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[justadad]

What are the official rules on players taunting opponents whether it be on the field of play or from the dugout? What is allowed and what isn't and what are penalties for violations? Over the years I've seen incidents I considered blatantly inappropriate but umpires (or coaches) didn't do or say anything so they must not have been. I don't want to point fingers, I'd just like to know ground truth so I don't open my yap in error.

[ChinMusic]

Been apart of the game since it was created. Its evolved from "Hey, batter, batter" to many different things today. I feel that some taunting (personal attacks on a player) should not be allowed, but everything else is fair game. Look at last year's KHS vs WoHS game for example. Mays was accused of taunting by KHS fans and coaches for simply plunking Cave on accident and doing a fist pump and screaming "Ah!" after a huge strikeout. From there, coaches and fans both began to personally attack the young man (I do believe I remember KHS head Coach Ox calling him "gutless" and a "P****"). However, the umpires didn't see anything unsportsman-like and didn't take any action in response to his. Like it or not, the Umpires have the final say!

[Baseballnut]

One of the things about baseball is that unwritten rule of players showing the other team up. I was at the Hampton/Kecoughtan game and Hampton's pitcher was showing up Kecoughtan after striking them out with verbal "sitdown" to even making gestures. Needless to say that if you play ball long enough you know as a player those antics will not stand. The Kecoughtan pitcher who is seasoned in the game plunked that pitcher when he came to bat. The umps didn't do anything about it, which they shouldn't have. In my opinion coaches need to regulate their players and if they can't, this sort of thing is going to happen. High school or not it is part of the game. When my son played in the PD, back in the 80's it was nothing to throw at hitters for antics like that. If you don't want that to happen play the game right!

[justadad]

But what are the official rules, not what one parent thinks is ok for their son to do but not ok for someone else's to do to them! I know the "it's been a part of the game forever" argument but so has been intentionally throwing at batters and charging the mound neither of which are allowed in HS sports. I've seen mention of catchers not being allowed to say things to batters in HS unlike in the Pros and think I've also read pitchers aren't allowed to say or do things to individual players as well but want the references

So that's my question: "What are the official rules of conduct?" Unfortunately, when I did a search for official HS rules on line, they are unavailable unless you're a "member" and pay a fee (and I tried to do that but wasn't allowed). I'm guessing that's to keep spectators from being able to intelligently question umpire's calls otherwise they'd be readily available for anybody to reference (they claimed it was because copyrighted material was being freely distributed but since when are rules copyrighted?).

Evidently, telling batters to "sit down" after striking them out is totally acceptable so I would recommend all pitchers in the PD start doing that. We could extend that to outfielders catching flies as well as infielders making outs yelling for the batter to "sit down." An extension to that would be to mock the pitcher when you get a hit or an infielder when he makes an error ("nice throw") while clapping your hands . That all clearly is acceptable behavior. As long as you don't call them a name and get "personal." That would make "sit down, fat boy" or "sit down, loser" unacceptable.

[Dave Johnson]

I guess I sound like an old fuddy-duddy when I say it's sad to see kids not respecting the game.

[jb1edlover]

Umpires have have the power to "stop the garbage" however as a coach (in a different sport) if one of my players were to "taunt" someone I'd put an immediate stop to it. If there happened to be a second time they'd be out of the game...period. The umpire can enforce it but it's the coaches job to control his/her players. Coaches that don't put a stop to it are saying "it's ok to do it".

[Dave Johnson]

I'm with you, jb ... I could have a kid one out away from a perfect game, and if he taunted an opponent his butt would be in the dugout.
But as I say, I'm an old fuddy-duddy.