Tossing a parent before the game?

[Lonewolf986]

Freakishly enough, I read this post a day ago, and then last night IT HAPPENED! I had this 19yr old kid say "If you have something to say to me and my dad, lets say it in the parking lot!"

I personally am a small guy, but I got a big bite, so my partner and I told him: "IF you want to, its a 500 dollar fine, here is my jaw!"

(it really IS 500.00 a fine to threaten an umpire!)

Needless to say, they were stunned at what I said...and didn't pursue anymore. Though I had an 33" Black Magic in my back seat, and I was fully prepared.

1) I should have just walked off the field, but this team gives EVERYONE trouble, and has been warned several times

But, in regards to the situation in general, I wouldn't have said anything without my partner beside me. So unity is KEY!

2) The kid should be TOLD of what to do, but nothing should happen. I've seen a couple instances of the sort, and the best thing to do, is to stand your ground, and show that you are the authority figure WITHIN reason. Egging the parent on is NOT a good idea.

So essentially, suspend the parent, "talk" to the kid. However, depending on how STRONG his reaction to the parent was, you may have a loose cannon that is too hard to tame!

[ace]

I ejected a coach one after the last out of the entire ball game. League commishoner told him he could stay in the tournament and could come back the next game (supposed to be one game suspension) The coach kept saying stuff about a play in the 3rd inning (when he should have been tossed) I warned him about his comments. PU warned him about his actions. He would mumble stuff and since i had no proof we couldnt do anything. He gave me a stare down at one time. While I had sunglasses on he probably thought i was looking where my glasses were pointed. I probably could have told him soemthing but i thought better of it. After the game me and the PU were walking to the fence to get our water bottles and pick up our bags from the dugout he said horrible job guys just horrible, thansk! I said no problem coach but your outta here! he got in my face. I was surpsingly calm for being a hot head at times. Kept telling him he needed to leave. Leauge wouldnt get behind me that day. Infact they pulled me from my next scheduled game (the same team.) I was felt like i got stiffed because I was 16.

Earlier in the year (basketball season) I had a coach tell me i didnt know how to call the game. This is after he'd been working me hard over putting 5 seconds back on the clock. I turned around and said they call me every week doing they? Ppl laughed he said yeah i dunno why cuz you suck. So i whacked him with a t. Felt bad about it and even apologized to him and the leauge before anyone really caught wind of it. I 'll admt parents are tough and its tough to not come back at some of the stuff tehy say. It really is.Its bad enough that we are young and feel like we have to gain extra respect. But to take abuse like that and not to be able to defend ourself is tough on the pride and tough on the mind. I've got a benefit of appearing older than I really am. I happen to know this coach from church so he knows how old I am. Of course I didnt realize he was a memebr of the church until I saw him sunday morning and told him hello shook his head and gave him a little wink. I'm glad my baseball season is over with. It was my frist and it was good with litttle to no problems. There were times were i was waiting for my game to start on another field and ppl had complaints about parents. I called the Commish he told me to get the PU to handle it or handle it myself so i'd have to the next field where t-ball game was going and umpire parents. LOL. MY UIC asked me to call a t-ball game with his daughter. He siad she'll umpire the players. I want you to fix the coaches and the paretns for these two teams who have a problem with parents. After 2 parents in 2 innings they got the point. I'm not afraid of adults I am really not. But yeah. I can understand the situation this umpire was in. I've had coaches on me at differnet times this year. Its tough to not come back to some of the stuff tehy say. It really is. But dont punish us because we're young. Ilike what most of these guys have been saying. Teach us from our mistakes. Most of the time we teach ourselves. But dont do what my league did and question my ethics, morals, and abilites because of an incident. Hell I called the league commishoners machine pitch games. He lost the first one and we had to play another one. I called both of them. Not once did anyone say I was favoring him because he was commishoner. But all of a sudden i toss a coach and you say he can come back and tell me I cant be impartial?

Sorry Im starting to rant more than I should.

JA

[ace]

I forgot to add, I've been asked to get behind the plate next year in our AAA and Majors leauges.

