Years ago I was the bench coach and scorekeeper for a guy who was a terrific coach as far as knowing and teaching the game and developing a winning team. He was superb at positioning our defense. However, he was the WORST coach most of our local umps ever had to deal with – loud, confrontational, even abusive. I know he enjoyed being a jerk. He embarrassed the rest of us.
He would regularly put our catchers (his daughter was one of them) in a tough spot. “Where was that?” Sometimes he wanted the real answer, but he had a sign – smacking is fist into his palm – that meant they were supposed to say, “Right in there.” Then he would go into his towel-slinging act. (He didn’t always finish the game with us.) The punch line … he was a former NCAA baseball umpire.
