Umpire not calling the game by the rules and no protests

[RADcatcher]

I have to say that as a coach and parent, the ONLY place I see actively recruiting for umpires/other sports officials is the NFHS, and I only get those because I was involved in HS and joined. The general public does not get those, and those emails are going out to people who are already giving a LOT of time to their sports through coaching.

Seems like the target audience should change to parents and middle- enthusiasts. Maybe hit up all the adult leagues with an endless barrage of emails. Maybe include a registration form in every case of light beer! Run a Super Bowl ad? Lol.

Not sure how it could be done, but the way we work these days is that progress in many matters does not seem to come until it becomes competitive.

Good read!

Clearly the umpire situation is not doing anything to help their own umpire situation.

 

[CoachJD]

I don't think we spend nearly enough time trying to get former college players into umpiring. With very few pro options out there, it's one way to stay involved in the game. We have college players getting into coaching and broadcasting and they all want to make a few bucks giving private lessons, but not a lot decide to ump.

It's an untapped market, but who taps into it? The organizations? Big Umpire isn't a thing.

NFHS does try, but as was said here already, they're mostly appealing to coaches to try to find people to get into umping. They should be hitting up the colleges.

 

[Dabears17]

I don't think we spend nearly enough time trying to get former college players into umpiring. With very few pro options out there, it's one way to stay involved in the game. We have college players getting into coaching and broadcasting and they all want to make a few bucks giving private lessons, but not a lot decide to ump.

It's an untapped market, but who taps into it? The organizations? Big Umpire isn't a thing.

NFHS does try, but as was said here already, they're mostly appealing to coaches to try to find people to get into umping. They should be hitting up the colleges.

I challenged a high school coach to get his players umpiring the last week or so of the season and early in the season sent emails to three high school coaches I knew to ask their players to consider umpiring because of the shortage of rec umpires. None of the three coaches responded to my email.

 

[CoachJD]

I challenged a high school coach to get his players umpiring the last week or so of the season and early in the season sent emails to three high school coaches I knew to ask their players to consider umpiring because of the shortage of rec umpires. None of the three coaches responded to my email.

I know a few HS aged kids who will ump our rec games, but I don't think any of them would really want to move to a higher level with it.

I did get one of our former baseball players to get into umping. He's not bad for being young/new.

We actually had a kid (probably about 13) doing our 10u game today. She messed up one thing, but her dad was there and helped her correct it. I can't stand her dad (the feeling is mutual), but he helped her get the call right. Also, I just asked what happened, she explained, I quietly and calmly explained what it was supposed to be. Her dad was there behind the fence and confirmed I was correct. She corrected her call (it was a rule thing, not a judgment call).

She apologized for her mistake, which she did not have to do, but my hope is that the way I handled asking her about the call gave her confidence to do more games. She made a mistake. Nobody yelled at her. She got it right in the end, play on.

But I could see how if I went in hot she might not want to ump anymore. And I'm sure kids who try umping get that kind of thing a lot, so yeah, everyone does need to chill out.

 

[dbronstein]

Last year we had a 15 or 16 year old kid work one of our games (12u rec). He did fine but naturally wasn't perfect. The grandfather of one of the players laid into him after the game and left the kid in tears. Fortunately the league commish was there and handled it really well, and the kid came back the next day.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Bit-o-snarky to this , and a bit of reality.


... because they're at home living with their parents

Because they're paying for their children living at home with them

I am in tears …

You win the internets for today @RADcatcher !!!

 

[Agcy]

Arrive an hour early. Jesus H man come on. Find me an ump that doesn't get hyperbolic in these discussions please! Can't take any of this serious with these exaggerations being thrown around.

in my state, we are expected to be on site 45 minutes prior to first pitch for all HS games.

 

[The Man In Blue]

The first problem with umpires fixing the umpire shortage is that umpires get paid for one thing: working games. Recruiting doesn’t pay. Anything outside of working games is voluntary. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be volunteering, but the reality is it won’t happen. I like @RADcatcher ‘s idea about having a tent/booth at tournaments … but the reality is I’m working games if I’m at a tournament.

Here are my two radical ideas:

*Incorporate game education into physical education classes in high school. Use NFHS rule books in ALL sports as course material. I would go so far as to challenge NFHS to come up with a curriculum that can be used.

*Tournaments require teams to provide an umpire. The tournament would schedule them (they wouldn’t do your games). There are some outfits near Cooperstown that run “experience tournaments” and they do this.

 

[Gtrips07]

The first problem with umpires fixing the umpire shortage is that umpires get paid for one thing: working games. Recruiting doesn’t pay. Anything outside of working games is voluntary. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be volunteering, but the reality is it won’t happen. I like @RADcatcher ‘s idea about having a tent/booth at tournaments … but the reality is I’m working games if I’m at a tournament.

Here are my two radical ideas:

*Incorporate game education into physical education classes in high school. Use NFHS rule books in ALL sports as course material. I would go so far as to challenge NFHS to come up with a curriculum that can be used.

*Tournaments require teams to provide an umpire. The tournament would schedule them (they wouldn’t do your games). There are some outfits near Cooperstown that run “experience tournaments” and they do this.

The Challenge is generational. Back when when I was kid with the dinosaurs, we didn't sit inside on electronics, so we found outside things to do. Also spent time trying to find ways to make money. Back then, when everyone played sports, you saw kids older than you umpiring so you knew it was a way to make money. A lot of it became word of mouth. If your local league had a good umpire program, you'd have a lot of kids who wanted to umpire. Of course the parents weren't like they are today, so we didn't see parents as a downside.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

 

[RADcatcher]

The Challenge is generational. Back when when I was kid with the dinosaurs, we didn't sit inside on electronics, so we found outside things to do. Also spent time trying to find ways to make money. Back then, when everyone played sports, you saw kids older than you umpiring so you knew it was a way to make money. A lot of it became word of mouth. If your local league had a good umpire program, you'd have a lot of kids who wanted to umpire. Of course the parents weren't like they are today, so we didn't see parents as a downside.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Yes generational. And changing of the times. Like when we look back at fast food restaurants used to be teenagers hired for part-time jobs. And now fast food restaurants have full-time employees that are adults raising their own families.