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Aug 1, 2019
198
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South Carolina
I’ll be damned if I would EVER let a crowd do that. Until they are throwing stuff or throwing punches, I would never allow a crowd to get the upper hand.

Don‘t. Let. Them. Draw. You. In. It’s what they want.
Personally, I've never gotten to the point where I walked off the field. But what you say is so much easier said than done.

All of us have a threshold that, once it's reached, we will react. It's simply human nature. Either we let it get to us personally, we see that it's affecting the players, coaches or other umpires, and/or we feel that if we don't react, things will get completely out of hand. And how we react is just as important, if not more so, than doing nothing.

What I described in my high school game this past spring got to that point because it was affecting my partner. And I could tell from some of the players' body language, it was getting to them as well. Should I have lashed out at the official scorekeeper? Probably not. I probably should have just cleared the field and let things get back to some semblance of normal. But because it was the scorekeeper, I felt she needed a lesson on what it means to serve in that role, and hoped that my letting her know that would somehow get the crowd to understand that they were being idiots, too.

I can count on two hands when my threshold was reached. What I usually do is clear the field of all players, and then bring both coaches to the plate. I'll let them know that the game cannot continue until the fans settle down. I won't do what other umpires do and tell the coaches they have to take care of the problem or I'll eject them. Sometimes, coaches have little control of their fans, and holding them accountable to the point of ejection isn't fair. I just tell them I won't restart the game until the problem gets fixed. They can go talk to the parents, find the site administrator, call the cops, do nothing until it fixes itself, whatever. In those situations I've had, we were able to get the game restarted with no more real issues.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,625
113
I don't blame the ump. I would say he probably should have gone to the coaches first to get them to shut up the parents and maybe he did. IMHO the coaches should have been out of the dugout the second he started talking to the fans telling them to shut up. As a coach the fans are a reflection of your team and you need to keep them under control.
 
Dec 11, 2010
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@CHSUmp97 Hey I agree it’s easier said than done. And it is even harder when you have to learn to do it yourself as opposed to having the benefit of having someone train you how to do it. In my case, I got a complete week of classroom training and several days of role players screaming terrible things at me and throwing eggs and leftover food at me. Then I got the benefit of both sides of of demonstrators telling me how awful I was for protecting the other side from the skull bashing they deserved, lol. It kind of comes natural after that.

I do think that if you keep the mindset that it is a “win” to not let it happen, that your goal is to be unflappable you can get better at it. I think it’s worth it.

I was going to comment too that your exchange with the scorekeeper was good. There is a time for that kind of thing- and someone with the ability to do it right can shut down a problem. That kind of exchange isn’t for amateurs though.

What I noticed about it is you were very firm and didn’t promise anything that could not be delivered. Spectators are more difficult to deal with as it seems to me they are one more step removed from what you have control over.

I‘ll add that I didn’t mean to sound like such a blowhard. I’m truly trying to help. I wish I could give a crowd and coach control class to umpires. I really think what I posted earlier could help them. I assistant coached with a guy for a couple of years who was a master at drawing umpires into dumb conflict. He wouldn’t allow parents to do it but he would start working the umpire at the meeting. I personally didn't agree with his methods and didn’t think it benefitted the team but he always did it and as an umpire it would have been easy to avoid.
 
Last edited:
May 29, 2015
3,808
113
What I noticed about it is you were very firm and didn’t promise anything that could not be delivered. Spectators are more difficult to deal with as it seems to me they are one more step removed from what you have control over.

I‘ll add that I didn’t mean to sound like such a blowhard. I’m truly trying to help. I wish I could give a crowd and coach control class to umpires. I really think what I posted earlier could help them. I assistant coached with a guy for a couple of years who was a master at drawing umpires into dumb conflict. He wouldn’t allow parents to do it but he would start working the umpire at the meeting. I personally didn't agree with his methods and didn’t think it benefitted the team but he always did it and as an umpire it would have been easy to avoid.


