Handling Those Situations Part 1

At our first clinic this year Garret quoted Jim Evans saying, "95% of this game can call itself". There will be games that you are in the field and really don't make many calls. You still have to work your butt off by busting to the correct position and work hard. You may signal safe, foul, or outs but nothing close. This is normal, this is baseball. However there will be games that you constantly are calling those bang-bang plays or ruling on weird situations (the other 5 %). Those games will drain you, so be prepared. We are there to do a job and that is to call that game. It can be fun and it can be a bit rough at times. You will learn this with experience. There will be days that nobody says a word and days where half to everyone may hate you. That is part of the job. There will be times a coach tests you to see your limits to see how much he can get away with. There also will be times a coach goes off for little reason or very good reason. Ejections happen. They should not happen often, but they happen. So I wanted to give a simple post about handling situations. This should be new to all of the rookies and may serve as a refresher to the vets.

Simply, Don't take it! That does not mean you have to be a red A@# and go looking for trouble. What that means is that you should be approachable by coaches and able to discuss situations with them, yet not taking remarks and inappropriate actions from them. There is a balance. You will learn this with proper training and experience. Always ask your peers and veterans, "did I handle this right?" That is what this is all about.


Steps to Handling those Situations

Step 1 Ignore
a. Ignore what they say. Example: "Come on Blue be consistent, that ball was up. That is
terrible!"
b. Ignoring someone who wants attention will frustrate them.

Step 2 Acknowledgment
a. Take a look at the coach
b. It can be verbal, "I hear you Mike!"
c. Acknowledge that you heard them, do not move toward them, and you may possibly give
them the stop sign with your hand

Step 3 Warn
a. Step out from your position
b. Verbal, "Coach this is your warning"
c. At that moment write down your warning on your line up card
d. He has now had a verbal and physical warning
e. Be prepared to act on your warning

Step 4 Restrict/Eject
a. The coach has been warned
b. In Fed rules coaches may be restricted to the dugout instead of being ejected. Verbal:
"Coach, you are restricted to the dugout for the remainder of the game."
c. Be prepared for an ejection. Typically coaches do not like to be restricted and feel they may as
well be ejected.
d. If there is an argument with a call you can use this verbal mechanic, "Coach, if you do not immediately go back (or stop complaining from the dugout) you will leave the game."
e. Give a strong, yet not over the top, ejection mechanic and prepare for the fallout :)

Tomorrow we can continue with this in Part Deux. We will possibly discuss what to do during the arguments and after the ejections regarding partner help.