Another Catcher Trying To Get A Call

[The Man In Blue]

the delay with no play to be made and then the reaction to walk over to the batter is peculiar

That’s one way of saying it …

And, I think the only way to stop coaches like this is to call it in every game every time it happens.

Agreed. Calling it doesn’t necessarily mean administering an immediate penalty though. It needs to be called out though.

Something was mentioned about the umpires or the coaches “were warned about this teams’ antics.” I kind of glossed over that before, but I probably shouldn’t have. Warned by whom? If it was a tournament director level issue, then I would agree with allowing the umpires to come into the game considering past acts committed in that tournament.

I would also agree that if an umpire gets that team more than once, they will have that “past knowledge” to act upon. My objection was expecting an umpire to act on the word of another coach/team/parent.

Umps likely don't do anything with the initial hard "tag", but catch/punish the retaliation.

A tag can be a disguised aggression, but it is still a game-related action. Retaliation is not. So yes, retaliation will ALWAYS be seen more quickly.

I have this discussion with my students multiple times each year: That wasn’t self-defense. Self-defense comes before or during the aggrieving altercation and is intended to stop harm. Acting afterwards is just revenge intended to cause equal or greater harm.

The intelligent player / coach / parent doesn't do or teach this because of the impending retaliation. Some sports do a good job of allowing players to settle matters. Obviously softball isn't there yet because we see moronic plays like this one.

The more leeway an umpire gives to this foolishness the more they encourage it.

I would hope they don’t teach it because it is just cheap and dumb. If all that is holding you back is fear of retaliation, you are almost at that same place.

Agreed on the leeway. However we cannot just become a capricious judge, jury, and executioner. The rules are written so that we can jump there if necessary, but we shouldn’t solve every problem with a sledgehammer.

 

[Vertigo]

We had something similar in our last tournament. The team we were playing was "aggressive" (to be nice), when making tags. I'd almost call them a punch, but at least a very hard slap/push. Happened multiple times, with different fielders. I have no doubt that is how they are taught. The couple players of ours that it happened to aren't the type to push back, so they just dealt with it and moved on. We have a couple other players that are quicker to get worked up, my one daughter included (not saying that as a positive or negative, just as reality). I know there would have been a push back from them. Maybe that's what the other team is going for. Umps likely don't do anything with the initial hard "tag", but catch/punish the retaliation.

Saw this same thing at a showcase a couple years ago. The team on the receiving end finally had enough and walked off the field. Several college coaches were there and saw this go down. Wonder what they thought about all of it?

 

[YoungBuck]

Saw this same thing at a showcase a couple years ago. The team on the receiving end finally had enough and walked off the field. Several college coaches were there and saw this go down. Wonder what they thought about all of it?

Sounds like a good solution.

 

[CoachJD]

Hmmm? Appeared to me catcher was purposely doing something versus incidental contact.
In this example-
Catcher purposely physically collided with another player. Just because no one got hurt in that moment doesn't mean that action couldn't cause harm.
To herself or the other player.
It wasn't just the ball that made contact with the batter it was the body.

Malicious does not mean intentional.

This contact was intentional. It was not malicious.

I agree it's unsportsmanlike, but in this case, if I'm an umpire I'm way more likely to toss the coach than the player because it's clearly a child being told to do something stupid by an idiot adult. Maybe the player gets a stern warning and an ejection if she tries it again.

 

[RADcatcher]

Malicious does not mean intentional.

This contact was intentional. It was not malicious.

Yes appeared intentional.
However Even if it was not intended to cause harm 'malicious behavior',
it could still cause harm to either player.

I agree it's unsportsmanlike, but in this case, if I'm an umpire I'm way more likely to toss the coach than the player because it's clearly a child being told to do something stupid by an idiot adult. Maybe the player gets a stern warning and an ejection if she tries it again.