That (in bold). While we don’t want to excuse participants from the game and we should do everything we can to keep them in the game, but I believe many umpires are way too hesitant to pull the trigger.

Using empty threats makes the situation worse ... NEVER use phrases like “one more word/time” or “if I hear another” followed by “then I am going to ...” I don’t even like ”that’s your warning” because it implies a certain amount of BS is not just expected but that it is the coach’s right to act that way.

Where are you located Westwind? I’d bring you in for a class! 😁
 

Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,053
113
Regardless of sport, it always seems to be the younger age groups, particularly Rec, with the most coach and spectator issues. T-ball through 10U was the worst because few knew what they're doing or seeing. Coaches didn't know how to talk to umpires, and nobody fully understood the rules (including some umpires), so there was lots of extra drama.

As I've moved up with DD in age and level, the amount of BS has dropped to nearly nothing. Most every travel ball coach we run into acts like an adult, and some are current HS and small college coaches. Be it HS or travel team, most coaches I've seen jump on anyone who gets even a bit out of line. The power to control who stays on the team is strong leverage. Games, especially HS, are mostly pretty quiet.
 
May 29, 2015
3,808
113
@Strike2 , I will agree with that in general. There Is quite a bit of truth to the observation that as players/parents/coaches are around the game longer, they start to learn proper behavior. Whereas when they first come in, they think the terrible behavior is the norm.

Now, I won’t say that is completely true, because I have found the sense of entitlement can permeate the ages/experience and that even crosses socio-economic boundaries. The common factor is: if nobody corrects them acting like a small child, they continue to act like a small child.

That is why I have an issue with allowing things to continue even when they are seemingly ”smaller” infractions ... it just allows things to build and reinforces (as I said above) that there is a certain threshold that is not just acceptable, but actually expected. That is not the case.
 
Jun 22, 2008
3,756
113
I have only reached my limit 1 time and it was at a rec game. One of the players grandparents was just being a total jackass the entire game. Some fans had told him to settle down and the coach had even told him he needed to be quiet. I had finally had enough, grabbed my timer off the fence and announced the game was over as I started walking off the field. The coaches ran over and apologized and said they would take care of it, said they would make him leave and asked me to stay. They told the man to leave which he had to make scene about that also and some of the crowd actually cheered as he finally left.

Highs school JV game a couple of years ago, batter hits a ground ball to short, head down beating it out for first and the throw is off line and pulls F3 into the runners path. Absolutely nothing malicious in any way about it, just 2 players that got into each others way and there was a collision. Some parents in the stands start yelling about it being a BS play and the girl needed to be ejected which drew counter comments from the other side. Then an off duty uniformed police officer who was there watching his daughter gets into it with one of the other teams parents and suddenly we have F bombs flying back and forth and the players are all standing there staring at the stand with their mouths hanging open. I called time, called both coaches out to the plate and told them to get their parents under control immediately or the game would end. Both coaches told their parents to shut up or leave. Things settled down and we were able to complete the game without further incident.
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
Excellent. Bravo!! In my opinion that’s what is lacking in general- coaches with spines. I give the parents a pre-season discussion regarding what doesn’t fly and I always tell them I have an itchy trigger finger. I’ve only had to have 1 very brief conversation over the years and the dad was super apologetic the minute I started. Really was expecting some fireworks. I always tell them I have 12 to look out for and Im not going to let a parent give other players a misunderstanding of what is acceptable and what is not.
I agree . I say much the same thing as you. But I've been doing this too long and, IMO, the parents have gotten much worse. I simply refuse to deal with it; and I don't. Now, there is no more begging and relenting. I've developed a reputation over the last several years as a no nonsense coach that will develop the girls. I've got a new bunch this year but the parents are well behaved, most of the players are athletes and all of them are coming along nicely. I plan on taking this bunch up and through for a second go around. Who knows about a third? Of course it'll depend on the next set of 12U parents.:rolleyes:
 

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