Umpire reaches his breaking point, not gonna take it anymore...

[scrounge]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2019/11/20/youth-league-umpire-walks-off-field-after-parents-berate-him/40656181/

[dumbdumb]

But at least the below did not happen to him yesterday.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2019/11/18/lakeland-man-arrested-after-punching-youth-baseball-umpire-deputies/

[The Short Umpire]

I wish once—just once— that someone could come up with an original short joke... I mean come on!  That one got after like 200 times. 

[yawetag]

Quote

We could hear the umpire say to a parent at the start:

"Enough, I'm not hearing another word out of any of you. If you want to have a game here, quiet down."

That only led to more hostility from the crowd with one parent telling him to "stay professional for the kids and just do your job. That's it."

I'm 100% against any umpire interacting with the fans. This situation is why.

That said, this umpire was in a no-win situation - and I hate that. If he'd simply ignored the fans, they wouldn't have stopped. If he'd gone to the coach, it's a toss-up if he'd done anything. You see what happened by trying to deal with it himself.

There needs to be a concerted effort to make it stop. There needs to be penalties assessed to teams who allow their fans to act this way. I don't know how it can be done, but it needs to be done.

[LRZ]

For basketball this year (I expect something similar for baseball), PIAA has amplified its pre-season statement about crowd control:

It is a necessity to have a game administration representative to meet with the officiating crew. This meeting will allow for communicating the expectations of each group. The contest officials are there to manage the contest, which includes the players and coaches. It is the expectation that school administration will manage the student body, parents and all other spectators. Game administration should be proactive in crowd supervision and control. Administration should address inappropriate spectator behavior before it escalates. Spectator behavior remains a critical concern. Too often, spectators are using abusive language toward coaches, players and officials. Spectators are also approaching the court, team areas and locker rooms – places that used to be "off limits" – to confront participants. Game administrators must create and follow security procedures and support efforts to have offending spectators removed from the premises. Proactive policies lead to fewer problems. It is the game administrator's ultimate responsibility to provide a safe environment for coaches, players and officials. Do not wait for the official to point out the problem.

Good luck with that. 

[yawetag]

4 hours ago, LRZ said:

Good luck with that. 

Exactly. Basketball and football are the easiest for game admin to control - it's "the" game of the day. Site management is there the whole time.

But in baseball, you're lucky to see the admin once while you're there, especially if there's another game going on.

[Umpire in Chief]

6 hours ago, yawetag said:

I'm 100% against any umpire interacting with the fans. This situation is why.

That said, this umpire was in a no-win situation - and I hate that. If he'd simply ignored the fans, they wouldn't have stopped. If he'd gone to the coach, it's a toss-up if he'd done anything. You see what happened by trying to deal with it himself.

There needs to be a concerted effort to make it stop. There needs to be penalties assessed to teams who allow their fans to act this way. I don't know how it can be done, but it needs to be done.

Right on...

Not saying anything about this umpire specifically. But don't engage the fans, nothing good will come from it. You can instruct a coach to take control of his fans, that is in your jurisdiction, but I also don't recommend that.  Overall my opinion is to suck it up for whatever time you have left and make your assigner know you were mistreated and won't work for them again. 

Now I didn't watch the video since I'm at work, but the quoted conversation is pretty benign. 

Another thing I noticed was this:

Quote

 The coach near home plate could be seen wearing "GBG" gear for the Garciaparra Baseball Group travel team.

 IMO therein lies  your problem. Travel baseball is the wild, wild west of baseball; no accountability, no repercussions. Someone gets ejected today, they're back tomorrow and the cycle continues because there is nobody to notice how frequently this occurs. 

Once upon a time Travel ball was actually really good. There were much fewer teams and the quality of play was much better. But, at least in my area, there developed 3-4 elite travel teams. Then when little Johnny didn't make one of the elite teams so now Johnny's dad starts a new team which will be subpar, and this happens dozens of times and now travel ball is just a different shade of rec ball. But without the oversight of the league.

[Biscuit]

2 hours ago, Umpire in Chief said:

Right on...

Not saying anything about this umpire specifically. But don't engage the fans, nothing good will come from it. You can instruct a coach to take control of his fans, that is in your jurisdiction, but I also don't recommend that.  Overall my opinion is to suck it up for whatever time you have left and make your assigner know you were mistreated and won't work for them again. 

Now I didn't watch the video since I'm at work, but the quoted conversation is pretty benign. 

Another thing I noticed was this:

 IMO therein lies  your problem. Travel baseball is the wild, wild west of baseball; no accountability, no repercussions. Someone gets ejected today, they're back tomorrow and the cycle continues because there is nobody to notice how frequently this occurs. 

Once upon a time Travel ball was actually really good. There were much fewer teams and the quality of play was much better. But, at least in my area, there developed 3-4 elite travel teams. Then when little Johnny didn't make one of the elite teams so now Johnny's dad starts a new team which will be subpar, and this happens dozens of times and now travel ball is just a different shade of rec ball. But without the oversight of the league.

Agree with everything.... Except that it's like rec ball. With the exception of the very, very, very worst travel teams, they're much better than rec teams (but that doesn't mean they're good. Just that they can reasonably play catch). I'd rather do an 11u travelball game than a 14u rec game. Parents are the same if not slightly better in travel ball. Not that that is much of an endorsement.