[David B]

Originally posted by ace
I forgot to add, I've been asked to get behind the plate next year in our AAA and Majors leauges.

Ace,

You're a young umpire, so always call with a veteran partner.

That's very very important. They should be able to mentor you and usually they have the respect of the coaches and players that you will have to earn with years of hard work.

Good luck

Thanks
David

[SilverSurfer]

The 16 year old umpire and his father did not complain one bit after our followup meeting. Actually, we decided to pull the umpire from 2 season ending games.

The parent on the other hand was a different story. I approached the parent with the head umpire and informed him of our decision. He had his little rant and rave session and we told him that he had 60 seconds to leave the playing area or we would call the police to have him escorted out. His wife came and escorted him out for us.

Thanks again.

[SilverSurfer]

I was the PU for a T-Ball championship game this past Saturday. They were two VERY competitive teams.

In the first inning I gave the Away team a TEAM warning after one of their players accidentally threw his bat into the backstop. Obviously this rule is in affect because it is a safety concern. Two batters later the same thing happened. I calmly walked onto the field, called the runner out at second and made all runners go back to there original bases. Not one peep out of the coaches. They knew the rules.

The Home team bats and the head coach tells the player to stand all the way back in the box and hit it to third base. Of course the player begins by placing his foot on the line. (Keep in mind that I borrowed the batters bat and redrew the box, because the chalk was dispersed when every single kid had to slide into home.) He pulls his right foot up and places it out of the box by a good 6-8 inches. I hated to do it but I called the kid out after he hit. The head coach comes at me from the outfield complaining that there's no way he could have been out of the box. (The HC is about 90 feet away! I guess he has terrific eyesight.) The HC's older son comes off of the spectator's bench, comes to the fence, and yells at me telling me that the only reason that I made that call was because of who I am. There's is no love loss between me and the HC and his son. At that point I concidered that a personal attack on me and my character. I told the gentleman, consider this your one warning and sit down. His only reponse was 'you are giving ME a warning?'

You would think a T-Ball game would be easy, but it's not. Why do we have parents like this in our leagues? I'm getting really tired of it and am almost ready to quit. I hate to do it because I know that 95% of the parents appreciate the 40+ hours a week that I volunteer to youth baseball. Do I just need to get thicker skin and live with these problem parents?

[kylejt]

Umpire + T-Ball + Championship = nothing but trouble.

JMHO, but T-ball ..............aw nobody's gonna listen.

And players aren't out for throwing a bat, they're warned and ejected. Plus, how is it physically possible for a five year old to step completely out of the box and hit a ball set up on a tee in the middle of the plate? Shaq maybe.

[Edited by kylejt on Jun 30th, 2003 at 03:59 PM]

[SilverSurfer]

Originally posted by kylejt
Umpire + T-Ball + Championship = nothing but trouble.

JMHO, but T-ball ..............aw nobody's gonna listen.

And players aren't out for throwing a bat, they're warned and ejected. Plus, how is it physically possible for a five year old to step completely out of the box and hit a ball set up on a tee in the middle of the plate? Shaq maybe.

[Edited by kylejt on Jun 30th, 2003 at 03:59 PM]

Sorry kylejt, but it's people like you that seem to cause the problems, ie. not knowing our league rules. Our league rules, yes OUR league rules, state that if a players throws a bat we give the team one warning. Throwing the bat can simply mean losing control of the bat after a swing. The bat hit the backstop....one warning was given.....the next time....it's an out. It's the same problem with the parents.......they just don't know the rules. (We post links to the rules on our website (.doc and .pdf)) The coaches are also provided with an official rulebook.

The batter's box is a 4 foot by 6 foot box on both sides of the plate. The box is 6 inches away from the plate. YES...a T-Ball player can certainly step out of the box when swinging the bat. If they start off by placing their foot on the edge of the box, all they have to do is go another 6 inches or so, then their foot is completely out of the box. By the way, out competitive T-Ball division is 7 year olds.