Was it always this crazy?

That's funny. Just saw a play like that at a high school game last week. Center fielder while on a full out run, tipped the ball in the air, and then juggled it a couple of times before making the catch. Runner from second tagged up and took off upon the first tip up, and was almost to third before the center fielder caught it. Center fielder threw in to the shortstop, who then threw to second who tagged the base. Out right? Defensive team all run in, leave the field heading to the dug out. Opposing coach yells at his player to stand on third and don't move. He goes over and talks to PU, who then calls runner safe on third, and calls the defense team back to the field. Defensive fans going nuts, and the coach argued with PU, but he wouldn't change his ruling.

Why didn't coach tell runner to score when they ran off the field.

Cannonball said:

It is worse. This past weekend, fly ball deep to right. Offense had runners on 2B and 3B. RF on the run, extends glove and touches the ball but doesn't catch it immediately. Ball goes up, RF still on run and catches ball. Not a lot of distance between touch and catch but some distance. Runners take off after ball is tapped up. RF catches ball and other team scores 2. Team throws balls to 2B and 3B expecting outs. Fans are crazy for triple play. Nope. You should have seen some of these fans as the approached the fence yelling at the PU. How some of those fans were not ejected is beyond me. One guy kept yelling that the ball has to be in possession "before a tag up is legal." Every pitch after that, a comment was made about the umpire.

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canyonjoe said:

Cannon, that's a great story. It's bad enough when someone argues a call, but it's worse when they don't even know what they are talking about and won't listen.

We had one this year where 2 the runner on third didn't go on a passed ball and the runner on second ran to third. At one point they were both on 3rd but no one tagged either and they wound up back on bases. One family was just yelling at me to go argue with the umps. I took it for a minute and finally just said, "you are wrong" and walked away.

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That's when I, the coach of the team whose parents are making fools of themselves, ask the umpire for time, walk in front of the stands, and tell those parents that the umpires got it right and to knock it off. Hopefully that buys me some brownie points with the umpires and they don't eject me when one of the parents pops off with something really ridiculous.

Not sure where you’re from but when I was a kid there were fights and pocket book hitting in the stands. Parents in the stands and coaches in the dugouts would be yelling at each other during the games. Every game was kind of tense. When I coached things were a little better but I recall two Dads from opposite sides setting up a place to meet away from the field to actually “fight about it”. None of this was travel ball. It was all recreational leagues.

Nowadays when I’m in the stands I hear more compliments towards both the players and umpires during and after the games. So in my experience things have improved dramatically.

canyonjoe said:

Why didn't coach tell runner to score when they ran off the field.

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No idea. The base Umpire called the girl out at second. PU reversed the call on the appeal of the coach.

I remembered another youth umpiring story. This time I was watching an 8U rec league softball game my daughter was playing. The umpire was a boy who was on my son's baseball team, which I helped coach. He had a question about a rule so he came over to me to ask about it so he could get the call right. The opposing coach sees him ask a fan on the other team and starts going nuts about how I was trying to influence him. It wasn't a judgement call, it was a rule issue. I explained the situation to the guy and he calmed down some, but as I recall he still pretty much thought I was trying to cheat him out of his all-important 8U victory. I don't recall the final outcome of the game. I doubt that guy does either.

Ken Krause said:

I explained the situation to the guy and he calmed down some, but as I recall he still pretty much thought I was trying to cheat him out of his all-important 8U victory. I don't recall the final outcome of the game. I doubt that guy does either.

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Ken, thank you!!! That is the part you really cannot explain to people until you have been through it. NOBODY remembers the scores of these games. Again this is coming from a nutjob only a few short years ago.

Ken Krause said:

...but sometimes it does seem like a little more formality might not be such a bad thing.

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I call him/her Mr. or Ms. Blue every time, all the time. My MS girls asked me around game 2 why I do it, and I told them: I know I will not agree with every call he makes, but he's the umpire and you have to respect the position and the game, and that this is my way of showing respect. They all started doing it. I hope they keep doing it.

Couple things-one I think it's humerous when people complain about wanting more qualified adult umpires for rec ball games when in the next breath that same person will complain about the rising cost of playing ball these days. Try hiring adult certified umps for every game then check your registration fees!!! 2- most people say 95% that complain about calls at rec ball games have absolutely no clue what they are talking about yet love to complain. They also love to criticize rec ball coaches too. Those are the funny ones as they make themselves look very ignorant at about every game. 3- if a rec league baseball or softball game means enough to you as a parent to get so upset over a teenage umpires call you have bigger problems to deal with. Our travel ball and school ball staff does not act in that manner as we believe we are teaching more than just softball !! So if your rec ball parent hollering at umps or coaches in your socks and sandals , just stop your a moron and the reason everyone is snickering and laughing is because they are making fun of you not with you. Flip down your flip up clip on sunglasses and chill, the umpire or coach isn't why your kid stinks!!!! Sorry