Here is the sitch...
Playing in a tourney this weekend. Lots of good higher end teams from the midwest. A good mix of local and out of state teams. Before the game at the plate conference ump's pre-game speech includes a little bit about his take on sportsmanship and safety. First batter hits a single and then steals 2nd. Next batter hits a long line drive to score the runner on 2nd. There is no play at home and the outfielder try's to gun down the runner heading into 2nd as he is trying to stretch what is normally a single into a double. While the play is being made at 2nd the catcher is about 2 feet behind home plate standing there watching the play. The runner coming into home (after being told to take it easy by the on-deck batter) decides to hook slide into home plate. Its pretty obvious that his intentions are to take out the catcher as he slides in with cleats up. Pretty much everyone, including the home plate ump, sees what's happening. The catcher is able to jump out of the way of the sliding player. After the play the ump calls time and warns the player that he will not accept play like that. Our coach goes out to ask why, in light of his pre-game speech about not accepting un-sportsman like play, he did not toss the kid. The umps response is that the kid did not actually take out our catcher. If he would have knocked him over then he would have tossed him. IMO the intent was there and regardless of what happened the kid should have been tossed. Throughout the rest of the game you could see the umps strike zone opening up a lot wider every time this kid came up to bat.
In the end this did not cost us the game (we lost 2-0 in a good game) so it really doesn't matter. I'm not overly ticked about the non-tossing just wanted others opinion on how the ump handled the situation. FYI, this is at the 15U level so most of the kids are going into either their HS Soph or Jr. seasons.
