Are you calling a Balk?

[Rich]

Originally Posted by MikeStrybel

With each post, you remind me and this board of a spoiled child who was caught behaving badly.

You profess endless umpiring knowledge but cannot fathom that drawing a line in the sand, per your suggestion, is a bad idea. Your advice is akin to stating, "One more word from you and you're done." That is called baiting. I know of no professional school that teaches such, nor any credible umpire who embraces that tact. Meanwhile, I suggest what every professional umpiring school currently does - umpire silence can never be misquoted. You seem to believe that I am alone in this belief. That arrogance is stupifying. You criticized another but cannot accept the same. Your post games must be amazingly frustrating for partners.

For what it's worth, the word is 'now' and not 'know'. If you intend to insult, don't make mistakes while doing so.

At some point, silence equals condoning the behavior. If a coach says, "That's two you missed," I'll probably ignore it. If that's interpreted as, "He mustn't have heard me, so I'll yell it louder," then it has to get addressed. Not addressing it at this point would not be the right solution.

I still haven't gotten a response, either - how is a quiet warning the same as drawing a line in the sand and baiting a coach? I'd never say, "one more word," but I have told coaches in arguments (at the college level), "you need to walk away now" and they did. If they don't, then they simply aren't getting the message and the ejection report writes itself.

It's been three years since my last college/HS ejection, but if I had one tomorrow I wouldn't interpret it as anything but another day at the office.