Not in the casebook .....
 

1 man crew-me-. 12U bracket play. We are cruising along,if there is such a thing in 12's, and we have the did she swing or not question come up. I saw that she had some interesting ways of not swinging but I ruled a "no swing"

So coach rolls out of the dugout saying she swung, I gave him my spiel and he still didn't like it. But he did head back to the dugout but then asks the other teams 3rd base coach what he saw ? The 3B coach replied he saw a swing. So now he wants me to to accept help from the 3rd base coach.

I refused. Then he gives me this dribbel about the girls,puppydogs and just trying to do the right thing . Whatever. I stuck with my call.

Any other ways of looking at this ? It just felt like the only thing i could do at this juncture.

He tried to make nicey nice afterwards but couldn't help himself so he got to chasin his own tail again.....

I did that once. One man crew, I said ball, catch said "can you ask for help?," I pointed to 1B coach and said "did she go?" He raised his fist and said "yes" and I said "strike!"


WMB

One night I was watching pool play in a tournament I was gong to be calling in the next day. The umpire, who is really good and well liked, was going solo. He made a call at 1st base, safe, the defensive coach came out and was very vocal in his discussion. The umpire talked to him and the coach kept getting louder, until I very plainly and distinctly heard him say, ".... I want to appeal your call!!!!" Now, I'm doing everything I can to get very little in the stands, and the umpire hesitates, says OK and goes back to home plate. He puts his hockey style mask on home plate and yells " Partner, what did you see on my call?" He then trots down to 1st base and yells back to home, " The same thing you did, she's safe!!!" By this time, the crowd is dying laughing, the coach is beet red in the face from embarassment and just waves at the umpire and goes back to his dugout. As I remember it, he didn't come back out for the rest of the game. It was classic and one of the reasons you gotta love this game.

Had a similar problem in a game I was working by myself a number of years ago.

It was a local league thing to give a safe signal when you ruled a "no swing" even when you were the plate ump.

So, the coach says comes out and says, "I want another look at that play."

I thought for a moment, turned 180 degress and signaled safe/ no swing as I said, "No, she didn't swing."

After he got through laughing, we had a pretty good game.:D

Am I the only one who would be miffed at a coach interrupting the game to question a swing-or-no-swing situation in a one-umpire system? My succinct reply would be, "Coach, I have no partner to ask. My call stands."

Normally I would agree with you but sometimes you have to "show up" the coach when he tries to show you up.

These one-umpire tales remind me of a situation where I once actually did ask a coach to help me with a call.

I was the sole umpire in a girls' fastball game. Two outs. Runner at second. Batter lined a base hit into right field. I see the batter-runner attempting to stretch the hit into a double. I move out to make the call at second base. The batter-runner is tagged out. Three out--but I have absolutely no idea if the runner from second base scored ahead of the third out being made. (She was not a particularly fast runner, so a guess would have been really iffy.) I went to the offensive team's coach and said I was in no position to tell if his runner had scored. I told him I was depending 100% on his honesty. He told me his runner hadn't touched the plate when the batter-runner was put out at second. I thanked him and ruled "no run."

Somehow I don't think that degree of honesty would happen in every league.

I can see having fun with a coach, but it is not my style to ever try to show up a coach to get back at him. I understand the emotion of it, though.

But I find a quiet conversation a lot more effective.

If the coach is too out of control to have a quiet conversation, then showing him up is unlikely to help, either.

That (or similar words) is what I would normally do, too.

Well, I wouldn't advise trying my idea unless you have a good relationship with the coach.

However, there have been those days where a good smart a$$ responce is just what you need to make it through the day.:D

My Story
 

Working solo, asked to reconsider a call.

I took my mask off, pointed toward my invisible partner and asked "Partner what do you have?" (Heads turned toward where I was pointing)

I said "Thank you", looked over at the coach and said "He's got an out too coach"

Everyone, including the coach got a big laugh......

I had the same thing in a rec league that I used to work.

I think it took the coach about 30 seconds to realize that he had just called a strike on his own batter!

My thoughts exactly.

I suppose, if I knew the coaches well enough, I'd try one of the humorous remedies listed above... but in most games this line of questioning is going to get a VERY quick STFU from me. And if the coach had left, managing to not eject himself, and then tried to show me up by asking the opposing coach what he saw, he'd have been tossed before he even had a chance to come at me for a 2nd time.

Thanks
 

After reading all these posts the winner is .....John Robertson. I really did need something for the next time it happens. The imaginary partners well i don't think I can pull those off.....