Hey the parents were right for once, but they're still wrong.

[Umpire in Chief]

Saturday I had a 10 y/o AAU game. My partner is behind the plate. Batter has two strikes, and foul tips it for the third strike. My partner gives his foul-tip mechanic. The batter stays in the box. My partner then kindly tells the batter that was strike three and he's out. The kid just happily trots to the dugout with a big ol Kool Aid grin. But the parents and one of the coaches are going nuts, "He tipped it Blue!" One moron kept yelling from directly behind the back stop, he wasn't going to stop and kept getting louder. My partner initially ignored him, but the coach comes out. They talked for a second and the coach goes away shaking his head. Then daddy starts up again, "You're horrible! You're the only one here who doesn't seem to know he tipped the GD ball."

I wish I remembered what he said back to him exactly but it went along the lines of, 'You're right sir, he did tip the ball. But I seem to be the only one who knows a foul tip is not a foul ball and the batter is out."

I actually laughed out loud. But it got daddy to STFU. These kids could care less and were just happy to be outside playing baseball. A perfect example of parrents ruining a good game for their kids.

[PeteBooth]

Saturday I had a 10 y/o AAU game. My partner is behind the plate. Batter has two strikes, and foul tips it for the third strike. My partner gives his foul-tip mechanic. The batter stays in the box. My partner then kindly tells the batter that was strike three and he's out. The kid just happily trots to the dugout with a big ol Kool Aid grin. But the parents and one of the coaches are going nuts, "He tipped it Blue!" One moron kept yelling from directly behind the back stop, he wasn't going to stop and kept getting louder. My partner initially ignored him, but the coach comes out. They talked for a second and the coach goes away shaking his head. Then daddy starts up again, "You're horrible! You're the only one here who doesn't seem to know he tipped the GD ball."

I wish I remembered what he said back to him exactly but it went along the lines of, 'You're right sir, he did tip the ball. But I seem to be the only one who knows a foul tip is not a foul ball and the batter is out."

I actually laughed out loud. But it got daddy to STFU. These kids could care less and were just happy to be outside playing baseball. A perfect example of parrents ruining a good game for their kids

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Warren perhaps a thread of it's own but your OP is typcial of "kiddie ball"

The kids could care less but the coaches / parents - well you know the drill.

Also, IMO, this league needs to address the following:

Then daddy starts up again, "You're horrible! You're the only one here who doesn't seem to know he tipped the GD ball."

It's not our job to decipline fans but IMO, the Pres of this league needs to do something. Here in a 10/U game we have a parent cursing. It's time to say to this parent "By By"

ZERO tolerance policies should be in place. You and your partner handled the situation professionally but typically in 10/U ball you have kids umpiring the games and you do not want a parent cursing them out.

Pete Booth

[Umpire in Chief]

I was thinking the same thing at the time the parent yelled that. But my partner did well. I might have been a bit more mouthy at that point back to the parent. Unfortunately with AAU there's no centralized reporting authority to take care of these issues. It really is a bit like the wild west of baseball. Pay to play at its finest.

I will say though, my partner and I agreed that this was the best quality of play either of us had seen at the 10 y/o level.