Taunting the pitcher?

[chapelhillbilly]

We were at a 10U tournament over the weekend and the other team severly taunted our pitchers to the point where it affected her performance. We had the same umps for the first two pool games and then 2 additional tournament games. During the last game we got new umps and the lady ump put a stop to it immediately. She said teammates were allowed to cheer as in "3, 2 whatcha gonna do walk her, walk her. But when you specifically called the pitcher by name it was against the rules. My question is, do any of ya'll see this type of behavior often in travel tournaments? This is our 2nd year (3rd season) in kid pitch and this is the first I've really seen where it was so blatantly distracting. They would yell pressure pitcher over and over until right before she went into the wind up and then scream at the top of their lungs. I know that the pitcher is supposed to block that type of thing out but it was hard for us in the stands to block it out and we were sitting clear on the other side of the field. The poor pitchers were just a few feet away from them. Our coaches have never allowed our team to do much if any taunting. They encourage them to cheer our team on and not to be unsportsmanlike. We ended up losing to them by 1 run for the championship. I don't think their taunting cost us the game or anything but it sure didn't help us out.

 

[SoCalDad]

I have a serious problems with umps who do not take taunting or unsportsmanlike behavior seriously. Cheering is part of softball but there are limits. When it becomes personal or is intended to denigrate another player or team it has passed the line. ASA SoCal has a code of conduct posted on its website and the very first bullet addresses this issue. I have seen a few tournaments recently that have added a sportsmanship rule and I would encourage anyone on this board who is running a tournament to add this rule to their local tournament rules. At the bottom of this message I have posted a version of the sportsmanship rule I added to my local leagues tournament rules this year.

SOCAL ASA : Softball
Standards of conduct are part of the ASA National Code and Southern California Rules and Regulations. Every ASA member shall respect these standards. A manager, coach, player, or other individual(s) affiliated with the team shall not violate any of the following:

Unsportsmanlike conduct or any derogatory action on or off the playing field.

Sportsmanship Rule
For the purposes of these rules a Play refers to the duration of one players time at-bat and a teams Term at-bat refers to a teams half-inning, which begins when the third out of the previous inning is made and continues until the third out of the team at-bat occurs. -

The umpire has the authority to assess one out per play against he offending team for excessive protests, arguments, complaints or behavior not appropriate in a recreation sports setting. Throwing a bat, glove, rude gestures, insulting or disparaging remarks, or baiting or taunting opposing players or game officials would be examples of such actions. Such conduct exhibited by a player, coach or team representative will be penalized. Actions of players and/or coaches during the teams final out of their term at bat and/or prior to them taking the field on defense shall be carried over to the teams next term at bat. Actions of players and/or coaches during pre-game activities, which occur after the umpires have entered the field of play, will be enforced during the teams first at term bat. All outs (charged either on offense or defense) will be assessed against the offending TEAM during their term at bat. Only one "unsportsmanlike" out may be assessed per play with a maximum of two (2) per term at bat. Incidents of continued or excessive unsportsmanlike conduct will subject the individual(s) to ejection from the game. A player/coach/ or team representative ejected from the game will not have a un-sportsmanship out called against them. The Unsportsmanlike penalty "out" will be assessed as a TEAM OUT and will not affect any batter or base runner (all action stands). For scoring purposes, the putout will be credited to the catcher.

 

[sluggers]

Where do they get the coaches?

But, I watched the Louisville v. Syracuse game today, and the assistant coach for Syracuse came out screaming at the umpire in the 7th inning after the ump called an illegal pitch. It went way beyond simply disagreeing vigorously with the ump. He got right in her face and was yelling at her. It was ridiculous.

 

[tojo]

I saw the incident in the Louisville vs. Syracuse game, but tuned in late. The announcer said something about the amount of IPs' called prior to the incident during the game. What did I miss? Regardless of what happened earlier, the coach was over the top in his protest of the call.

 

[CoachFP]

Sluggers, I saw it too. But I agree with what he did and so did the Syracuse head coach. He was expendable. The ump was being ridiculous with this illegal pitch business. It was either illegal every time or not at all. This pitcher did not do anything different when it was called versus when it wasn't. Guess what, it wasn't called again!

 

[sluggers]

First, to put this in context, the NCAA released a video about "Illegal Pitches" in March or April of 2010. Here it is:

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The video is telling umpires to call an illegal pitch if there is any air whatsoever under the pitcher's push off foot.

The Syracuse pitcher was called for 18 or so illegal pitches. If you slowed down the video of her pitching, she was illegal on *ALL* of her pitches. The umpires didn't call all of them, although perhaps they should have. The pitcher clearly didn't know how to push off and drag her foot.

 

[obbay]

Taunting the pitcher can be bush league. I posted a question about this maybe a year ago. I make sure my girls cheer on our team but do not get unsportsmanlike when it comes to the other team. Loud screams sync'd with the pitcher's wind up irritates the crap out of me, regardless of which team is doing the yelling. Even if I don't have a dog in that fight, I find it ****.

Play like the college players and cheer like the college players.


EDITED FOR SAYING NAUGHTY WORD.

 

[chapelhillbilly]

Well and what kind of irked me about it was that after the game when they were handing out the trophies their coach made a comment about two teams playing well and showing sportsmanship. I was thinking you got the first part right but only one team showed sportsmanship. One of the parents made a comment that our team should do the same to them when they were pitching. I said no we were NOT teaching our girls that two wrongs make a right. The best revenge was to play a good game and strike out their batters.

(By the way I'm posting again. I decided ya'll were right and I shouldn't let things get to me. I'm working on it)

 

[sluggers]

I said no we were NOT teaching our girls that two wrongs make a right.

You'll never make it as a travel ball coach. You are acting like an adult.

 

[chapelhillbilly]

LOL. You're probably right.