fan too close to the bench?

[greymule]

I've seen umpires eject fans from the park in both SP and FP, sometimes for what I thought were routine comments ("give our pitcher that one, too" "runner's leaving too soon, Blue," "looked good from here").

I pretend I'm in the big leagues and ignore the fans entirely. (Obscenity at a youth game would cross the line, however.)

In the youth leagues around here, everybody is hyper-conscious of sportsmanship. At a Legion baseball game the other night, I noticed signs that warned against air horns, bad language, derogatory comments toward players/coaches/officials, drinking, etc., with the threat of ejection from the park and possibly civil action. Some softball fields post similar warnings.

Last week I posted comments about a coach who was out of control in a normally just-for-fun business league coed game. Someone at his company has since informed me that the guy got off work at 3 p.m. that day and spent the next 2½ hours in a bar before showing up at the field to "coach" the team.