Little League umpires walk out after harassment & threats from player's parents

Murrmurr

Murrmurr

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Location
Sacramento, California
There’s no one left to officiate playoff games for little league baseball teams in Taunton, Massachusetts after parents and, sadly, players verbally abused and threatened the umpires. Two officials walked off when parents continued to scream profanities and threats like "I’m going to meet you in the parking lot, #$%^!” after being given several warnings to stop.

As far as I know, all little league umpires / officials are volunteers. They don't get paid aside from being allowed to keep their gear at the end of the season. Umpires get several weeks to a few months of training, including intense courses on impartiality and sportsman-like conduct, they get a complete handbook which they must keep on their person at all times during official games, and they must show they have comprehensive knowledge of the league's rules as well as any park rules that apply during official games before they can officiate a game.

A pitcher delivered the ball after 2 officials signaled No Play. The batter hit a double off the pitch, giving his team the lead late in the game. But the umpires did not allow the double because the ball was not in play at the time of the pitch.

When the batter stepped up to the plate again, with the ball officially In Play, he struck out....and all hell broke loose.

According to one ump, “As soon as we got off the field, we were confronted and accosted by numerous parents continuing to yell at us and get in our faces....we had kids that were being condoned to do that as well...to yell at us and say we suck.”

The league offered to host future games without fans or with police presence if the umpires come back. League representatives and the umpires will meet with Taunton’s mayor to try to come to an agreement.

I can't picture a game without fans, but I would love to see a game officiated by the same people who got in these umpires faces. Maybe their poor kids would at last learn something valuable. That's actually Little League's first priority.

https://www.kktv.com/2023/06/09/ump...-little-league-parents-players-threaten-them/
 

Sometimes you get the feeling that the kids act more adult than the adults. It would be better without the parents in attendance, since they don't know how to behave themselves. It's a little league game. Just sit back and enjoy the game. It's not the World Series. Screaming at little league umpires? Morons!
 
davey said:
maybe it is post covid blues mixed with high prices and poor governance of countries that is disturbing the masses?
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hawkdon said:
Another sad example of all the anger in this country...usa...
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I dunno.

When everyone is getting a piece of the pie, racism goes down...crime goes down...anger subsides. I agree with the above posts. People are up against it these days and aren't keeping their heads.
 
davey said:
maybe it is post covid blues mixed with high prices and poor governance of countries that is disturbing the masses?
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It's been coming on for ages, and getting worse all the time. Degrading people we disagree with and incivility is accepted and tolerated and even a source of pride among some starting at the highest level of the American government. The rudeness and selfishness in almost all settings exhibited these days is beyond the pale.
 
againstthegrain said:
It's been coming on for ages, and getting worse all the time. Degrading people we disagree with and incivility is accepted and tolerated and even a source of pride among some starting at the highest level of the American government. The rudeness and selfishness in almost all settings exhibited these days is beyond the pale.
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could also be a loss of religion leading the masses into crassness ; selfishness ; civil disobedience a bit like that biblical town of fornication and ungodlyness - what was it called now??
 
I umpire college baseball at D-I, D-II and D-III levels. I retired at the end of this season. I never worked LL, but I know several umpires that do or have. I doubt if LL will let this incident slip by without some type of sanction. I live about an hour and a half from Williamsport, home of Little League, Inc.

Last year, it was reported that in all youth sports combined across the U.S., 50,000 officials have quit across all sports. When asked why they were leaving the sport, the number one answer was that the parents are too hard to control and handle.

Before the season, each parent must sign a sportsmanship pledge card in LL. LL umpires get paid exactly zero dollars and they buy their own gear and uniforms just like the rest of us do. At the college level, we also have to pay dues to many different associations, have insurance and go through background checks. If you are a felon or have been arrested for any crimes against children through 18 years of age or been involved in drugs, no way will you be allowed to officiate any sport. I carry $7 million in liability insurance, plus medical insurance and game loss protection.
All that and we are required to attend training sessions each season and association meetings. There is a lot of time taken out of one's life to be able to officiate. I also officiate high school basketball. On my days off as a pilot, I generally had a game somewhere. My wife supported me the 45 years that I officiated.
 
