Was she out of line, or was I?

[Sweet Lou]

I really very strongly dislike it when parents are vocal with umpires. If our coach wants to protest a play, great. He knows how to do it right, which is to say, calmly and without getting into a fight over it. Once the ump rules against you, accept it and be quiet. I suppose occasionally an ump might change a call based on an argument but I've not seen that happen yet. I have seen a coach get thrown out of a game for arguing though. A parent too. No good can come of it. And yeah, at 18 to 0 just get the game over with and move on. Really who cares about one call at that point. JMO.

^this. If I'm good terms with the coach I might say "hey coach you might want to challenge that play based on rule x, y or z" but I'm not going to call an ump out on something from the stands.

 

[bucket pinata]

REALLY,REALLY wish I hadn't read this thread, "check your phone cause I think you missed a call" Unfortunately I feel I wont be able to stop myself from using that one some day.

 

[marriard]

Here are my questions:
1. Was the runner out or was a no call the proper call?

Maybe. You say 5' but I wasn't there so I have no idea how far she went or actual direction she took or what really happened, or what the umpire judged it to be. Your side of the story may be objective but experience from similar posts suggest that it probably is not.

2. Is there a rule that says the head coach can be ejected even if she did nothing wrong or was that a scare tactic used by the umpires to get me to be quiet?

Yep. Not a scare tactic. Head coach is the first to go in a few circumstances where it could be said they did not directly act.

3. Should I explore options for reporting these officials or should I just let it go since the season is over now?

You should let it go, mainly because you were a total jerk as well and believe me that will be taken into account. Also as a spectator you probably don't have any standing for anything official - so unless your coach wanted to take it further it probably can't go anywhere. Maybe you could report to their umpiring association or something but you are not likely to get any sympathy. Umpires Association is full of people who have to deal with people in the stands on a constant basis.

And sure these idiots mishandled dealing with everything and escalated things unnecessarily, but you were also a total ***. Seriously, it was 18-0 and I am sure that is frustrating but really? How are you going to behave if it was a 3-2 game and a call happened at the plate which didn't go your way? You may want to think about that.

Also you need to be aware they will be back again for another game shortly. This is nowhere near big enough an incident to not just let it go.

 

[marriard]

REALLY,REALLY wish I hadn't read this thread, "check your phone cause I think you missed a call" Unfortunately I feel I wont be able to stop myself from using that one some day.

My DW once told the mother of an opposing player who was yelling at our DD that it was 'unfair because you are pitching too fast', that "Your kid would be OK if you had DNA'd her some talent"

It went down hill from there.

 

[Eric F]

My DW once told the mother of an opposing player who was yelling at our DD that it was 'unfair because you are pitching too fast', that "Your kid would be OK if you had DNA'd her some talent"

It went down hill from there.

Your DW is a keeper.

 

[CoogansBluff]

3. Should I explore options for reporting these officials or should I just let it go since the season is over now?

You are assuming a role that is not yours, IMO.

Unless you are on the field in an official capacity, your opinion of the umpires does not matter. It should not be shared during the game to umpires, and it should not be shared to those in charge of umpires after a game. Tournament directors and high school associations do not care (and rightly so) what parents/spectators think about their officials. They answer to coaches and schools.

 

[riseball]

You are assuming a role that is not yours, IMO.

Unless you are on the field in an official capacity, your opinion of the umpires does not matter. It should not be shared during the game to umpires, and it should not be shared to those in charge of umpires after a game. Tournament directors and high school associations do not care (and rightly so) what parents/spectators think about their officials. They answer to coaches and schools.

I would agree with you were it not for the officials initiating further contact with the parent in the parking lot. What transpired during the game is not unusual and IMO a non issue. The contact by the officials after the contest to "school" a parent is another matter and should be reported.

