Banter

[mcrowder]

Originally Posted by tcblue13

This made me wonder

How much banter or "friendly conversation" is appropriate before or during the game.
Is it okay to tell a catcher that she is not framing the pitch well enough to get a strike called on the outside??

Uh, no. It's not even ok to THINK that. Framing a pitch should never be encouraged by an umpire - often the framing is done to show up an umpire, or to show to the world that PU blew this strike call. You should never need the catcher to frame ANYTHING for you to be able to call it correctly.

Is it okay to tell a fielder that she had a play until she dropped a ball?

Can't see why you would want to say this.

Is it okay to joke with the the catcher to "take care of you" if you are the plate man?

Is it okay to ask a player how their season is going assuming you have met them in a previous game?

Is it okay to chew the fat with the first base coach as the defense warms up?

Sure - no problem at all with any of these. Don't get TOO friendly, but a little light banter is fine. Don't make the mistake of being friendly with only one team (I've seen this happen) though - it can be interpreted wrong by the other side.