The Last Bastion of Incivility
 

Over the years, baseball players have not been know at the most civil of citizens, but there are still things that they can get away with that some people cannot in everyday life.

After working for a basketball team in college, I went on to become a teacher and coach. One day when I returned to my alma matter to watch a basketball game and I was visiting with one of the radio announcers in the hallway. He asked if I was coaching basketball and I told him that I had become a baseball coach. His exact quote was, "Baseball is the better sport. You get to spit and stuff."

My guess it that this guy would not have liked playing in a game with one umpire I heard a story on last night. The PU took off his mask and said something to the batter. After the batter looked down at his coach, the coach came down to see what had been said. The PU said, "I told him to tell his teammates that if one more of them spit near my plate, I would throw them out of the game." The coach said he assumed he was joking and said, "Maybe they are just helping clean it off." At this point, the PU said, "I don't need any more of you lip tonight."

I know both the coach and the umpire and I was very surprised to hear about this. Is there anyone on this board who would have ever made a comment like that to a high school player and then to a coach?

I would never ever issue a team warning through an intermediary, no matter what the warning. That said, I can only imagine addressing spitting if it either hit me (or almost did) or was actually landing ON the plate (I have to clean that crap).

And unless there was a lot of preamble, I can't imagine the very first thing I say to a coach being, "I don't need anymore of your lip."

Likely bad habit, but I spit regular on ball field.

Can't imagine this happening.

"if one more of them spit near my plate, I would throw them out of the game"


The rejoinder I would like to make would be "OK by me - where is your plate? This one belongs to our league."

All of mine are in the cabinets.

I wouldn't say anything.

It's still disgusting though.

Rita

I used to as a player. But I try my dangnest not to as an umpire. I just think umpires should have the highest standards when it comes to appearance and decorum, and I've grown into believing that nobody wants to see an umpire out there chewing seeds, spitting, grabbing the crotch, and doing the various other things we see from players and coaches.

And please PLEASE don't get me started on blowing snot out of a nostril... :(

If I have something like drainage or sniffles, I try to carry a hankerchief. However the "farmer's hankie" is the last resort. I just try to move away from players or coaches with my back turned to them.

BTW, I don't mimd sunflowers seeds, but show some class, and stop with the spitting, especially with dip/tobacco in your mouth. I don't come over and piss in you dugout.

I thought spitting was the whole reason for sunflower seeds! How do you get rid of the shells? :)

There's a difference between turning your immediate vicinity into a mud puddle, and spitting sunflower shells onto the ground. Most people don't let loose with a glob of slobber when they get rid of sunflower shells.

You can spit the hulls. I don't care, but I don't want somebody spitting saliva where I have to smell it, or tiptoe around it. I used to dip Skoal when I lived in Miami just to piss the idiot Cubans off because they always made rude comments about my Southern accent.