It finally happened, had to physically deal with an opposing coach
Have been coaching travel ball for a few years, and finally had to deal with an absolute garbage human who shouldn't be coaching.
Quick backstory: we had our (11AA) first tourney of the year last weekend, and found ourselves matched up with some very high performing teams. In pool play we lost by getting 15-runned twice, putting us in either last, or second-to-last in the rankings at the end of the day.
The following day was bracket play, and we were in a play-in game for the consolation bracket with another team that got walloped in pool play. They were the B-team of a club, and their A-team was one of the teams that demolished us the day before. The coaches are paid guys, not dads, and all in their early-mid 20s. So we went in with the attitude that we were here to play our best baseball, enjoy the setting with our boys, and learn some stuff early in the season.
Fast-foward to the bottom of the final inning. We're up by 5, my son's pitching and one of the other coaches' son is catching. The opposing team is rallying a bit, but still a few runs back. They've got a runner on 3rd with 2 outs. The 3rd base coach catches my son being a little inattentive after a pitch while marching back to the mound, and sends the baserunner. We yell from the dugout, my son reacts, throws home, catcher tags him. End of game.
3rd base coach charges the ump, absolutely losing his mind. The catcher (a pretty fearless 11 year old) looks right at the coach and says "I tagged him", the coach gets in the catcher's face and says "shut your fucking mouth kid". Realizing that that was absolutely out of bounds for any adult in any situation, we raced out there. Head coach says "don't talk to my boys that way" to the reply "whaddaygonna do about it???" and posturing like he's ready to throw down. Suddenly, all of us grown-ass men in our 40s are realizing that we're thrust into a situation where we may have to physically defend ourselves and our kids.
The umps did a good job de-escalating, but it was wild. The idea that these guys are "paid professionals" and this is how they act in a Last vs. 2nd-to-Last play-in game for a consolation bracket for 11 year old baseball is absolutely wild to me. If I were a parent of a kid on that team, I'd pull em off the next day.
Is this really how people act?