My ejection
 

Yes, I said My. As in "moi," "mein," "mi" and whatever else.
This was a first for me. Probably not a first in the world, but, I haven't umpired everywhere.

SP Coed VERY Rec tournament. ASA rules. My fourth game of the day. Had two decent games, one game from hell, but, hey, it's coed VERY rec. Ya'll know the drill.

So....in my fourth game, Team A has runners at 2 and 3 with two outs. Batter drives ball to outfield for clean hit, likely to only decent player on team. Runner on third scores. Runner from second is a dead duck at HP and runs halfway to hell to avoid the tag. I kill it, declare him out. Of course, it's the worst call in the history of softball. (Don't you wish these folks would come up with something original?)

I usually alternate baselines between innings, depending on which team is at bat. I am on the first base line about 15 feet up the line from home. Unfortunately, the dead duck is the first baseman. He decides to continue the discussion. Just about the time of the second personal pronoun with a vastly overused four letter word, he's toast. I ran him very calmly, no screaming, no theatrics.

I get the usual "WHAT?!?" with the hands thrown up, etc. I instruct him he should leave the field post haste and retreat to the parking lot. While he's gathering his gear his coach comes out and wants to discuss things further. While we are discussing, the former 1B shows up on the field with the TD.

I turn and ask the TD what I can do to help him. He informs me that I have to let the guy back in.

"Wait," I tell this loser. "You're the TD. I am the umpire. This is your tournament, but this is my game. He's ejected, and he has to leave."

"No," he says, finger in my face, "you have to let him back in."

"No, you don't understand," says moi. "He's gone. He's ejected."

"No," says this esteemed gentleman of softball. "You're ejected."

"Whaaaaaaat," says I.

"You're ejected," sez he. "I'll umpire the rest of the game."

"OK, sir, but you know you still owe me the game fee for this game AND the game fee for the next game for which I'm scheduled."

The rusty wheels are turning, right there behind the missing frontal lobe.

"Well, OK, one more chance," he says and starts walking off the field.

I look, and the 1B is still on the field.

"You still have to go," I tell him.

"No," says Mr. T-Head from just the other side of the fence. "He stays."

"Well, in that case, here are your game balls," sez I as I empty my ball bag and walk off the field.

We pass each other.

"Sir, at least one of us is leaving with his integrity intact," sez I, "and that would be me."

I go to my car, drive to the BBQ joint, and spend my game fee on some decent ribs — and decide that for Lent 2008, I'll give up slowpitch.

Moral of story. Players play to play, players play to pay you, you are nothing more than a servant in this environment. Bow your had and say "Yassir" or don't do these games.

I'll think I would have stayed just a little longer on the grounds, not on the field itself. I think I would inform my fellow ump's who are also working that tournament that the TD is dumber than dumb and why he ejected me...
More ump's (I was thinking about all of them) would/could/SHOULD leave the tournament...

In a dream world, Dutch. :mad:

Holy mother of God!!!!!!!!!!!..............:eek:



DONT quit SP...it needs more great umps.


DONT work for that TD again.


IF the TD has a boss..... calll him..............ASAP

I'm a dreamer! Besides that, it's not the fee that I umpire for. I know in the US umpires work the games to have an income. My fee doesn't cover all of my costs. I have to work to feed my wife and family and CAN umpire besides that... It makes it easier to be solidair with a college who has been dishonnored.

I agree. Yank as many umpires from this character as you could AND follow Darrell's advice to report this person to at least the next level up.

Bull****. ........

Should have signed the other team's book and walked away from the field ignoring the TD.

The TD has no more right on the field than the ejected player.

I pictured Borat when I read this part...

Anyway, sounds like Mr. 1B and Mr. TD share a lot more in common than just softball. I won't say exactly what that is, as this is still a PG-13 board.

Definitely report up the chain, if possible, and let other umps in the area know just where this TD's priorities lie.

[QUOTE=bkbjones].

