You're that guy too then. You're the guy that when dressed in a baseball/softball umpire outfit, insists on approaching a pitcher after they've warmed up and saying, "See that guy on 1st and that guy on 3rd? You have runners on first an third. There's one out. The temperature is about 82 degrees and the wind is about 8 mph out of the south-southwest."

Don't Be That Guy.

No, not a rule. Definitely. But what your annoying partner did and what you said you do are only different by degrees. Both are still wrong.

Do you tell them how many team fouls they have?

Nope. It is an accepted practice here, and every official I have worked with will do this in a close game. I really don't see the big deal.

They keep track on their bench. There is no reason to tell them before they get to zero.

What is the harm in it?

If you tell them they have one left, but the scorekeeper screwed up and they are really out of timeouts, they call their one timeout they think they have and now you get to issue a technical. Guess who gets blamed?

We aren't there to keep the book for them.

Ii also look at the score keepers on the bench and confirm, just to make sure.

I'm in the "don't say anything" crowd too... but the concern you're raising is not really valid. It IS our job to tell them when they are out. I'd have a hard time T'ing up a coach for calling a timeout when he didn't have any, if I had not done my job and told him he did not have any.

It's called being Overly Officious. Or injecting yourself into a situation where you are not needed.

There is no reason to be over at a team's bench to give them information they didn't ask for.

Coaches where I work don't want officials up in their faces for no reason.

Fair enough.. I just talked to 10 coaches and everyone of them like it. They all said it is always good to communicate, especially in late game situations.

Communication has absolutely nothing to do with telling coaches how many time-outs they have.

I have no idea what level you officiate most of your games, but I know, for me, the higher the level, the less coaches want officials bothering them.

Must be a regional thing.

The odds of this happening are extremely slim, but there's really no reason not to avoid the problem by simply waiting til he's out before saying anything.

That said, if that's what's expected....

I have a hard time believing there is any assignor or supervisor who tells his officials it's expected that they check the time-outs and inform the coaches.

High School...3 man and 2 man. 13 years. They all said they like knowing at the end of the game. We don't have assignors.

I didn't say that we shouldn't tell them when they're out. I fully agree that we should inform them when they are out of timeouts.

You still give the T even if you forgot to inform him that he is out of timeouts. You not informing him doesn't allow him to evade the penalty.

You talked to 10 coaches in that time frame?

See above. I am all for letting them know when they're out of timeouts. I never said otherwise.