Okay, I know that the book always says that an umpires jurisdiction ends when both umpires leave the field of play. But last night I witnessed something that really has me troubled.

The visiting team at the game I was calling last night lost both the JV and the V matches. The V game was a 1 run affair, very well played. The JV was a complete rout. The home team won by something like 12 runs. Anyway, as I was out in the parking lot changing into my civies, fielding phone messages..etc., I heard the girls from the visiting team(i.e. losing team) taunting the home team girls from the bus. They were calling them by name, and using expressions that in some instances would make a sailor blush. To add to this, all three of the visiting team's coaches were on the bus, and apparently doing nothing about it. This continued to happen for several minutes, as the home team girls passed going to their cars...etc. Not one of the home team's members even so much as retorted once, yet I know that they all heard them.

Now, this is obviously a display of bad sportsmanship, no doubt. But my question is, do you folks feel that this is something that I should report to my association or to the state?

Skahtboi,
In Michigan, we have the channel open of writing, to the state association, a letter of concern, describing what we saw as clearly as we heard and saw, without euphemism.
Snail-mail and e-mail are available.
mick
<HR>
Poor sportamanship ... make it go away.

JMO.

In this siutation, you are a citizen, since your role as sports official has ended.

Treat it as you would if you were loading up your DDs gear in the trunk of your car as this was going on, but do take advantage of your greater "connections" than the ordinary citizen.

If you have an "incident report" form, you could use that to document the actions of the visiting team, and send it to the same state HS league offices where you would report an ejection (making sure it was clear this happened after the contest).

I'd report it in writing to the principals of the two schools and in writing to the two head coaches (even though the visitor's coach already is aware it was happening).

The report coming from you, even though you had no official standing at the time, would carry more weight than just an angry parent, since obviously you are impartial and not trying to "get back" at anyone.

As I said, JMO.

Dakota,
Doesn't it really ever end? ;)
mick

Tom:

A lot of what you said is what I have been thinking. I talked to a couple of sports officiating friends last night, one agreed with you and the other didn't. So, I thought I would post here and see what you folks thought!

Scott, I'm a lot like Tom. It should be reported. I would go to the 2 AD's and TASO. It can all be done on the internet. You gotta think, if it was as bad as it sounds, the AD's should already be aware of a problem. At least the one from the visiting team should be aware of what happened. It sounds like the home team showed a lot of class and dignity, which cannot be said for the visiting team.

This was over in the Dallas area right? Of course, our " country gals" over in Ft Worth would never behave like that. Yeah, right.

I've never had it like that outside the fence, after the game. But we did have a ugly situation inside the fence during the game. Lot of trash talking, coupla elbows, etc. After talking to both coaches, 2 ejections and another talking with the coaches, it settled down. This involved one of the Ft Worth School District teams. Of course, we had to fill out the report. The AD was very cooperative and was very aware of the situation with his players. It was handled, one of the players was kicked off for the year and the other for 4 games, I think. But the AD called us, got our version and opinion of what happened and worked with us very well.

So, I guess all this adds up to let 'em know.

We have a similar behavioral issue RE: Post game conduct and umpires role. (Rec council level, not school ball)It seems that some of our ladies like to spit in their hand, then line up for post game hand shakes. Coaches complain, players complain, parents whine, then they want the ump's to get involved. Then they want to write supplimental league rules to cover this junk.
So now I think they want us to hang around during the hand shake to make sure we have no "spit shakes". If it happens we report the player involved after inspecting the hand. What crap they throw at us. They are even considering pre-game hand shaking. Ever hear of such junk ??

Sorry, but your association needs to take a stand on this. You are not kindergarten cops. I know of no officiating group which does not instruct their officials to leave the playing area expeditiously. You are being set-up.

You, as the umpire, are being placed in a precarious, no-win situation to handle something the coaches should be addressing. You also have a health issue with the possible exchange of body fluids.

If the league has a problem, tell the board members to assign a coordinator to handle their dirty work.

It sure doesn't end in LL. I find myself "correcting situations" all the time when I'm at the fields (either before or after my games) - mostly moving warm-ups away from spectator areas. There's nothing worse than taking a baseball in the back of the head because kids were being kids and foolign around. I don't have a problem with them fooling around - I have a problem with the coaches that don't move them away from populated areas.

My most notable "correction" was last year - the league added bullpens to the back of the dugouts on the boys' field. Coming up to the area after the softball game that I had just completed, I look in the bullpen - bike on the ground, not 1, not2, not 3, but 4 batters loosening up - taking practice swings. I go up to the fence and send the kids back to the dugout (LL Majors and below - no on-deck batters). The coach gets wind of this and tries to give me a ration of crap - all of which gets fed right back to him, including the citiation of the rule and who will be held liable if someone gets hurt.

I made sure that the league president knew about the incident as well as a few other key people. To make a long story short (well maybe not so short - but not as long as I could make it :D ) - I'm still umping for the league. He's not coaching this year.

Mick and Tom are right on with this, as usual, along with one of your colleagues. The other is obviously overdoing "don't look for trouble" and might not testify if he witnessed a murder. Just as correctly, you did not intervene at the time, as that might just inflame the situation. Please be sure to praise the behaving team in a way that they hear about it.

No way, no how for a few reasons, mostly what IM said.