 

[chinamigarden]

Here's the situation: high school game, last game of the season. Score is 18 to 0. Losing team is on defense with one out. Runner at third, ball is hit to the third baseman who fields it cleanly and throws it home. Runner coming from third stops with her left foot on the chalk line, catcher tries to apply the tag and runner arches her back and runs about 5 feet toward the pitcher's circle to avoid the tag. Umpire makes no call. The resulting rundown situation ends with the runner being safe at third and the batter safe at second. Several parents in the stands, including myself, were yelling that the runner had left the basepath to avoid the tag and should be out. Head coach goes out to appeal the call, and both officials tell her that the call stands and go sit down. I tell home plate umpire to check his phone because he missed a call.

Defense has to get through 4 more batters to get two more outs to end the half inning. At that time the home plate umpire walks over to our side and singles me out because I'm keeping scorebook (for my benefit, not for the team - they have student managers who do that in an official capacity for the team) and says "if you're going to make comments to the officials you need to learn the rules." I reply that I'm very familiar with the rules as they apply to this particular situation and that he should just admit that he blew the call. He got very agitated, started yelling that none of us have a clue, and had to be physically restrained by the field official before making even more of a spectacle of himself. Once the field official got him calmed down then the field official came over and issued a warning to me and told me that they were right and I was wrong and if there one more outburst from anyone that I would be ejected and reported to our state's athletic governing body. They even went a step further and informed our head coach that if I got ejected then she would be ejected as well.

At no point in time did anyone use any foul or demeaning language. As passionate as we may be about a play in the heat of the moment, we do remember that there are teenage girls in the dugout just a few feet away.

By coincidence, I happened to be parked next to one of the officials in the parking lot. After the game, as I was standing by the car waiting for my daughter to come out, both officials approached me and told me that they wanted to educate me on the rules. At that time, I pulled out my phone and read to them, out loud, the rules regarding base path and the effect of a play when a runner moves more than 3 feet out of the base path in order to avoid a tag by a defender (I downloaded the rules a couple of years ago so I could study up on them when I was coaching Little League ball. Granted it is the 2014 ASA rules, but there aren't very many variations between ASA rules and in NFHS rules, right?). Their response was, "well the games over now and there's nothing anybody can do about it, so you have yourself a great evening."

Here are my questions:
1. Was the runner out or was a no call the proper call?
2. Is there a rule that says the head coach can be ejected even if she did nothing wrong or was that a scare tactic used by the umpires to get me to be quiet?
3. Should I explore options for reporting these officials or should I just let it go since the season is over now?

Were you wrong or were the officials.

Yes.

You were wrong for making comments to them, they were wrong for coming over and making comments to you.

 

[SandlotMom]

I'm not going to answer right or wrong about the call but, no matter what, YOU were out of line for saying ANYTHING. Not your job to speak up or out to the umpire. As a coach, if my parents spoke out (I don't care if the umpire was right or wrong) I would strongly suggest the parent to be quiet. As a coach, I am responsible for the parents as well so that umpire could have easily kicked out the coach because of you. As a coach, I would have a talk with you immediately after the game and ask you to refrain from speaking to the umpire at any time.

 

[grcsftbll]

Umps usually just make polite conversation outside of actual games. Or they ignore everyone. I definitely would be interested to see a recording of what really happened to upset them enough to feel the need to say something in the parking lot later.

I would also look at another side of this: what sort of example is being set for the kids who are playing. Bad calls suck, but until we get perfect robot umpires they're going to happen. I really don't want my kids to learn to throw hissy fits, pick fights, etc. when they think something is unfair. My DD had her first real frustration with an ump not long ago. She was pitching and he had a tiny strike zone. This is 10U so a tiny strike zone can be pretty hard to deal with. I definitely disagreed with his zone (on both sides - at least he was fair in that regard). When she complained about it later I told her there is absolutely nothing she can do about the ump's strike zone, or anything else to do with how he calls the game. If he has a small strike zone she has to adjust her pitches. That's it. Getting angry is natural but not very productive. I'd rather teach them a better way. I told her those umps make her a better pitcher in the long run since she has to learn to be more precise. Not an exact analogy here but same idea. Next time, find a way to stay closer to the base line.