Dugout Restrictions

It means you can't leave the dugout except to attend to an injured player.  That's all.  You are still running the team, and you can still have conferences, just not on the field (the players can come to you).

Once you have been restricted to the dugout you are not allowed to come out of the dugout for any reason, except to tend to an injured player.  If you do come out for any other reason, you are ejected.  You can still coach, but not outside of the dugout. 

You can have conferences just outside of the dugout but you can't go out into the field to conference.

Alright. Thanks. I had a coach restricted last weekend who later got tossed for giving signs to a base runner. Just trying to sort it out.

If all he did was give signs to a baserunner (from the dugout), that's a bad EJ.

Agreed. I have an email from the Chapter VP confirming that. And I have the ejection report clearly stating that's why he was ejected. Just trying to figure out how to handle it now.

too late now.........in future, have coaches try not to get restricted......

I have never restricted a head coach to the dugout or an assistant for that matter. If I did, I would allow him to step out to have a conference. I'm envisioning the conference being with several players and the coach not being more than a couple of feet from the dugout opening. It also depends on the dugout configuation. This is just good game management in my opinion. Don't pick buggers.

There's only a few things that I can think of off the top of my head that would get a head coach restricted. Not being in uniform, not coming to the plate meeting, assistant coach getting ejected with a HC restriction, all come to mind.

If a head coach has to be warned for a violation, then an ejection should follow if the warning is not heeded. I would never restrict a coach after giving a warning.

Thanks for the flippant advice. Actually it's not too late, we have an appeal process, because once in a blue moon an umpire gets something wrong. 

Getting ejected is a pretty big deal down here, and if I can save a coach further embarrassment based on an umpires misunderstanding of the process/rule I'm going to. 

My guy wasn't right to get restricted and he knows that, but he also wasn't deserving of an ejection.

Yep... always seems they are never deserving of an ejection... 

I agree that he shouldn't have to serve any further punishment for an incorrect ejection. What did he do to get restricted? To be honest, I have never had restriction enter my mind on the field. My thought process is, warn, if possible, then eject. I am willing to learn situations where it could be used. 

In FED there are situations where the rule specifically calls for a benching, right?

Yes.

I, personally, do not restrict unless required to by rule. Even though the state is pushing restriction as an intermediary step, I have not done it unless required, and I have never had any backlash. However, all of my HS EJs have been ACs and players, so restriction is more limited by rule and less appropriate in fact.

My personal opinion is that benchings  are worthless.  Either a coach or player has committed a violation serious enough to be ejected, or they haven't.  I'd rather walk away than bench.

Yes, there are situations that require restriction by rule, never had one. There are situations where you can restrict instead of tossing, never considered it. Actually I tossed an asst two years ago which should have caused the manager to be restricted. I screwed that up, tossed the coach but let the manager to carry on as normal. In that game that was the correct thing to do, but the fact remains, I kicked it. 

I think you're either in or out. If you're out leave. If you're in you can coach you're team.

There is not place for time out in HS baseball.

FED has tried to put the timeout in place.  It is to keep the players playing (since supervision is required).  My response to that is either 1) have multiple coaches or another school employee present so that if the coach goes, the kids can keep playing or 2) don't do something that will get you run.  The only time I considered restricting is when rule told me I had to (more so in softball than baseball as there is more offenses that can cause a restriction).

Well, by letter of the rule he wasn't. Really not much debate there. He was ejected for giving signs from the dugout while restricted. So are you saying you would have ejected him for that?

Again, not condoning any of his actions. We've met about the situation. But the umpire handled it incorrectly as well.

Over-arguing and being an dummy in general. Again, I'm not excusing any coach, myself included, for arguing belligerently, disrespecting umpires, etc. A lot of times coaches are wrong and deserving of what they get.

For perspective's sake: they umpire tried to delay the start of the game until we removed our tarp from the field as it was a safety hazard. 

Mind you, the tarp is neatly rolled and covered down the left field line by the bullpen, about 20-25 ft from the foul line, pretty much like every single field in HS baseball, and we've played games that way for 20 years, literally, on this field. But this guy decided it was a safety issue and needed to be moved. Thankfully his partner talked him out of it. 

So that's what we're dealing with down here. 

So you were restricted also, correct? Did the umpire have anything to say about you not coaching. I had a new umpire several years ago do a similar thing to a coach. I made it very clear to him that the coach can do everything he normally does except leave the dugout. 

Well, to be fair, he can't argue with you from the dugout anymore, either.

No, sir. This  was at a JV game. They play same time, opposite site from our varsity so I wasn't there. That was a large part of my problem is he was literally the only coach there.