Was I a jerk?

[Rich]

I was at another tournament last year with some really dangerous thunderstorms surrounding the park. Rain coming down quite hard. It was surreal that they were still playing as if nothing was happening.

I finally got the attention of the umpire (the parents actually huddled in the dugouts -- had to be the biggest dugouts at a softball complex I've ever seen) and he essentially told me to shut my mouth, that he was in charge. I said something, he over-reacted and told me to leave the park. So I know how it feels to be ejected, although I've never tried directly ejecting a parent as an umpire.

Next stop - tournament director. We had words. Their schedule and staying on it was important to them. In the meantime, the kids are playing in weather I wouldn't consider playing a HS or college game in.

In the end, it was all my fault. All I had to do was take my daughter out of that situation. I was just a parent.

Fast forward a few months -- I'm now the head coach of the team. Before being accepted to coach, I was asked repeatedly about this incident. I did not apologize, rather I told them that I would've handled things differently - that as a parent, my job was to remove my daughter. I also told them that as the coach, I would refuse to play under those conditions. Period. They "hired" me anyway.

As someone who's been a fairly high level official (HS/college) in 3 sports, it's very, very difficult to deal with people who don't know and, more importantly (in many cases) don't care. My goal is to accept a lot of stuff with grace this season that I wouldn't normally accept.

And that's how I would answer Mike's original question. I would've considered moving the player and dealing with the situation after the fact. And if I was going to have any conversation with an umpire, I would try to do it face to face, not from a distance.