Fake Tag = Ejection
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! :mad: |
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You would hope that when the state receives the ejection report they would ask questions and if it was as described advise the AD that the player can play. But here, you have 48 hours to file a report, most do it immediately, but that might not happen. And here, that particular ejection would be considered a restriction to the bench for that game only. Ejections that have more serious penalties are for more serious things, a list of 7. Fighting for example, is one of the 7.
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Update - I did contact the AD who forwarded my email to the head of baseball in the state to see if it would change anything. He got almost an instant call back and was told that the MHSAA doesn't want to get into "reviewing ejections of players" and that since the kid was ejected, he must serve the entire suspension.
I'm willing to bet that this kid never tries a fake tag again! |
I wonder why a fake tag wouldn't get you run in a FED game. It certainly might in an OBR based game, as it is considered UC.
Odd. |
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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 |
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And then take appropriate action. How sad. |
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So is there an official rule on the steps to take?
If it says warn then eject and warn was skipped then protest the rule misapplication. |
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I wonder what the point is of sending in ejection reports if they are not going to be reviewed.
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