Coach bringing a rule book on the field....

[David Emerling]

Originally Posted by dsimp8

First of all,you don't bring a rule book and/or by-laws onto my field. The league that we call in (Rec league-adult and youth)states in the by-laws that a coach can bring the by-laws and rule book on the field. This was not in the by-laws that our assoc. looked over for approval. The league director said that we shouldn't have a problem with a coach bringing the rules on the field if we are doing our job correctly. The problem I have with it is you are trying to show me up.
We ,as an assoc have made the decision to ignore that rule and IF a coach comes on the field with either one of these....he/she is gone.

What would you do if A)this "rule" was slipped in at the last moment w/o your assoc knowing it and B)if a coach brings the rule book and/or by-laws on the field?

The topic of coaches bringing rulebooks onto the field has come up many times on internet forums and discussions. There is an obvious consensus that coaches should not be permitted to do this.

I guess I'm one of the few umpires that could care less whether the coach brings the rulebook out on the field. I am not going to allow him to filibuster the game and start reading from it - so it's completely academic.

Every time I've had a coach bring the rulebook out and try to make a point it is much easier to explain to him why he's wrong. He usually gets embarrassed and that's the last time you'll see that rulebook.

Umpires who make a big deal out of this issue appear to be scared of the rulebook. I've known umpires who have actually ejected coaches for nothing more than SIMPLY bringing the rulebook out. That's ridiculous!

This happened to me several years ago in a 16U ASA tournament game:

The games were being timed. The home team was at bat and losing as the final minutes were winding down. The scoreboard actually had a timer on it so there was going to be no doubt about when time expired. The tournament rules stated that if ANY time remained on the clock at the end of an inning, another inning had to played. The team at-bat was down by 2 runs. There were two outs and no runners on base. We were now down to under 1 minute and only seconds were being displayed. The defense had already done an incredible amount of stalling and now the pitcher was deliberately throwing balls. The batter finally walked across the plate, to the other batter's box, as the pitcher was beginning to pitch. I immediately called her out.

We had to play another inning.

Between innings, the coach of the team that was up by two runs was irrate. He was convinced that the batter should not have been called out for that action. He brought the rulebook with him and he stated something to the effect, "I'm looking in the section under THE BATTER IS OUT WHEN ... and I don't see anything about the batter being out for doing that. I don't see it anywhere! There is no such rule. She's not out. She should still be batting with the time expired."

All I said, "I'm glad you have the rulebook with you, coach. You should go in the dugout and read where it discusses 'batting position' in section 7."

I didn't hear another peep out of him. I never even made eye contact with the rulebook as he approached me.

I say, never let them see you sweat. Overreacting to the rulebook, or making a point that the rulebook must disappear, makes it look like you're sweating, in my opinion.

David Emerling
Memphis, TN