Irritating Parent
 

HS game, conference tournament, loser bracket final. Home down by one in the bottom of 8th, 1 out, R1 on 3B and R2 on 2B. B3 flies out to center, R1 and R2 both tag. R1 scores, thow to 3B is off and coach send R2 home. Throw home to F2 set up in front of plate beats R2 barely, R2 is sliding as F2 receives the ball. R2 slides into tag attempt and ball comes out; rolls toward backstop. R2 is lying on ground with F2 between her and home, and partially on top of her. R2 starts attempting to crawl over to the plate; hindered by F2. PU gives delayed dead ball signal. F3 had run in and picked up the ball and tags R2 just before she reaches and hand out and slaps the plate.

PU gives dead ball signal, calls out "I have obstruction; the runner is awarded home!". The game is over and we exit the field. As we do I hear a very shrill voice from the stands "That isn't obstruction!! She had the ball!! She had the ball!!" I think to myself "Lady, it wasn't obstruction while she had the ball, only after she lost it."

Here in the Last Frontier, we do not have the luxury of a private area to change clothes in; we generally all park together in an area on the edge of the parking lot of the main fastpitch complex in Anchorage, pull out our folding chairs and set up camp. There were five of us that night, two working a JV game on the next field who had just finished before us, and three of us working the Varsity game.

We are sitting around in our dressing room/campground getting out of gear, and changing clothes and debriefing a little bit. Here comes an upset mom from the losing team storming into our area. "I just want to show you something.. I just want to show you this definition."

Now for the comic relief in all of this.. in Mom's hand is.. a Little League rule book!!!

One of my partners for this game steps out to meet her and says "Ma'am please don't bring that over here!" Joyously, Mom game up here quest pretty quickly when she realized we were not going to listen to her or talk with her.

But I thought it was incredibly rude and inappropriate for her to storm into our area.

I am guessing she believes the PU called obstruction on the original play not what happened after the ball came out.

Oh no!! I would have let her go on her rant and when she was done, asked her to read the cover of the book. Then direct her to the closest LL facility. :rolleyes:

Had a game a few years ago, 14U, where this coach went off about this and that as I just stood there and looked at her. She made the unfortunate mistake of wrapping up her rant with "that's the PONY rule".

I pointed to my shirt and asked if she could read the three letters on my chest. :cool: Now, that was my idea of having fun on the field ;)

Today I had a coach that wanted to explain to me that he had just attended a local 'rules clinic' back home.

The only hole in his argument is I am from the same part of the world,and I am the UIC for the Rule set we were playing under.

He was correct in his ruling for NSA, not for the PONY tournament. Very fun when he realized that there is a difference, and that the ruling on a offensive conference did not make a difference in the score 14-1.