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1st inning in a 14U game against a rival team (many of the kids go to the same school) that we probably will beat 9 out of 10 times – our park. Umpire is calling strikes on curve balls that cut the plate and finish inside – called it both ways. One parent for the other team is mouthing off the whole time.

Blue finally turns and tells the parent if he keeps it up he will be in the parking lot. The parent mouths right back. Blue warns him 3 times in total and the coach does nothing. 4th time he warns the coach that the parent will be ejected if he doesn’t stop – the coach does nothing. Blue finally ejects the parent.

You won’t believe what happened next. The coach pulls his team calling the Umpire a Homer and they forfeit. This all occurred in the span of 5 minutes in the 1st inning.

I have known Blue for 4 years and he is an upright guy. He is the first to admit he blew a call (hasn’t happened often) and approaches the game with a smile on his face. I felt for him because I think he felt he did a disservice to the boys playing the game.

In my 40 plus years of watching sports I have never seen anything like this. To all you guys in Blue – you should be paid on a sliding scale based on how big of a jerk the coach is. Don’t get me wrong, I have voiced my opinion on “bad” calls and have seen guys who just had bad days…but a coach pulling the team from the field – unreal.
To our military men, women and families - You are all awesome - that flag is yours and I thank you for the opportunity for giving me the honor of removing my cap prior to every baseball game I see.
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From my experience, the coach at a youth game has a responsibility to keep his players' parents under control. While he doesn't have to agree with the umpire's call, he should respect his authority. If I were a parent of one of these young men, I would be far less concerned with the umpire's strike zone than with the kids' learning to deal with adversity and growing through it. Even more, what about the lessons these kids are learning from this coach by example? (Baseball/Life analogies...)
I run into this problem when I coached a 12U team. A couple of parents were mouthing off to the ump because they didn't like his strike zone. The ump calls me over in between innings and tells me to take care of the problem or we would have to forfiet. I go over to the parents and just tell them to keep quiet or we lose. Simple as that. No problem the rest of the game.

I think it's a shame that the coach has to disipline the parents while their kids are in the dugout watching it happen.

This coach should have taken care of the problem. Forfieting the game because of one nut is very unfair to both teams.

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