First Game of the Season...

[Steve M]

Originally Posted by shagpal

in my 1st game, I had a pitcher named april. she had a really really long ponytail. everything was going fine, and until she started whipping her ponytail around. she swung it around like the guys do in a kung fu movie, then pitch normally, but continue to have the ponytail whirl around like a copter blades. I called IP.

coach comes out, and I explain it's a distracting motion after the pitch. coach asks if she can talk to her pitcher, and not be charged w/ a conference, and I say fine. as coach is talking to her, she starts staring me down, and then points her glove at me while giving me the evil curse eye. next pitch, she does it again, and again I call IP, and coach comes out again. this time, coach asks me to if I can show her pitcher what she's doing wrong.

as I walk towards the rubber, I hear a fan, perhaps mom in the stands yelling, "bad man, bad man!". as I approach, I see a very quick flash of a jumping player and BAM! I'm laying on the field, flat on my back, and knocked out for just the moment. apparently, my partner told me she jumped up and did a flying round house kick to the side of my face. WOW! so I ejected her from the game.

First - here's hoping you pressed charges
Next - You were wrong to call an IP just because it might have been distracting. IP calls must be based on the rules, and if she did nothing illegal - per the rules - you're wrong to call IP. As for distracting, or maybe intending to be distracting - what about a glove slapping the leg. Or twisting the body before making a legal delivery, or maybe knocking the hat off before making a legal delivery. Your IP call - and according to your description, it's a wrong call - makes it that much worse for other umpires.