Fake Tag = Ejection

[David B]

Originally Posted by blueump

My real "job" is teaching. Today I ran into the baseball coach from the school district where I teach. Naturally the conversation turned to baseball and he commented that his team will be short handed at a tournament tomorrow because of the ejection of his best hitter/shortstop.

Apparently during the first game of their double header last night the player initiated a fake tag at second base. The field umpire immediately ejected him, which disqualifies him from all the remaining games of that day and the next scheduled day of play (which is a tournament on Saturday). The coach admitted that he knew that a fake tag was not legal in Fed ball but never passed this information on to his players. The player was shocked and confused to why he was ejected, and the coach just accepted the ruling and sent the kid packing. To clarify, this was the FIRST fake tag this kid had attempted all season.

Now to the guts of this posting...this kid had to miss the remainder of the first game and the second game last night, plus the entire day of the tournament tomorrow - because the umpire didn't know/follow the book? What should have happened was a plain old obstruction call and a warning. No "ejection" was warranted unless it happened again!

If you were me, would you tell the coach? Email the AD? Contact the state? I don't know this kid from Adam, so I have no vested interest in it at all. I also have no clue who the umpire was so contacting the local association (if he even belongs to it) is probably going to do no good. I'd just hate to see any player have to sit out 3+ games because an umpire didn't know the rules!

Poor officiating. He probably needs to read Carl's book on how to ruin a good baseball game ...

There are rules, obstruction and safety etc., but sometimes you just have to be an umpire also. Especially if you know the state has such strict rules regarding ejections.

Thanks
David

[yawetag]

Originally Posted by David B

There are rules, obstruction and safety etc., but sometimes you just have to be an umpire also. Especially if you know the state has such strict rules regarding ejections.

While I agree that in some cases an ejectionable offense can be disregarded, I will never use the state's suspension rules as a basis on whether I'm doing it or not.

[David B]

Originally Posted by yawetag

While I agree that in some cases an ejectionable offense can be disregarded, I will never use the state's suspension rules as a basis on whether I'm doing it or not.

But this was should not something a player should be ejected over.

If I know that a state has a three game suspension following an ejection, then I'm going to as a good official make certain that the player earned the ejection.

I'm not going to eject over something that is frivolous or suspect in the rules.

Malicious contact, or other offenses, they will get an ejection every time. I think a read a story last week where a player was ejected over a necklace.

Then he gets suspended three games? That should not happen.

Now for fighting and other offenses, that's a whole different story.

Thanks
David