SP Coed VERY Rec tournament. ASA rules. QUOTE]


WOW!!

Don't know if there was anyone on "up the chain", but this is a CLEAR violation of rule 10-2. You had a valid protest! (would probably be a first---Umpire filing a protest!) I imagine though the TD would have been the "protest commitee" but if this was a REC tournie, then he surely has a superior. I would at least make my point known.

Perhaps a small claims suit for breach of contract? A lot of trouble I know, but it would also be trouble for the TD, and rec dep't, and you DO have the rules on your side.

As Mr. Darling told Andy (Griffith) about Ernest T. Bass once, " We thought about killin' him, just hated to go that far!" Not advocating here, but it is a thought!

I have actually been around a similar situation where a TD forced a umpire to allow re-entry to an ejected coach during the same game. The Umpire chose to not "rock the boat" as he put it later. The next tournie we called for this TD all the umpires agreed that if that was to happen again, we would all show our support, and walk! I can say I would, and am sure others would, but I doubt all would.

fitump56 may be correct about the dream world, and the "pay to play" thing, but I ain't gonna bow my head and say "Yassir". I'll take the second option, and call the Darling's!

oh the baseball troll has migrated over to the softball side--don't worry youll' soon learn to put (Sm)fitty56 on your ignore list just like we have....you sent jimpiano over to us so weare just returning the favor! ;)

Trust me, if we were to send him anywhere, it probably wouldn't be anywhere earthly let alone on this board, though I've heard rumors.....:rolleyes:

At least I will never have to worry about running into you at a rib joint.

In our area, we don't work for TD's; we work for UIC's. Some times that is me; it often is others. Regardless, no TD in this area would be allowed to do what you state. He might approach the UIC to see if the UIC will address the umpire; but, you all understand that would have to be an exceptional circumstance where the umpire is so wrong, out of control, or possibly in some violation and breach of our ethics.

So, in our area, if this happened, you go to the UIC. Pretty sure he is pulling all the umpires off all the fields; right now!! I know I am, if this is my tournament. As Mike said, the TD has no authority on the ball field. Period. And, the umpires work for me; not for the TD. Period.

Agreed. I would not work a tourney that didn't have a UIC. If this happened in a game of mine, I'd have ejected TD, and when he didn't leave, forfeit the game, stay right there, and wait for my UIC. And if the TD tried to overrule the UIC, the entire umpire group would leave, and this TD would never get real umpires for a tourney again.

Unfortunately, there was no UIC. I didn't even know it was a tournament until I arrived. This was assigned through our assignment program, which we don't normally use for tournaments; furthermore, there was no indication this was a tournament in our game assignments. It's not unusual to be assigned a five- or six-pack of slow pitch on a Sunday.

Many good ideas and thoughts have been expressd in response to the post. I think one of the best to take to our board later this month is to require a UIC be hired from our association for any tournament such as this. No, a UIC was not hired/appointed, and had I known this was going to be a tournament, I wouldn't have darkened their door.

As for one of the responses, like the first after the original, you couldn't be further from the truth. If more umpires had the nerve/guts/balls to take care of business we'd have a lot more fun out there. I, for one, refuse to kiss a$$.

Moral of story. Players play to play, players play to pay you, you are nothing more than a servant in this environment. Bow your had and say "Yassir" or don't do these games.

I hold my forearms tight to my chest, yes, you won't, correct. :rolleyes:

What? Whatzzat you say? Don't wander over to the baseball forum, 3/4ths will tell you how wrong you are. Then cash the checks. :eek:
God love you, Dutch.

Care to elaborate or is this the beginning and end?

Good for you. Just understand the consequences. I can't count the times I have had to pay for refusing to coddle up.

Don't fret FitUmp56....no one is worthless. You can always serve as a bad example.

I'll sleep better knowing you are in good hands then.

