posted by jicecone

The rules are there to cover most if not all scenarios of the game and establish a guideline and a level of fair play. The fact that discretion and judgement of the official is a big part of the rules, is and will alway be the leeway necessary to bring about fair play and game control. For this case I believe the officials did a good job.

I agree that the rules allow leeway in a lot of areas. It's even up to you to determine MC for ejection. However, leaving the bench during a fight is not one of them. The rules prescribe all players that leave their fielding position or the bench area are to be ejected. There is no leeway.

Do I think the umpires handled the situation well? Sure. They calmed the game down after the fact. However, their application of the rules was incorrect.