Umpire: "No More." Coach: "OK.....chirp chirp" - Toss or ignore?

[teebob21]

Had a situation this weekend that is still bugging me. I don't think I handled it as well as I could have. Looking for advice...Juco vs good club team fall ball. Club team at bat. Batter puts her leg into an inside pitch and gets hit. I call the dead ball, and announce that the batter is staying here: it's a ball.

Club coach comes out, and does quite a song and dance about how the batter can do whatever she wants in the box (wrong). After I explain the college rule, he even demonstrates for everyone how "that's how they teach 'em to hit" (no, batters do not point their knee towards the catcher to swing). If it had been a Juco coach during the season, I probably would have and should have tossed him right there. My mistake, #1, I suppose.

I repeat to him that a batter cannot obviously attempt or allow themselves to be HBP. Walking away, he says something like I'm missing a page from my rulebook, and on top of it all, he finishes the sentence with "kid", which perks my ears back up. For those that don't know me, I am 32 with a bad case of permanent babyface. That said, you can see how long I have been on the field in my forum sig, and it has been a LONG time since anyone called me "kid". I ignore it; my mistake #2, in hindsight.

I've told him "Enough." I've walked in the other direction. I'm feeling like the moment has passed and the situation has been de-escalated. I've got my mask back on when he starts in again from the coach's box. I called time, pulled the mask off and said something like "Coach, I don't want to toss you from a scrimmage. Drop it: no more. Just drop it."

Coach says "OK, OK......drop it just like that call you made." ... or something like that loud enough for everyone to hear.

GROAN: What now? He's 50+ feet away. I feel like conflict management is the worst part of my game right now, and my recent posts probably prove that. Usually I talk too much and give way too much rope, but at the same time I don't want to be too quick on the trigger. That said, I said "no more" (which I know is a bad position to put myself in), and there was more.

Toss him now, or go back to ignoring him and move on? I know he should already be gone, but at this point, I've already missed the moment. Is the extra snide comment enough for the heave-ho?