Entire Team Decides to Hit Umpire After “Bad Call”

Entire Team Decides to Hit Umpire After “Bad Call”

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With the bases loaded, the pitcher throws a good pitch down the middle of the plate. The umpire calls the pitch “ball 4”. The batter takes a “walk” to first base, forcing each base runner to the next base. This results in a “scored run” as the runner on third advances to home plate.

The coach calls “time” and the entire defensive team meets at the pitcher’s mound. After about 30 seconds, the huddle breaks. On the next pitch, the pitcher throws another pitch right over the plate. However, this time, the catcher deliberately moves to her right, and the ball hits the umpire directly in the head. This required communication and coordination to pull this off.

Joe’s Perspective: This is as clear of a case of poor sportsmanship as I have ever seen. The coach called the time out. He met with 6 players. They talked and must have decided on a plan. Not one of the players said, “Hey, wait a minute…” Nope. They all agreed that this umpire needs to be taught a lesson. I’ve seen a lot in my years of watching sports, but I have never seen such a sinister plot to hurt someone on the field of play.

If you watch the video and know anything about softball/baseball, you will know how this ended. However, pretend you don’t know how it ended. Put yourself in the umpire’s shoes. How would you handle this situation? Would would be your call? How would it play out?

Your Turn: If you were the umpire, how would you handle this situation? Would it go beyond this game?

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  1. The best thing to do would probably be to talk it out with the coach’s and see what their reasoning was. Tell them that it could have been made an easier way and also tell them that if he wasn’t doing the best he could have been told face to face.

  2. Honestly I would be so angry at the coach for putting that idea in the kids head of hitting me on purpose. I would tell the coach that that was so unsportsmanlike and make him sit down and not go back on the field for any more time outs and make him talk to that catcher

  3. Honestly I would be so angry at the coach for putting that idea in the kids head of hitting me on purpose. I would tell the coach that that was so unsportsmanlike and make him sit down and not go back on the field for any more time outs and make him talk to that catcher

  4. I think the best thing to do would be to talk with the coaches about the situation. I don’t think I would push it beyond this game

  5. I feel like the best thing to do is to talk it out with the coach and see why he let his players do that. For the ump, I would’ve asked why the coach didn’t go to him right away and talk it through before pushing it to far.

  6. I feel like the best thing to do is talk to coach and ask why he didn’t go right to him in the first place instead of pushing it too far

  7. I think the best thing that could be done in this type of situation would be to talk with the players and coaches individually not making the situation worse and letting them know that if they have an issue they should address it and not react the way that they had as this was poor sportsmanship and could have lead to injury and or something worse.

  8. I would probably give the coach some sort of suspension maybe even talk to the league and see what they do because this sort of unsportsmanlike act shouldn’t be taught to kids, and shouldn’t be taught to do such things. Who knows what else he plans with his players, this just shows how bad of a coach he really is.

  9. If I were the umpire, I would look to who I could talk to about the situation. I think the situation was unfair and uncalled for, so I believe that the umpire should take the incident to first, the coaches, and then the governing body of officials who could decide what actions could be taken.

  10. If I was the umpire, I would immediately eject the players involved. Then I might even take this situation to the league directors to see if a bigger punishment would be needed.

  11. I believe the situation must be talked out. Even after talking though, the players involved and the coach must be ejected. The umpire must also go to a higher authority of the league as well and see if the team will be ejected from further play. This situation cannot be tolerated. This umpire could have been seriously hurt and it simply comes down to respect and safety.

  12. If I were the umpire I would eject the coach and all the players that participated In the action, then I would escalate the situation to a higher power in the league or association.

    1. They need to take more initiative, I think they need to talk to the athlete and coaches and decide what to do with him for the rest of the game.they need to make the best decision for the team the games and the coaches overall.

  13. At the end of the day the ump did his job and maybe called the wrong call but the players have no obligation to throw fists. The coach should have never put that in their heads and should be fired.

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      Author

      Dylan, you are the first to suggest that the coach should be fired. I agree 100%. Essentially, he conspired with his players to get them to intentionally hurt another player. This isn’t just being a poor sport. This type of person with this type of mentality should not be around the game or young people. If I were a parent, I would immediately pull my child from the team and not allow her to play for this coach. If my daughter was involved in that huddle, I would also be punishing her personally for not doing the right thing in that moment.

  14. the best way to react is professionally however aggravating it is you stay professional no matter how wrong it is. you would they were just meeting and talking about whatever but you didn’t know they were plotting to intentionally hurt you. then i would talk to the coach and tell them that it was obviously on purpose

  15. I would have kept my cool, but obviously thrown them out after a move like that. I feel like talking to the coach after that isnt needed because he already showed his feelings towards you, the best is to just throw them out and walk away.

  16. Honestly I’ll be very angry at the Coach for putting those kind of ideas in those children’s head, it’s very unsportsmanlike and really childish of him.

  17. If I was in the umpire and had bad sportsmanship I would try to be better but if the coaches would recognize that bad behavior they would need to do what is best for the team and when there competing against other teams .

  18. At the end of the day even if the umpire made the wrong call, plotting against him was unnecessary. I personally think the coach should be fired and the players need to have a talk about sportsmanship.

  19. I would be so disappointed with the coach for putting the idea into the players but also the player for going along with it. It’s understandable if they’re angry but there was no reason for it to result in them hurting another person. I would talk to the entire team and ask them about the whole situation then proceed from there.

  20. I would keep it cool but I would either like card them after or talk to the coach and ask why he’d let his players do that and honestly I would feel some type of way

  21. I would be upset but I would continue to be professional no matter how unprofessional that situation was. Of course though there has to be consequences because that is unacceptable as a coach. I was talk it out with the other officials to decide his punishment. Personally, I think he should be fired. No matter how unfair the umpire was, no “coach” would do that and involve the kids as well. The kids should have stepped and said something. Most likely there were afraid but still that is unacceptable.

  22. Even though the Coach and the player made a bad decision which could have ended badly. I would report the coach for bad sportsmanship and try to get the team ejected from the game. I would do this professionally while keeping my cool.

  23. I would talk to the coaches then the players and to find out what the reasoning of that was. Id be very upset at the fact the coaches put that in their players head, it’s very inappropriate and they would definitely not be allowed to play after that

  24. I would probably just leave. That’s totally unethical and unsportsmanlike. If you feel a way about a call you need to communicate that. I would leave.

  25. I would keep my composure and not react to it in an aggressive way. But after the game I would talk to the coaches to see if I could get some clarification on what the reason was but I would definitely lose all respect for the coach.

  26. My thoughts are forfeit rest of game coach gone for 2 years minimuim. Catcher and pitcher gone for a year. We as umpires are back there defenseless. We expect to not be targeted at all nor have a ball directed at our heads where our lives are put on the line. This is a hobby it’s not a job. We are not major league umpires at all. The catcher is our number one protector. If she’s not doing her job of catching or attempting to at least block the ball so we as umpires can do our job. It’s just recess for the kids then. Safety is the number one rule in the game. You take that out of our hands when you drill an umpire. Umpire will strike back he will take your car your house and live in easy street. Respect the game respect the umpires respect the players respect the coaches. Ask yourself this how would you feel if that was say your mom, your brother your dad or sister or a family member or family friend and they were doing the best they could. We can see up and down but not inside or out depending on where you sit.

  27. I think that sportsmanship is always need for every sport you are going for and that even if there’s been hard time between one another you have to keep it out of your sport.

  28. Eject the coach, catcher, and the pitcher. No talking it out. File a complaint with the league office. This could be viewed as an assault!