Yer outtaheah!!

Umpiring has been fairly routine of late, with fewer shifts than the plethora that I was assigned in May and June and those I did have being mostly unremarkable. But yesterday deviated from the norm when I ejected a player.

This makes four times that I've thrown someone out of a game in, what, eight years, I guess, if we don't count that year when nobody did much of anything. That's not many, and I probably should have tossed a couple of others that I let continue despite bad behavior. Point is, there is rarely cause for that sort of thing, and in this case, if the incident had occurred earlier in the day I might have let it go.

It was late in game four of the day, I'd been there for going on six hours, and it was playoffs (ergo a little more intensity on the part of some players). My patience had worn thin. We were playing at a field that has unusual boundaries, which is to say that in lieu of a fence the outfield is bordered by foliage. For the most part, this is manageable; we lose a lot more softballs there than elsewhere, but there's understanding among all involved what happens when a ball goes into the bushes. But there is also a huge tree that is mostly in foul ground but overhangs into fair territory in deepest left field, which has been a point of contention from time to time because umps who get assigned there that haven't worked that field before don't know how to handle it when a ball is hit and that tree deflects a fair ball. The written rule says that anything that hits the tree is a foul ball, but nobody likes that. (There's a similar rule at another field, but in that case the tree hangs over first base, it isn't deep in the outfield, so it's easier to tell from home plate what a ball might hit; also, it's thicker, so more likely that there'll be actual interference. It's easier to accept such a rule there.) Every new season at this field—and the majority of teams that play there are returnees from way way back—it gets a mention, and my solution has been to say to everyone, "OK, no one likes the idea of a ball hit into the fair side of the tree being called foul, so here's what we'll do: First, the tree will not be a factor unless it interferes with a ball in play. If a ball is hit at/near it and nothing is changed by the existence of the tree, it's a non-factor. On the other had, if a batted ball hits the tree and changes direction or otherwise impedes a fielder from making a play, it will be called dead and either ruled a ground-rule double or foul ball depending on what side of the line the ball is on when it hits." That gets uniform approval every time.

So here we are, late in game four—which I was not initially scheduled to be at, it was supposed to be a split-shift between me and another ump, but he'd called in sick—and this guy, I'll call him Vance (not his name), was on deck when his teammate hit one that barely grazed the tree and came down in left field to be played cleanly by the outfielder. I let it play on as a live ball as grazing the branch didn't affect anything. Vance insisted that it should be a dead ball, and got kind of worked up about it even though it would have changed nothing, the batter ended up with a double. I explained that there was no effect on the ball or the play, no need to invoke any weird tree rule. He didn't like that. Then he stepped in to hit, and between pitches he continued to complain about it; I told him, "STOP. We're done with that." Vance then hit an almost identical fly ball that may or may not have also nicked a leaf of the tree, proceeded unhindered, and was caught by the left fielder. I called Vance out and he lost his shit.

"IT HIT THE DAMN TREE!"

Instantly, I tossed him. "OUT OF THE GAME!" Van started to argue, I didn't let him, I repeated, "OUT. OF. THE. GAME." He collected his stuff from the dugout and stormed off to his car and drove away at speed. One factor in my instantaneous reaction may have been that Vance had been in my face a bit the week before for an utterly stupid reason, complaining that I hadn't given him enough time between innings to practice throws; I never give time for that purpose, if teams do infield practice between innings it's because for some reason not everyone else is ready to go yet. Once everyone is on field at their positions, it's time to go. I dismissed Vance without comment on that day, just ignored him rather than fuel an argument, but it was in the back of my mind when he was bitching about the tree. Not that the tree-bitching wasn't enough. Still, had it happened at, say, 1:30, before I'd been out in the sun all afternoon and before I'd had a number of players complain about balls and strikes or whathaveyou and before my feet started to hurt, it's likely I would have just given Vance a more formal warning rather than eject him. Things build up, you know.

Fortunately, his teammates were apologetic and didn't try to excuse Vance's behavior. For the rest of the shift I was antsy, gnashing my teeth a little, and just willing outs to be made so the game would end. When we were finally done, everyone was nice, a fairly standard end-of-game parting of ways. I started packing up the gear when some players from the third game of the day, who had stuck around to watch and drink beer and keep their social day going, came up to me wide-eyed and wanted to know what happened with Vance.

I like these folks, they're among my favorites to ump; a few of them even play against the Spuds in the Ballard Wednesday night league, so I kind of know them from different angles, if you will. So after I finished packing up I sat down on the bleachers and gave them the details, which also allowed me some valuable decompression. I could vent remaining steam and get some good feedback and support, and half an hour or so later I was much more relaxed and could head home sans teeth-gnashing.

For good or ill, Vance's team won that game in an upset, so they'll be there next Sunday for the playoff finals. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'll just ignore Vance as much as is reasonable and hope he doesn't make any more trouble.

Also, it was another full Sunday on the field and thus today was another of me being wiped out, nursing a headache, and not getting as much done as I wanted to. Alas.