[Richvee]

4 hours ago, Biscuit said:

Agree with everything.... Except that it's like rec ball. With the exception of the very, very, very worst travel teams, they're much better than rec teams (but that doesn't mean they're good. Just that they can reasonably play catch). I'd rather do an 11u travelball game than a 14u rec game. Parents are the same if not slightly better in travel ball. Not that that is much of an endorsement.

Here's the thing...Before the proliferation of "travel ball"...When travel ball WAS just a few elite teams, rec ball wasn't that horrible. Now that travel ball has extended to include just about every kid that can catch, hit and throw, there's not much left in rec ball, and that's why the 14u rec game is worse than the 11u travel game.  

[The Man in Blue]

Another point I haven’t seen made yet ... this is a good case for refusing solo games.  The guy had no partner to back him up or provide a buffer.

I don’t care for the way he left, but I can’t say I blame him one bit.  Those parents were like a bunch of junior high bullies who had no comprehension of why their behavior was inappropriate.  

[The Man in Blue]

15 hours ago, LRZ said:

For basketball this year (I expect something similar for baseball), PIAA has amplified its pre-season statement about crowd control:

It is a necessity to have a game administration representative to meet with the officiating crew. This meeting will allow for communicating the expectations of each group. The contest officials are there to manage the contest, which includes the players and coaches. It is the expectation that school administration will manage the student body, parents and all other spectators. Game administration should be proactive in crowd supervision and control. Administration should address inappropriate spectator behavior before it escalates. Spectator behavior remains a critical concern. Too often, spectators are using abusive language toward coaches, players and officials. Spectators are also approaching the court, team areas and locker rooms – places that used to be "off limits" – to confront participants. Game administrators must create and follow security procedures and support efforts to have offending spectators removed from the premises. Proactive policies lead to fewer problems. It is the game administrator's ultimate responsibility to provide a safe environment for coaches, players and officials. Do not wait for the official to point out the problem.

Good luck with that. 

You can have the best “code of conduct” ever written ... it doesn’t mean anything without enforcement and accountability.

[Aging_Arbiter]

Now I'm just thinking out loud typing quickly and spit balling........what WOULD make a statement in my eyes, is if ol' Nomar himself pulled sponsorship...... or refused to let children (of the offending parents) remain in his sponsored program.  Granted, that even though he probably has zero interaction/involvement, he has allowed HIS NAME to be used.  Now that it is being used in a way that is not conducive to the way games should be played, he (or at least a "member of his marketing team"), should address this issue...............should they wish to continue to play for GPG.

[yawetag]

The bigger question here is why it's Garciaparra, when everyone knows him as Nomar.

[umpstu]

On 11/21/2019 at 9:58 AM, yawetag said:

Exactly. Basketball and football are the easiest for game admin to control - it's "the" game of the day. Site management is there the whole time.

But in baseball, you're lucky to see the admin once while you're there, especially if there's another game going on.

And it sucks when the site admin is the AD and the AD is also the head baseball coach.

[umpstu]

11 minutes ago, yawetag said:

The bigger question here is why it's Garciaparra, when everyone knows him as Nomar.

More than likely it is his brother who is a scout for an MLB club, I forget which one, but he helps out with the Area Code Games each summer.  Don't know if he was the coach or not.  

[umpstu]

14 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

You can have the best “code of conduct” ever written ... it doesn’t mean anything without enforcement and accountability.

My brother was a high school AD for many years and if any of his coaches crossed the line he would have them in front of his desk the following day.  He would let them know that there might have actually been somebody's son, daughter, wife, husband or parent in the stands who were there to watch the officials work and how would he like it if people were to address him like that?  Brother was a good coach and AD.  Now retired and AD's still call him for advice.

[grayhawk]

And now for...the rest of the story.  This actually happened a couple of years ago.  The field is a local HS - Newport Harbor.  It was a couple of 8th grade age teams, one of which was the GBG as previously mentioned.  I heard the following from two different sources, so I feel it's likely true.  The umpire got hit several times.  Foul balls, wild pitches, passed balls, etc.  He got fed up and cussed out the 13 year old catcher and berated him.  Apparently it was so bad that the opposing coaches were sticking up for the kid.  It was then that the parents got on him to the point that he decided to address them.

Does any of this absolve the parents of the comments they were making?  Not in the least.  They should allow the head coaches to deal with the umpire and work it out.  Either way, it sounds like the umpire in question wasn't being professional and created a problem for himself that he was ill-equipped to handle.

[The Man in Blue]

Always more to it ... where did you find that @grayhawk?  

[Aging_Arbiter]

On ‎11‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 6:32 PM, grayhawk said:

And now for...the rest of the story

@PaulHarvey

[The Man in Blue]

[kylejt]

Me too.

"Good day!"

 

[kylejt]

I remember getting really pissed after getting clocked by a thrown bat a couple of times in a row, Adrenaline is a powerful drug folks. 

 

[grayhawk]

On 11/27/2019 at 8:02 PM, The Man in Blue said:

Always more to it ... where did you find that @grayhawk?  

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

[mac266]

My son's league (I'm not umpiring in that league) rule modifications specifically allow the umpire to eject a spectator.  I read that and just about went crazy.  I did umpire two of their pre-season scrimmages just to get some field time because I'm new, and my son's coach offered to buy me lunch if I ejected a fan  Yes, he was joking, and no, I didn't do it.

I've read a lot of opinions from you experienced guys about not interacting with the fans.  I'm going to stick with that.