davey said:
could also be a loss of religion leading the masses into crassness ; selfishness ; civil disobedience a bit like that biblical town of fornication and ungodlyness - what was it called now??
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Actually it's religious extremism and nationalism that in part is fueling the anger, hate and intolerance and the new sentiment that it's ok to attempt to destroy, physically or verbally, those that hold different viewpoints than one's own.
 
davey said:
maybe it is post covid blues mixed with high prices and poor governance of countries that is disturbing the masses?
Click to expand...
Eh, I think they're just sore losers. Maybe highly competitive video games have more to do with it than politics and viruses. Or maybe today's parents of Little League-ers don't know promotions at work are based on exceptional performance, and that your performance is rated from your employer's perspective, and not yours. I think people have become unjustifiably grandiose.
 
againstthegrain said:
Actually it's religious extremism and nationalism that in part is fueling the anger, hate and intolerance and the new sentiment that it's ok to attempt to destroy, physically or verbally, those that hold different viewpoints than one's own.
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But that goes both ways, right? People's intolerance and anger is met with intolerance and anger. From what I've seen, that's often how things escalate to destruction and name-calling and all that.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
My brother used to coach a Pop Warner football team only 32 miles from Taunton. Death threats were a common thing. His truck was vandalized at a game. Trash thrown on his lawn. But he liked to coach kids, and the kids worshipped my brother. When people started to follow his wife and kids around town, it was getting out of hand, so he quit.
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What is it with Massachusetts, man?

Oh, wait....Boston. :ROFLMAO:
 
This bullying by parents has been going on for years in different youth sports. They expect coaches and umps/refs to favor their children. Sometimes they even berate players.
 
I’ve umpired more games than I could count. My little girl looked at strike three once but dad couldn’t do it to her, “ball” was the call. I looked over to the opposing dugout, shrugged my shoulders and mouthed “sorry.” She grounded out the next pitch and everyone was happy. (Btw, never got even a dime for umpiring.)
 
Smart umpire. I would have done the same. Let those stupid parents do the umpiring for their own kids. Baseball parents are worse than their kids. Totally disgusting species of subhuman trash!
 
Over here the Sunday football games for children, are
a bit bad for parents abusing the referees, so bad in the
recent past, that the referees now wear, "Body Cams".

This is creeping into more mature games also.

Mike.
 
oldman said:
I umpire college baseball at D-I, D-II and D-III levels. I retired at the end of this season. I never worked LL, but I know several umpires that do or have. I doubt if LL will let this incident slip by without some type of sanction. I live about an hour and a half from Williamsport, home of Little League, Inc.

Last year, it was reported that in all youth sports combined across the U.S., 50,000 officials have quit across all sports. When asked why they were leaving the sport, the number one answer was that the parents are too hard to control and handle.

Before the season, each parent must sign a sportsmanship pledge card in LL. LL umpires get paid exactly zero dollars and they buy their own gear and uniforms just like the rest of us do. At the college level, we also have to pay dues to many different associations, have insurance and go through background checks. If you are a felon or have been arrested for any crimes against children through 18 years of age or been involved in drugs, no way will you be allowed to officiate any sport. I carry $7 million in liability insurance, plus medical insurance and game loss protection.
All that and we are required to attend training sessions each season and association meetings. There is a lot of time taken out of one's life to be able to officiate. I also officiate high school basketball. On my days off as a pilot, I generally had a game somewhere. My wife supported me the 45 years that I officiated.
Click to expand...
I went to a game oldman was umpiring at Penn State and Illinois just a few years ago. It's not something I would want to do. I doubt if I could tolerate the harassment if I missed a pitch or called someone out that was really safe . The kids on the field, who are young adults at the college level, behaved very well, I was a little surprised at how respectful they were towards the umpires. It was the adults and the parents that acted out. I thought umpires could also remove fans from games, but after the game, oldman told me he has to request the game manager to do that. If the game manager refuses, the umpire can forfeit the game.
 
It’s boorish behavior by parents overly ego-invested in their children who espouse and convey the “winning is everything” mentality in sports. But even in my day, peer groups assigned status by athletic prowess rather than by intelligence, personality attributes, or God forbid, academic achievement. One of my most vivid memories from elementary school was of being chosen first for a spelling bee team, but near-last for an athletic team...
 

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