Chirping about pitches
 

This is a take-off on the other thread about how much do you take from coaches:

Adult ASA SP & 16"

Since balls and strikes, and illegal pitches are judgement calls, how much questioning do you take about it?

I had one team the other night that seemed to be questioning every pitch, especially the last 2 innings after they were behind by 5 runs. Maybe they were just trying to get in my head hoping to get some calls.

I know in that dirty word 'baseball' that arguing about balls and strikes is taboo. How do you feel about it in softball?

Do you consider arguing about legal & illegal pitches the same way?

it's also illegal in ASA code. If a coach asks where a borderline pitch was (outside, low, etc). But if they start chirping about it, I remind them not to argue balls and strikes. Next comment gets them a free pass to the parking lot.

I've had this happen on occasion but for the most part, both teams realize that my strike zone is consistant for both teams and they quiet down but the other night I was this close to tossing a guy that kept saying the pitches were too high and I needed to call those "illegal". He was chirping from the dugout so I went and asked him if he had a tape measure with him, he said no and I told him we would be going by my 12', not yours.:eek: That sat him down and shut him up. My luck, he'll come to the next game with a tape and try and measure pitches. The thing is, most people don't know how high 12' really is. They're not used to seeing pitches that high and when they do, they think they're too high. We've used that 6 and 12' string jig to help us with our height judgements so I have a pretty good idea what 12' is. Not only that, I use a tape measure every day at my other job.

Ha! In my part of the world, the don't know how low 6' & 12' are :D

I worked an 18&U B tournament a couple of weeks ago. The tournament reinforced my dislike of bad ball. I had a coach ask on 3 balls in a row where the pitches were - and they were very obvious balls, not ones that were close to borderline. I answered him twice. The third answer was "not in the strike zone, coach." In between innings, this went a little further until I explained that I was not going to help him coach his team and that he needed to be speaking with his catcher in between innings. That ended it and there were no problems with him the rest of the weekend.

I don't argue balls/strikes - period. Sure the occasional, "blue where was that?" But I stress occasional! The answer that Steve gave about "Not in the strikezone" is always a good one. I usually have a good raport with the coaches in our area and this past year in fall ball a coach didn't like a call on the inside - he thought she caught the corner. He and his assistant both went "OOOOOOOOOOOO" - I walked over to them and said, "I hope you're looking at the fireworks when you do that!" They cracked up and now everytime they are at a field where I am working they give me an obligitory "OOOOOOOOOOOO".

I have more patience with softball coaches than I do in basketball but if they want to argue ball/strikes - they can do it from home because they aren't staying around the ball park.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!

About a month ago I had a parent that before the game he had setup a chair behind the backstop and was keeping and Unofficial book. For 3 innings any pitch on the corners he would chirp about. I finally went to the coach and asked him who he was and informed him that Poor sportsmanship would not be tolerated due to it wasn't a good example for the ladies.

Bottom of the 4th I call a belt high inside corner 3rd strike and call the young lady out. Of course (Found out after the game) this was his daughter and he goes nuts, his daughter turns around and looks at her father with this horrified look on her face. I call time walk to the back stop and inform him that he has been ejected due to unsportmanship conduct and that he needs to leave. Of course he get emotional and give's me the finger as he leaves. As he is walking away the parents in the stands on both sides are applauding his ejection.

Not sure what kind of game this was, but if it was Scholastic ball, I'd be tempted to write a report about this, since there are still _some_ (for small values of "some") ADs that won't tolerate this kind of thing and take action against parents that behave like that. :mad:

I had this same type of thing a few years back. The guy set up his lawn chair directly behind me behind the backstop and was constantly griping about pitches.

After a few innings, I went back to the fence and called him up and said; " My a** is at least twice as wide as that plate, how can you possibly see anything sitting back there?" :eek:

He was so stunned, he just turned and walked back to his chair. I didn't hear another word from him the rest of the game!

Don't you guys ever need to clear the dirt from the bottom of your shoes?

The backstop is a great tool for doing that.

It Was a 16u Tourney. I told the coach after the game that he we no longer welcome for the rest of the Tourney, If I saw him he would be removed. TD was in full agreement of this. Coach had already told the parent to go home. He was even considering removing the girl off of the team to punish the parent but, I told him not to punish her, just make sure the parent is being a good sport.

Coach also told me that he always embarasses her with comments to officials.

It all ended very well for the team they ended up winning the tourney.

One of my favorite stories happened one day in a 12&U tourney with me as PU. At that field, the benches were up the line a little and so there were spectators sitting on the backstop side of the bench, but not behind the backstop. There was a man sitting there on the 3rd base side, with a 45 degree angle to the pitches who kept saying "strike" before I said "ball" and then "in there" or "no no no". Finally, a pitch was way outside to a RH batter and after him saying "strike", me saying "ball"; he said "I give up". Just then, the catcher turned her head and said "SHUT UP, DAD!" :cool:

^^^

I had a similar situation in men's town league baseball
years ago and it was the pitcher that came over and told
his Dad to keep his yap shut !!
Another happened here working a high school softball game
early this past season. Some parent was sitting behind the back stop
and I could hear him telling me to "get BEHIND the catcher so I
could see the pitches better" !! I just let it go and in a short while he
stopped. I think someone informed him about "working the slot" !!

Not sure if this is what you are talking about, but one of the guys that trained me did this. A group of "fans" was riding him about his strike zone. He started gradually building up a nice little pile of dirt for the optimum moment. When he had the right amount of dirt - he was ready and waited for a called third strike. As he called it, he kicked the dirt with his back foot right at the crowd. It proved effective as they all got up and moved. Of course I would NEVER do something like that . . . :rolleyes: