Previous Poll (Most Often Ejection) Results: Our previous poll, Polls: He Gone, asked who you eject most often when you eject a person. Combining your votes on the blog and on our Facebook page, we see a strong trend. For the purposes of which level of ball these ejections occur in, we refer to Polls: Umpiring Experience, in which most UEFL'ers umpire organized youth (including High School) leagues (Total Votes: 231):
- Managers & Coaches - 62% - Especially at the organized youth levels (from Little League to High School), coaches are the unquestionable captains of the ship. As such, coaches tend to be the team representative to have the most interaction with umpires over close calls and tough plays. This simply gives coaches the greatest chance of being ejected. This isn't to say that coaches aren't ejected at the recreational (unorganized), adult, or professional levels, but coach ejections tend to comprise a larger proportion of those ejected most often in organized youth & school sport.
- Players - 31% - On the field, players outnumber coaches anywhere from 5-9:1, yet according to our poll at our levels and in our proportions, their "most often ejected" numbers are only half of their coaches' respective numbers. This reflects the notion above, that players give way to coaches, that players at these levels by and large behave more politely, and that players are still in it to have fun, rather than to win or make money (at the amateur level, let's at least hope that last one is true).
- Spectator: Parent - 6% - Backing the notion that players are well behaved and they leave arguments to the adults, it appears parents at times feel responsibility in speaking for their children. Parents by and large tend to be ejected (or removed) from their younger child's games, wherein the association between parent ejection #s and player's age tends to be inversely proportional.
- Spectator: Other - <1% - Simply put, fans are fans, and by the time fans care who care about the team rather than the team's players (their children) enter into the picture, the stands are probably far enough removed, the number of fans far more significant, and the ambient noise loud enough, that the umpire doesn't notice any particular individual of this variety of fan as much.
Current Poll: In your opinion, of the following what is the most difficult call to make? You may consider any level of ball in which you have worked or have observed/watched and you may place yourself at any position in which you believe you would have primary responsibility for such a call (e.g., HP, 1B, or 3B for Check Swings, 2B for Lob to Base, etc.).
What is the toughest call to make?
