This is so bad, it is laughable

[lawump]

https://sports.yahoo.com/umpire-tee-ball-wiffle-ball-164431084.html

[Richvee]

Call a kid safe who was really out because he hasn't got a hit yet.....Call a kid out who was really safe because the defense is struggling....

HAHA..I can just imagine that conversation with Daddy coach who the call went against.

[MadMax]

Quote

... coaches who think they’re managing a Major League squad, and crazy parents hellbent on living vicariously through their kids, umpiring youth baseball is no easy assignment. But without the men and women in blue, the game simply can’t be played — well, at least, not without a fair bit of fighting.

It’s a dog biting it’s own tail. The game can, or could, be played – largely without umpires – if coach-parents weren’t so hellbent on competing with each other, or manipulating everything in their children’s lives.

It’s a manifestation of our culture over these past, what, 20 years... if I go into any details, I’ll write another of my laboriously huge posts. Point is, if you ever watch kids play wiffle ball or stickball – sans parents – they do just fine. 

[Ump29]

Yikes !!

[conbo61]

8 hours ago, MadMax said:

It’s a dog biting it’s own tail. The game can, or could, be played – largely without umpires – if coach-parents weren’t so hellbent on competing with each other, or manipulating everything in their children’s lives.

It’s a manifestation of our culture over these past, what, 20 years... if I go into any details, I’ll write another of my laboriously huge posts. Point is, if you ever watch kids play wiffle ball or stickball – sans parents – they do just fine. 

I got nowhere to be...

[Richvee]

11 hours ago, MadMax said:

It’s a dog biting it’s own tail. The game can, or could, be played – largely without umpires – if coach-parents weren’t so hellbent on competing with each other, or manipulating everything in their children’s lives.

It’s a manifestation of our culture over these past, what, 20 years... if I go into any details, I’ll write another of my laboriously huge posts. Point is, if you ever watch kids play wiffle ball or stickball – sans parents – they do just fine. 

Yes indeed...IF kids still "played " ball. At least in my neck of the woods, if it's not "organized sports", I don't see kids "playing" anything accept maybe siblings playing on an adjacent  field while big brother plays in the organized game....Very sad.

In this day and age, parents have major concerns sending their kids out to play alone.The paranoia, be it real or  overblown, (That's a whole "nother topic altogether) of something happening to their little darlings (getting into a fight, injured, the threat of abduction) leads to less "free play".

Not to mention video games, internet, etc to take their attention away from "playing"

[zoops]

I was playing T-ball and such in the early 90's and don't remember ever having umpires, other than just coaches keeping control of the game, until I was at least 12.  No issues that I remember and our group won our conference all 3 years of HS ball so I don't think it ruined our futures too badly 

[Richvee]

My kids also played Tee ball with the town in the late '90's/ early 00's and never was there an umpire. I don't even think they kept score until the minors. It pained me to see this back when my son first signed up....Dad was expecting baseball .  Then you come to the realization that half the kids out there would rather be hunting for 4 leaf clovers in the OF, than worrying about catching a ball.  I had to remind myself they're 6-7 years old. They're playing. There will be plenty time ahead for competitive baseball. 

[LMSANS]

The kids keep score...when my son played t-ball 20 years ago, they always knew the score. It was amazing to see...22-19 and they were the only ones that knew it.