Parents Attacking Umpires

[Strike2]

I saw the following this morning on the SIFG Facebook site. It directly links to the FB page of an umpire, named Kristi Moore, who lists herself as the Mississippi UFSA state UIC...

"Ssoooo, this is embarrassing if I’m going to be open and honest about it. But, it’s real life and it’s unfortunate that it has gotten to this place. The next time you go to a tournament and you only have one umpire on the field…this is why. When you have brand new umpires on the field that may not know everything they should know yet…..this is why. When you don’t feel you have the quality of umpires you should….this is why. When the day comes that your kid can’t play a ballgame because there are no longer officials to call it….THIS.IS.WHY."

"Before you post the next “funny” meme about umpires that suck, or are blind, or have missed callls on their phone or whatever it is, before you post about how an umpire was so awful and terrible and lost the game for you…….why don’t you sign up? Get on out there and give it a go."

"I got punched coming off a field last night. There is no excuse for this. If you think this is ok, please remove yourself from my friend list. Umpires are not perfect. We never will be. But guess what? No one is."
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She includes a photo of an obvious black eye. Apparently, and unsurprisingly, this was a 12U game. https://www.facebook.com/kristi.m.howard

Different game in a different state...I was watching a "friendly" yesterday between two pretty good older teams. On a close DP call at 1B...a "bang, bang", a younger female field umpire called the runner out. Some parents behind the fence got vocal...not quite ugly, but making a bigger deal of a close call than necessary, especially with a friendly. Coincidentally, a very experienced umpire who I typically see working the highest level TB games stepped onto the field and started working with her. He wasn't there to correct her call or show her up; he was already there intending to give a new umpire some OJT during an early-season practice game that meant nothing. I don't know if it was the realization that this younger umpire was still learning, or the trainer was an older and larger guy who doesn't put up with BS, but the previously vocal parents never said another word.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

A simple solution is to ban parents/fans from the park.

 

[Mocoso]

So long as organizations do nothing it will continue to happen… file assault charges, suspend the person for life from attending AND suspend their DD for at least a game if not longer…get extremely tough and it will stop…


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[Dabears17]

A good friend of mine is an umpire. He's the youngest umpire in his association.... and he's 65. My DD is a junior and looking at the ages of umpires doing her HS games, I'm worried that in a few years there it'll be hard to get one umpire for HS games, let alone two.

Almost every time I disagree with an umpire's call at the moment , if I review the video after the game frame by frame, they get it right. Or, if I take into account the position proper mechanics requires the umpire to be in, they make the right call based upon the best information they have from being in that position.

 

[Nimrod]

So long as organizations do nothing it will continue to happen… file assault charges, suspend the person for life from attending AND suspend their DD for at least a game if not longer…get extremely tough and it will stop…


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Agree that something needs to be done to address this, but people who attack umpires aren't rational enough to be deterred by the fear of assault charges and lifetime suspensions, IMO. It's already against the law. Perhaps laws should be more severe to protect youth officials, but free speech protects verbal abuse and heckling. You can make those offenses that are subjection to ejection (I guess they already are), but then you're potentially inviting more confrontations and needing security and police to be at games. Tough situation. I don't know the solution.

 

[Tatonka]

Agree that something needs to be done to address this, but people who attack umpires aren't rational enough to be deterred by the fear of assault charges and lifetime suspensions, IMO. It's already against the law. Perhaps laws should be more severe to protect youth officials, but free speech protects verbal abuse and heckling. You can make those offenses that are subjection to ejection (I guess they already are), but then you're potentially inviting more confrontations and needing security and police to be at games. Tough situation. I don't know the solution.

Enforce the rules. We have enough examples of what happens when we go soft on everything and it's a mess out there.

 

[Dabears17]

Basketball referee gets 30 stitches after teen players attack him

A referee was assaulted by a group of teenagers after a basketball game in Georgia last weekend.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[Nimrod]

Enforce the rules. We have enough examples of what happens when we go soft on everything and it's a mess out there.

Which rules? What are they? Not disagreeing, just wanted to be clear on what you're saying specifically.

And yes, we have examples of what happens when we go soft, but we also have examples of what happens when we go too hard. Not saying that's the case here, but in all cases, balance and practicality are important.

 

[Rolling Hard]

The best umps identify the situation early and take immediate action. Call time. Call the manager over and tell him/her that if your parents continue to chirp, I am going to throw you out. Period. Smile, turn away and holler, "play ball!"
It may not work all the time but the sucess rate is very high. The manager has to go talk to his child like parents threw the fence and it is really quite embarrassing.

 

[radness]

There are a lot of awkward imbalanced actions of peoples intolerance.
Softball is not immune.