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A Babe Ruth u15 question regarding an umpire.

G gslack10+ posts
Is there anything a coach can do about an umpire who blatantly tries to dictate entire baseball games through threats of ejection over nothing to baseless accusations of rule breaking? We just had 3 days in a tournament with the same umpires. One was fine, but the other was a complete control freak. He was calling the game with an assumption of malice with even the slightest of infractions. He gave the opposing team no less than 5 runs due to his constant micromanaging. he ejected a player with no warning over contact with a basemans glove. He seemed to come to the game with an obvious issue with my team, which I still cannot understand.

At one point he even accused me of roster manipulation when i simply asked him to explain why my player was ejected for supposed leaning into and attempting to injure the baseman while coming back to first while in the midst of a feet first slide and the only contact made was with the basemans glove. I then asked him why he just accused me of roster tampering when I had heard nothing from league officials or the opposing teams coaches. at which time he walked away from my dugout and spoke no further on it.

An inning later I had to bring in my closer and suddenly the other coaches want to see proof of my roster and ages. I showed them the proof and asked why it was an issue now and they claimed they thought i had new players since we played last time. I proved this to be completely false and proved my roster had the same kids on it minus two (who left for vacation) the entire season.

This umpire had been in the very least communicating either with coaches or parents on the opposing team at some point it was painfully obvious. His claim of roster tampering BEFORE the accusations from the opposing team coaches, show my point.

Incidentally it turned out of the 6 teams in our tournament only 2 teams (one being mine) did not have extra players on their rosters.

I am not the only team to face similar issues with this umpire in our area. Is there anything I as a coach can do about this?
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piaa_umppiaa_ump5,000+ posts
There really isnt much you can do while the tournament is going on, except go to the Tournament Director.....or as Yaw states, go the board of the league or the Umpires association.....

Having been the Director of Umpiring for numerous tournaments, this is where I would start...

Since this is your first post, when answering questions, we usually take the situation posted for face value ....(your side of the story, so to speak)

That being said, there are people who get into umpiring for the wrong reasons...they can be highly knowlegable and experienced, yet not have the temprement for the game.....

I'd like to comment on two points though.....

1. The ejection for malicious contact is a judgment call on the umpire and its hard/impossible to comment on the validity or not of the call....its only his opinion that counts...

2.Roster Manipulation- As a past TD and TD-Umpiring, I've dealt with many cases of roster manipulations to outright overage ringers...BUT that is not the game umpires concern....when I do a tourney game, I dont know the players, I dont know if they are eligible, I just umpire the two teams out there....let the TD's decide the rest....its not our job to police the rosters...

The last thing you can do is vote with your feet.....if thats what habitually happens in this tourney...dont go back....

Welcome to the HSBBW...
Michael S. TaylorMichael S. Taylor1,000+ posts
Definitely need to talk with the TD or higher. When you do, have a very specific set of circumstances, a series of situations to support your complaint. You will not get much credence if you go talk to the TD and just say the umpire is the worst you have ever seen and he is targeting your team. That just sounds like a coach complaining.

The other thing to do is to think honestly about your interactions with him early in the tournament, did you make him mad, even inadvertantly. It doesn't excuse his actions but it may explain some things.

If you can identify such a situation then when you talk to the TD, you can say we had this altercation and he may have been mad from this but he did X,Y,Z and that isn't right.
Last edited by piaa_ump
G gslack10+ posts
thank you all for your time and responses. They are much appreciated and I do intend to take all of your recommendations. And thank you for the welcome!

I just want to say I have umpired a few LL and BL games in a pinch and do appreciate that it is a thankless job, as well as setting oneself up for unpopularity among friends and neighbors. Along with that I do realize coaches all too often read too much into a bad or even good call especially in a tournament. That being said, I am generally not given to thoughts of umpires being against one team or another. But this was an extreme case by any measure.

Again I thank you for your responses.
piaa_umppiaa_ump5,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by gslack:
I just want to say I have umpired a few LL and BL games in a pinch and do appreciate that it is a thankless job, as well as setting oneself up for unpopularity among friends and neighbors..


For me, Umpiring is not a thankless job ....oh, I have had a few thankless moments for sure.........but all in all, Im proud, happy and satisfied with my role in the game.....
Last edited by piaa_ump

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