If I'm wrong about the pro's, I must have been misinformed. Sorry for that.
My point was that solidairity among umpires is the greatest thing in a tournament (in life itself). And I know that money can destroy that solidarity. I'm not saying that I can/will look into someone wallet, solidairity can cost me and others money. That my point. To be solidair with eachother, it might cost. If that makes me dreamer, so be it...

I have walked off a field for the same thing where the Field Director said I could not eject a player and that he would finish the game and I did not get paid for my scheduled games that night. None of my fellow umpires left with me as I walked off. I did not umpire at that site for 5 years while that Field Director was in charge. So I lost money for five years. I went else where and umpired. The incident caused ill will in our group. The Field Director got fired. I still don't umpire at that site.

Do you have regrets?

Yes, that's good. In our local association, a UIC is always assigned for each tournament. How the UIC would handle such a situation would probably vary depending on the UIC (some are more capable than others), but at the very least, if something happened like what happened to you, that TD wouldn't be getting any more umpires until our directors had a meeting with him. Whether he ever gets more umpires from us would depend on his response to that meeting.

I recall my first ever slo-pitch ejection, and it was a rec tourney as well. The ejected player was full of bluster, and as he was leaving, he promised to get the TD. This happened in the second inning, and the game played out without the TD ever coming by. Afterwards, I discussed it with the TD and asked him if the player came to find him. He did, and the TD simply asked him what he did to get ejected. When the player told him, he simply replied that he would have ejected him too. It was good to hear that the TD supported the umpires!

Since the OP stated that the TD walked up and wanted to reinstate the player, without asking YOUR side of things (of course ejected players lie), then telling you to leave, I probably would have stayed, told the ejected players manager that the game will be forfeited if said player didnt leave, kick the TD off the field(whether he left or not is mute), most probably call the forfeit, tell the winning team that they may have to protest to keep the win, inform the other umpires nearby,and stay there for my next game.
Basically not making it easy for the TD to solve things HIS way. This diamond is MINE during the game.
Not everything is in our control, but I'd like to think that I'd finish this game and any others I had scheduled. Whether a forfeit win stood up, or the ejected player plays again in another game, or the possibly forfeited game has to be rescheduled, is now not my concern---only my game management, per MY call.

I seriously doubt it would be mute! :D

Oh, believe me, you wouldn't have any idea of how right you are and how WRONG I was.

"Dreams are the far end of reality, they set our goals, they are the necessity ingredients of progress." ~fitump56 circa ten seconds ago :D

:confused:

I kill it = I declare the ball dead.

Funeral services to be announced. Memorials may be sent to my address.

John, if I had to guess (it wasn't clear to me either), BHBlue was questioning why you would kill the play for an "out of the basepath" call.

I did, however, go back to your OP, and you noted 2 outs. Even though the mechanics make the OOBP call a live call, with 2 outs and them chasing around, I think it is good game management to kill it and make the announcement with them paying attention, and minimize the chances of injury or USC during the chase. After all, your call ends the inning, so what harm in killing it?

There are times when I think about it and it still bothers me. There is new management at the field and they have asked me to umpire there again and I am thinking about going back as a lot of the umpires have left our group. We are going to have a group meeting to talk about the park and discuss umpiring there again. I will probably go back.

Where do we send the memorial checks? Your place?

As for charliej47's post, we have a director at one municipality's rec sports dept. who does not back us up as umpires. As a result, the simple way to handle it, for me, is to simply not call there until the problem is removed. If I toss someone, it's for a darn good reason, and I expect... no, demand... that there be some weight behind it. When our professional, impartial and appropriate decisions are second guessed without our feedback, what's the point of even being there?

Sorry for not being more clear. I was wondering about killing the play. I probably should have left it alone since the topic was not the call, but the out-of-line TD. A situation I think bkbjones handled well BTW.

I see your logic behind killing the play and agree with it in principal, and in this case "all's well that ends well". However, had he not had the number of outs correct, which I think happens to us all, killing the play would have denied the defense from recording another out or the offense from advancing. An umpire may be better served sticking with the rule as it's written in this case.