Conduct of an Umpire

[pantherdad]

During one of our U12 TB games today a completely bizzar set of events transpired with the base umpire. In between pitches our short stop calls time out and comes running into the dugout crying her eyes out. She proceeds to tell the coach that the umpire came up behind her, put his hand on her braided ponytail, strokes her hair and proceeds to tell her what pretty hair she has. The girl was obviously pretty shaken. Coach questions the ump about what happened, ump gets snippy and threatens to run the coach. Coach doesn't back down and insists the ump remove himself from the game. Ump continues to argue and states that he is an old man (60-65 guessing) and meant nothing sexual by it. Coach insists he be removed and reluctantly ump walks off the field. Home plate ump then engages the coach and defends his counterpart stating they are best friends and his intentions were misconstrued. After 10 min, the game resumes with a new base ump.

I am pretty sure that an ump making any kind of contact with a player is highly frowned upon in any league. I know my opinion on how far out of line this guy was, I would like to hear a few more. Thoughts?

FYI, To my knowledge the ump was allowed to continue working his next game. Although I am not sure how much if anything the tournament director knew about what happened.

 

[Coachw01]

Someone needs to be told immediately and the umpire, despite how old he is or his intentions, needs to be removed permanently. Our young people need to be protected from this type of behavior and those who act in this manner need to know that actions like this have consequences. The guys HAS TO GO!!

 

[alabama_lowlife]

Yikes! That is creepy. I'd have had to make an issue out of that as well. I don't think it's too late to give the tournament director a call on this one. That's something they need to be aware of. I'm not sure if travel umps have the same sort of organizations as high school umps or not, but I think his organization should be contacted as well. Maybe something similar has happened before and they are waiting to see if there is a pattern, who knows? I'd make some calls.

 

[FPump]

1) After the HC questioned the BU, he should have walked to the PU and advised him that he was removing his team from the field and the and forfeiting the game, and have the AC's get the team to an area away from the field.
2) HC should then have asked for the name of the BU, and if unsuccessful, made note of a physical description of the BU or taken cell phone photo of him.
3) HC should then seek out the tournament director right then and there and report this incident.
4) If the player's parents were not at the game site, HC should contact them immediately and tell them exactly what occurred. At this point a decision can be made by her parents regarding the reporting of this incident to the police.
5) HC should then report this incident to both the State Commissioner and State UIC for the sanction body of the tournament and the umpire's local association.

As an umpire who works under the codes of numerous sanctioning bodies (ASA, USSSA, PONY, NCAA) and a ton of travel tournaments in the summer; I can assure you that there are no situations in which an umpire should be/or would touching any part of a player's body.

 

[chinamigarden]

During one of our U12 TB games today a completely bizzar set of events transpired with the base umpire. In between pitches our short stop calls time out and comes running into the dugout crying her eyes out. She proceeds to tell the coach that the umpire came up behind her, put his hand on her braided ponytail, strokes her hair and proceeds to tell her what pretty hair she has. The girl was obviously pretty shaken. Coach questions the ump about what happened, ump gets snippy and threatens to run the coach. Coach doesn't back down and insists the ump remove himself from the game. Ump continues to argue and states that he is an old man (60-65 guessing) and meant nothing sexual by it. Coach insists he be removed and reluctantly ump walks off the field. Home plate ump then engages the coach and defends his counterpart stating they are best friends and his intentions were misconstrued. After 10 min, the game resumes with a new base ump.

I am pretty sure that an ump making any kind of contact with a player is highly frowned upon in any league. I know my opinion on how far out of line this guy was, I would like to hear a few more. Thoughts?

FYI, To my knowledge the ump was allowed to continue working his next game. Although I am not sure how much if anything the tournament director knew about what happened.

Good for the coach. I'm glad he stuck to his guns and continued to protect his
Player. Good for the girl to she wasn't afraid to tell someone when a person of authority put their hands on her. Assuming for a minute that the ump meant nothing by this it is still an egregious error in judgement. One that he should think about for a while.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I am 60. My husband is 60. We know not to stroke anyone's hair.

I really think that the man needs investigated.

 

[coach james]

What an idiot. Good for the coach. Get that old pervert away from the kids ASAP!

 

[Doug Romrell]

I don't know if the guy is a pervert or not, but if he doesn't know better than to do what he did, he has no business being an umpire around girls.

 

[skreed]

I would have reported it to the authorities...never know this guy could have slipped through the checks somehow.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

At the very least find out his name and google it.
Please let the little girl know that she did the right thing.