Their only.....

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by CajunNewBlue

It was hard to hear over the angry screaming parents yelling "you can't call obstruction!!! they are only 'insert age here'!! let them play.. Blue"

If they honestly believe that, leave! If they just want the kids to play, there is no reason to waste an umpire on a game for which they don't want the rules enforced.

They're looking for a babysitter and as the umpire, you are not getting paid as much as some babysitters.

[Skahtboi]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

They're looking for a babysitter and as the umpire, you are not getting paid as much as some babysitters.

You know, that is true about teaching as well. Seems I chose the wrong vocation and avocation.

[CajunNewBlue]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

If they honestly believe that, leave! If they just want the kids to play, there is no reason to waste an umpire on a game for which they don't want the rules enforced.

They're looking for a babysitter and as the umpire, you are not getting paid as much as some babysitters.

I choose to stay, once you hired me its for better or worse. Of course, maybe thats why i get teased at the association meetings for being the umpire with the most fan ejections. (strangely enough, I've never been told I was wrong for any of those and it's been discussed at length)

[Skahtboi]

Originally Posted by CajunNewBlue

I choose to stay, once you hired me its for better or worse. Of course, maybe thats why i get teased at the association meetings for being the umpire with the most fan ejections. (strangely enough, I've never been told I was wrong for any of those and it's been discussed at length)

I am curious. How does an umpire have a "fan ejection?"

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by Skahtboi

I am curious. How does an umpire have a "fan ejection?"

"It's just you 'n' me in the parking lot after the game, Blue!"

Methinks that would qualify as necessitating an ejection, fan or not.

[CajunNewBlue]

Originally Posted by Skahtboi

I am curious. How does an umpire have a "fan ejection?"

It's pretty easy "IMHO" ... I just point and say you sir/ma'am are gone... they usually fold their arms and say "I'm not leaving" so I retort "yes, you are and if you aren't gone in the next two minutes your team will forfeit. works pretty well.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by CajunNewBlue

It's pretty easy "IMHO" ... I just point and say you sir/ma'am are gone... they usually fold their arms and say "I'm not leaving" so I retort "yes, you are and if you aren't gone in the next two minutes your team will forfeit. works pretty well.

Must be some third world association. Just kidding.

Don't you have enough to deal with on the field? Do the rules give you the authority to forfeit a game because of a fan's actions? Do the fans get to you that easily?

Never ejected a fan, never had the authority to do something like that. Fans outside the fence are not an umpire issue. If a fan threatens you, that's not an ejection. That's 9-1-1.

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

Must be some third world association. Just kidding.

Don't you have enough to deal with on the field? Do the rules give you the authority to forfeit a game because of a fan's actions? Do the fans get to you that easily?

Never ejected a fan, never had the authority to do something like that. Fans outside the fence are not an umpire issue. If a fan threatens you, that's not an ejection. That's 9-1-1.

Mike, I've looked all over, and I can't find 9-1-1 in the ASA rule book. Could it be next to "FUBAR" in the German dictionary?

[cpa]

Well, I've got a couple of examples that led to the same bottom line:

14U game -- one team has blown a 7 run lead in the top of the 5th and time is running out -- after the 5th error of the inning a fan yells out "this is just HORSESH.T!! loud enough to be heard anywhere on my field or the adjacent field

All the park administration was at the other end of the complex dealing w/ something else at the time. I call time, I walk slowly to the dugout and I tell the coach -- "coach, he (the cusser) needs to remove himself". And he went.

This is exercising my authority under 10-1 of the ASA rules. And if the PU doesn't have the authority to have that fan removed, who the heck does? Every parent in the ball park EXPECTED me to remove that guy, and would have complained if I did not.

Second situation -- guy behind home plate dressed in a pig suit for a BBQ company (screened backstop so no visual distraction) is operating a "fart box". It took me a couple of innings to figure out what I was hearing but me, the catcher and the batter all figured it out when the pitcher was in her windup and this guy rips one and is quite pleased w/ himself.

Again, no park admin around. I go to the coach, tell him "the guy in the pig suit is running a fart box and has gotta go" and he goes. Any grown up coming to a ball park for kids dressed in a pig suit and running a fart box which is distracting me and the kids is damned well w/in my jurisdiction.

So yeah -- I agree 100% -- I've got more than enough to worry about ON THE FIELD -- but there are some situations that are so wierd that you have do what you have to do.

ABOUT AUTHORITY -- There are some places where you have more authority than others -- authority is not just what the rule book explicitly gives you, it is implicit in the expectations of park administrators, and to some degree the authority ceded to you by the fans.

And it varies from situation to situation. Those parents in the "horsesh.t" incident would have thought I was crazy if I held up the game for 10-15 minutes to get some administrator to come down there and accomplish what I did in 30 seconds. Now, if I was at a different park w/ a different group of people, or a more hostile group of people, or a more litigious group of people, maybe I would have called 911. But in that moment, in those 2 situations listed above, I absolutely had the authority, and it would have been ridiculous not to use it.

But normally I do leave fan conduct up to the park administrators -- but there is some "demarcation line of craziness" that will cause me to act

And one final comment -- I have NEVER, EVER threatened a forfeit in an ejection, removal, disqualification incident. Didn't need to. I don't take on the offender once I've ordered them removed. I find another coach, a head coach, someone w/ a VESTED INTEREST IN CONTINUING THE GAME AND IN GETTING ALONG W/ ME and I get them to do the removing. And it works.