How much rope, after you mess up?

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by Manny A

Seems pretty obvious to me. You're prejudging that a coach who is also a sports official should know better than to argue his/her position during a game, and you're giving him/her no slack, whereas you might give a coach who acts similarly but doesn't officiate a bit more leeway.

You should treat everyone equally. A coach is just a coach for that game. It shouldn't matter to the game's officials what they do in other games. Clean slate is how you should handle it.

Have you ever coached your kid while you were an official? I have, and believe me, it's not easy to bite your tongue when you see your team get wronged by an official. I can tolerate the occasional banger that doesn't go our way, or the close pitch that I thought was missed. But when I see things as Mike described that are clearly a result of an umpire not doing his/her job out there, like the PU not watching for a swipe tag at first base or the BU not watching for a proper tag-up, that's not going to keep me quiet. I know if I were the umpire with that excuse, I would deserve a bit of an ass-chewing from the coach, and I would allow the vent, regardless if he/she is also an official or not.

I am speaking of unsportsmanlike conduct. I will always answer legitimate questions from coaches (even assistant coaches) when asked in a professional manner, but coaches who are also sports officials are always (with apologies to the late J. Dallas Shirley) sports officials first and coaches second when it comes to the interactions with the game officials during the games they are coaching.

MTD, Sr.