Please respect your umpires

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Dec 2, 2013
3,428
113
Texas
There is a great Facebook page called Offside. https://www.facebook.com/youreoffside

The posts are to shame parents for terrible behavior towards officials. He calls these parents "Cheeseburgers". So sad but true. I like the fact that sports as a whole is starting to push back against parent's behavior towards officials. We need more people to stand up and call these people out and let them know their behavior is not cool. Ever go to a sporting event and everyone is bagging on the refs? This is where it starts and then people bring it to the fields feeling it's quite appropriate. It's a bad look. I love when Grandpa Joe comes to his first Rec ball game and starts in on the umps. But it's okay at the MLB game he went to the night before.

It has been equated to someone coming to your job and yelling at you when you make an error in judgement and they are not your boss. I have been guilty of barking at the umps. You know that missed call was SO important...right?

I would tell my parents that we may not win every game, but we will be the classiest. I don't need you riding the umpires. That's my job when I need to. I need to establish a relationship with the umpires because we will see these people every tourney this year and next. When it's 98 degrees and the umpire is working their 5th game of the day, I need them to be thinking about balls and strikes, not thinking about the a$$hole parents in the stands. When I need a call to go my way, it will more likely happen when I have a positive working relationship with them.
 

Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,056
113
I love when Grandpa Joe comes to his first Rec ball game and starts in on the umps. But it's okay at the MLB game he went to the night before.

It comes from a lack of perspective, and a lack of filter. That said, there's a BIG difference between a MLB umpire who is paid six figures as a career professional and a youth umpire making, at best, some going-out-to-dinner money.
 
Mar 1, 2013
416
43
It comes from a lack of perspective, and a lack of filter. That said, there's a BIG difference between a MLB umpire who is paid six figures as a career professional and a youth umpire making, at best, some going-out-to-dinner money.
Not a youth by any means but I've been working a lot of local youth community games. Twice recently, my wife has asked me to "pick up dinner on the way home" and I have basically spent my game fee. Thinking about making up a sign that says, "Will work for pizza"
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
.
It comes from a lack of perspective, and a lack of filter. That said, there's a BIG difference between a MLB umpire who is paid six figures as a career professional and a youth umpire making, at best, some going-out-to-dinner money.
Add
it may also come from
Monkey see ~ Monkey do

The old myth/tradition fans bark at the umpires, refs, officials.

How does that change?
A sign at the field?
'in an effort to show respect for the officials we ask that you limit your voices to a Soft whisper'
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
I generally have a ton of respect for umps. It's a hard job that doesn't pay a lot, and the work conditions are sometimes pretty crappy.

That said, umps are human (despite popular opinion to the contrary), and make boneheaded mistakes once in a while. The HS season seems to be especially "human" this year.
 
Jul 22, 2015
851
93
Here's a pro tip for fans who have never umpired. If the umps haven't called an illegal pitch after the first 3 times you screamed for it, they probably won't. In fact, you just made it almost impossible for them to call one without igniting a firestorm from the other team as well because they reacted to a fan's suggestions. Same goes for a pitch "in exactly the same spot", etc.
 
Jun 19, 2016
865
63
Here's a pro tip for fans who have never umpired. If the umps haven't called an illegal pitch after the first 3 times you screamed for it, they probably won't. In fact, you just made it almost impossible for them to call one without igniting a firestorm from the other team as well because they reacted to a fan's suggestions. Same goes for a pitch "in exactly the same spot", etc.
Illegal pitches are almost always called in response to a coach complaint at lower levels.
 

Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,056
113
.

Add
it may also come from
Monkey see ~ Monkey do

The old myth/tradition fans bark at the umpires, refs, officials.

How does that change?
A sign at the field?
'in an effort to show respect for the officials we ask that you limit your voices to a Soft whisper'

I think many take their cue from MLB baseball...initially. From screaming at umpires to encouraging kids to engage in the "old school" style of play they think they remember. If someone sticks around long enough, they usually figure a few things out.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
42,877
Messages
680,555
Members
21,556
Latest member
Momma2ma
Top