Help with a situation that occurred last night in my league

[softballpres33]

Hi everyone. I am a league President in a league of small towns. There was a situation last night and I would like some opinions on what I should do to handle it, if anything. The scenario was this.


Runner on 3rd base goes home. She does not slide but she does not have any contact with the catcher either. The umpire calls her out for "not sliding". The assistant coach questions the call saying that there is no ASA rule that says you have to slide. The umpire tells the coach that it is "his rule". The coach says that he can't enforce a rule that isn't a league rule and isn't an ASA rule. He says that he can do whatever he wants and his rule is the runner has to slide on a close play. The coach once agains says that this is not enforcable. The base umpire comes up and tells the coach that is their rule and that they need to go to the dugout. The coach says, "Let me explain..." The base umpire tosses the coach. She says that they can't toss her for questioning a rule. She didn't question the call...she was questioning the rule. The umpire tells her she has 30 seconds to leave the dugout. The head coach also helps put on the tournament (which trust me has been a big scheduling nightmare) says to her assistant coach (while standing in their dugout with their backs to the umpires) don't worry about it just leave they've been jerks up here (where the tournament is) the entire tournament. The plate umpire ejects the head coach. The head coach tries to plead his case saying that he was not saying anything to or about the umpires. The plate umpire tells the head coach that he should have said the town the tournament was in was jerks then, otherwise it was directed at him.

Okay, first of all, we all know that MANY worse thing could have been said than jerk. The coaches were talking to each other not the umpires (backs turned in their dugout). What's everyones opinion on this one?

The proceeds with two parents coaching. The team with the 2 coaches that have been ejected loses by 1 run. Can the team protest this game based on the fact that no rule exists? Did it have to be protested last night? How could the coach protest it last night when they were ejected?

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.

[Dakota]

I'm going to make a couple of judgment calls that may or may not be valid, but they are based on what you have told us in your post. Most of this response is opinion, not a by-the-rules response.

1) The two umpires calling this game (especially the plate umpire) are "my way or the highway" types who believe they are the masters of the game and above the rules.

2) The umpires, rather than trying to calm the situation down, reacted with defensiveness and ego, knew the ruling was wrong, and ejected the coach as a way to put an end to the discussion.

Your first issue (IMO), as league president, is with the umpires who called this game. They were using made-up rules and allowed that to end up in two ejections. These ejections would never have happened if the umpires had not used made-up rules. This has nothing to do with protest processes, but the umpires do need to be disciplined in some appripriate manner. If they are going to call your games, they need to call them according to your league's rules (presumably, ASA + written changes), and not according to the rules they personally use.

If there was, indeed, no collision at the plate, then the umpire has absolutely no leg to stand on whatsoever. He can't even claim flagrant unsportsmanlike behavior.

On the issue of calling "them" jerks... Being in the dugout with backs turned supposedly talking to the other coach does not isolate a coach from ejection for making disparaging remarks to or about game officials. Was the coach speaking in a normal conversational tone to a person standing next to him, or was his voice raised in anger so everyone could hear? If the latter, then the ejection was warranted. If the former, then the umpire (in addition to making up rules) has rabbit ears and was overreacting with the ejection.

As to the protest process - your league needs to follow its own bylaws on this.

If you are speaking strictly ASA rules on protests, the protest would have to be made at the time (before the next pitch). You may choose to honor the argument from the other team that the dual ejection left them with no one who could protest, and that clearly the coaches were not done with their discussion of the ruling when ejected, so you can choose to treat it as if the protest had been filed. After all, it is your league. You'd need the entire league board (I'd guess) to back you on this.

JMO, but it would go a long way to showing that your league does conduct its games / tournaments with integrity, and thay you want out-of-town teams to know they will be treated fairly.

As I said, JMO.

By the strict letter of the rules, the team manager (or acting team manager) needed to inform the plate umpire before the next pitch that the game was being played under protest.

[Edited by Dakota on Jul 11th, 2003 at 10:29 AM]

[softballpres33]

There were no voices raised at any time in this whole thing that transpired. I have removed the umpires from being able to umpire for the rest of the tournament. I guess my biggest problem at this point is what to do about the protest since it wasn't made at the game time. As I said before though it couldn't be because both coaches were ejected.

[JEL]

Seems to me you have a couple of good coaches there. Have they asked to protest? if so I would honor it, And continue the game, if that is possible. You have removed the umpires, this may "satisfy" (for lack of a better word) the ejected coaches. Its a can of worms either way, but it looks as if the ejected coaches are probably sensible enough to accept either ruling. As for the umpires in question, seems they were wrong, and arrogant, I can't really offer a suggestion on that, removal from tourney may suffice, it may not. This is why the Pres gets the big bucks! Good luck, and you are to be commended for your actions.

[Dakota]

If it is still practical to honor the protest (i.e. the game in question can be replayed from the point of the call along with the remainder of the tournament assuming the protesting team wins the game), then I would push to have the protest honored as the right thing to do.

You can't as a practical matter replay an entire tournament bracket because of all the logistics involved, then maybe the best you can do is a heartfelt apology and some kind of recognition of the team ("sportsmanship award"?).

[softballpres33]

This all happened at the 3rd out of the top of the 1st inning. This was the semi final round and decided who goes to the championship game. The championship game is not until tomorrow night so it could be replayed from that point.

[CecilOne]

Some splendid answers to difficult questions! Even a nitpicker like me can't add anything except congratulations for being conscientious and having the resolve to suspend those umpires.

[greymule]

If an ump told me something was not in the book but instead was "his rule," I'd demand that he inform me of every other one of "his rules." After all, I have a right to know what rules I'm playing under.

[ChampaignBlue]

I'd like to add two things. Make sure that you've had both sides of the story, if you are relying on the coaches version of events remember that coaches sometimes have a selective memory. If you have independant confirmation of events then I think you've handled it well. In my pre-game I always remind the coaches that I don't want any hitting above the belt, if I get torso to torso I have a judgement call and I always call on the side of safety. Second,with perfect 20-20 hindsight, it's a good idea to have a protest committee named for just such an event, saves you the headaches that you're going through now.

[SC Ump]

If the picture being painted is correct, I believe the umpires overstepped their bonds.

On the question of whether there could be a concern of comments said by the coaches when they were talking to each other (backs turned or not,) yes, I will not put up with certain comments even in that situation.