One from today I witnessed.
 

I was working a track meet today at a local HS. After the meet the SB game was still going, so I decided to watch.

Top 7th inning, runner at 3rd, one out. Batter rips a line drive that hits off the pitchers glove and goes up in the air towards second base. The runner at third, seeing it pop in the air returns touches 3rd and immediately begins coming home. Ball is caught by F6 who throws home unsuccessfully in an attempt to get the runner coming home.

The home team coach comes out to appeal the runner left early. He gets very argumentative when the umpire rules correctly that the runner did tag up properly. Her last contact with the base was after the ball had been touched by F1, but before the ball was caught. I have never actually seen this play occur like this before. I was impressed with the umpire who made the call and with the fact he didn't toss the coach (who was one of my former HS teachers) for arguing.

A coach not knowing a rule. Now that is a new one for me.

Players not knowing the rules would be a new one for me - especially on Sunday morning :p

Great call by the HP umpire....and probably great patience in not running the coach.

Was this varsity, JV or middle school. The runner sure seemed to know what was going on.

This was a varsity game. One team (offense) is a solid program while the defensive team (my old HS) isn't exactly known for being a softball powerhouse.

The base runner in question is the daughter of a pair of adult players in one of the leagues I umpire, and I know they know the rules, so it makes sense she does as well.

Not being there, I don't know whether the coach deserved to go or not. The fact that you felt the need to include that comment makes me think the coach deserved to be ejected.

Rant on

To me, in general, this is a problem with many sports officials.

It isn't a matter of patience, thick skin or anything else. If a coach or player crosses a line and deserves to be ejected, s/he should be ejected.

The umpire mentality of "keeping them in the game" should apply to the manner of keeping the coach calm during a discussion, not tolerating unacceptable behavior.

Keeping someone around who shouldn't be there is just asking for trouble. Granted that HS is often a different world than adult or JO ball. But you occasionally still witness a difference when teams play in another area and don't understand why coaches and players get dumped for not doing any more than what they get away with their home town umpires.

A couple years ago, one of the highest rated HS umpires in the state tossed a HS coach. The coach had it coming and after numerous warnings to return to the dugout, the umpire in quite a passive manner told him he had to leave. Well, it is a rare occurrence, but it was the appropriate action. At the end of the season when the coaches rated the umpires, he had been dropped from second in their rankings to below the 10th spot and all because the coaches from the other half of the state thought the ejection shouldn't have occurred simply because the umpires in their area allow the coaches to run the show.

Remember, one of the biggest issues some umpires run into it "the guy last night" .

Rant off

This is the problem I have with coaches rankings. I had a similar situation at a volleyball tourney a few years back. I red carded the coach for his actions from the bench. In the hospitality room he was going off on me with several other coaches who were in the room, and in that pool at the event. This was the only time I had seen these teams all season. When the ratings came out at the season's end, I had two 4's and three 3 ratings. While I can't be certain, I strongly suspected that all of those ratings came from schools I saw once that season, at that event. The coach had convinced the other coaches to rate me low because he was pissed I red carded him.

The good news was that I had been walking to the hospitality room when he was ranting and heard what he was saying. This was written down in my notebook (I log unusual circumstances from events in case I need to recall them later). I thus provided this information to the state association and the they rescinded the rankings from those schools.

The other one I had was a coach who asked us to sign in on the ratings card the school provided and already had a 3 rating circled for each official, before the matches took place.

qft.