Please report it to the AD.DD had a varsity high school game last night. It was a pretty close game through the first few innings, then we broke it open. Ended up winning 17-5, or something close to that. Things were pretty calm, except for the belligerent parent for the opposing (home) team that got louder and louder about his displeasure with the umps strike zone. He must have been the pitcher’s dad. The ump did seem to have a tight zone, but was definitely consistent both ways. I never heard either coach chirp about the strike zone.
Fast forward to after the game, and I notice that still belligerent parent B-lining to the parking lot with that familiar “I’m a pissed off obese person waddle” yelling about the umpire. Ironically, he was parked right next to the ump. Parent immediately pop’s his hatch back open and is shuffling through his stuff, yelling at the ump the whole time, while the ump is trying to change his gear and get the heck out of there ASAP. You could see that the ump (probably in his 70s) was intimidated and visually “shaken”. He called the other ump over and asked if could “keep an eye on me”, which he did. Now, I saw this whole thing playing out from the beginning, so instead of waiting for my DD to tell her good job, something in my head told me to go to the parking lot to incase “something stupid” happened. It was small parking lot, and the two umps, belligerent parent, any myself were the only four people there at the time. I walked up about 20 feet away from their position and postured myself to where it was obvious that my entire purpose was to be a witness to their confrontation. I think I took the 2nd ump by surprise as he started to stare me down with that “what the heck” look. I gave him a wink and nod to let him know that I had no ill intent towards them. Belligerent parent then noticed me and gave me a stare down too, to which I stared back. He then turns back to the ump and starts yelling, “I never threatened you…NO! I never threatened you. I just had to tell you what a bad job you did!” Parent gave me another stare then started walking away. Plate ump is now changed out of his gear, and then peels out of the parking lot. 2nd ump asks me “What’s the deal with that guy?” to which I reply, “I don’t know, I’m a parent with the opposing team. It looked something stupid might happen so I thought that if there was a witness, that might diffuse the situation.” To which he thanked me. I then told him they umped a good game, and that I would not want to be an ump because of parents like that. He thanked me again, then also said that the plate ump was an idiot too.
I was going to let this whole thing drop, but the more I think about it, I am wondering if I should report this parent to the other teams Athletic Director? It’s one thing to chirp in the stands about a call, but I think that following an ump to the parking lot after the game is WAY over the line. Did I prevent a physical altercation? I don't know. I’m not going to say that he went out the parking lot to physically beat the ump up, but you never know how things can escalate. I definitely think he went out there to at least verbally intimidate the guy. There is no place for that! So, should I report the guy, or let it drop?
If anything it would be harassment, although there should be, and probably are, school rules against this type of behavior.
I didn't realize the parent was parked next to the ump until I got there. But thinking back, that explains why I heard the parent yelling "I'm parked over there!" to the other parents when he was storming to the parking lot. I think he saw that the ump was parked by him, husled over there to give him a few more choice words, but then could play all Mr. Innocent like "WHAT??? I was just going to my car.....I didn't do anything wrong..." I noticed that he did not take anything to his car and did not take anything back towards the field when he left.
