I had a new one this weekend.
As our catcher set up to receive pitches, the plate umpire would bend down and put his fist in our catcher's back. (The 12u catcher said she felt it was impending her ability to react to the ball, whether in the dirt, outside, inside, etc.) After she told me this between innings, I watched to see if he was doing this to the opposing catcher as well. He was not. When the following half inning rolled around, I immediately noticed he started doing this to our catcher again, prompting my player to glance at our dugout as she was obviously upset and I called time and went out to discuss this with the umpire. I tried to discretely tell him what was going, and I made sure to note that I did not believe this was intentional. I couldn't believe the umpire's reaction - he blew up and me and told me he never touched our catcher. After telling him that I just saw him do it, he tried to spin the story that he only touched her when she leaned back into him. From my perspective, I only lost my cool after he said this was the most ridiculous thing he's every heard - where I proceeded to ask him if he was calling a 12-year-old ridiculous?
To be fair, I have seen umpires touch catchers before as they are setting up, but not as they are receiving the ball, and certainly not by putting a fist in the catcher's back.
As our catcher set up to receive pitches, the plate umpire would bend down and put his fist in our catcher's back. (The 12u catcher said she felt it was impending her ability to react to the ball, whether in the dirt, outside, inside, etc.) After she told me this between innings, I watched to see if he was doing this to the opposing catcher as well. He was not. When the following half inning rolled around, I immediately noticed he started doing this to our catcher again, prompting my player to glance at our dugout as she was obviously upset and I called time and went out to discuss this with the umpire. I tried to discretely tell him what was going, and I made sure to note that I did not believe this was intentional. I couldn't believe the umpire's reaction - he blew up and me and told me he never touched our catcher. After telling him that I just saw him do it, he tried to spin the story that he only touched her when she leaned back into him. From my perspective, I only lost my cool after he said this was the most ridiculous thing he's every heard - where I proceeded to ask him if he was calling a 12-year-old ridiculous?
To be fair, I have seen umpires touch catchers before as they are setting up, but not as they are receiving the ball, and certainly not by putting a fist in the catcher's back.