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

[oldman]

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.

Thanks, 911. College baseball has improved tremendously with the clock rules. The 9-inning games have gone from taking 3+ hours down to
2 1/2 or so. Coaches, players, umpires and fans all complained that the games were taking too long and when televised, they were taking even longer due to the commercial timeouts that ESPN and the NCAA Networks were being given.

The fans are not too bad during televised games. They seem to be able to conduct themselves better when they know they are on TV. Games that aren't televised seem to give the fans some impunity. They feel that if they aren't on TV, no one is watching. However, I think every school at the D-I and D-II level and most D-III schools are live streaming every game, so mom and dad and the NCAA is watching.

I never ejected a fan, but have been part of an umpiring crew that another umpire in our crew did eject a fan. It doesn't take long to get them out the gate. Most of the security people at the schools I have been to act efficiently and quickly.

We had an incident during a football game last season where the kid cold-cocked an official after the game. It cost him a lifetime suspension. I'm not sure of all the details, but I believe it did cost him his scholarship. Football Player

 

[Been There]

Stop the game and threaten to forfeit it, unless all the parents stand outside the fence on public property. If the kids are playing on county land, they can be restricted in Virginia. I don't know about other states. This happened last year. The fans got so bad, the umpire told the fans the only way he will continue the game is if they leave the land inside the fence. It took them about 15 minutes, but they decided to comply for the sake of the kids they said. Sometimes I will walk down to the park and watch the kids play. More fun that watching MLB.

 

[RadishRose]

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.

This is infuriating!!!

 

[Murrmurr]

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...

But wasn't being chosen first for a spelling bee team assigning you high status in intelligence?

I was much better at baseball than math, and that was obvious to my peers. I could swing a bat with astonishing accuracy, but couldn't swing a tennis racket with any measure of finesse. I could sing, but couldn't read music or play a guitar. I could produce an admirable painting, but you wouldn't want me producing anything in the chemistry lab. I was the class clown but never the class president. But all that was ok.

Remember when class yearbooks used to choose certain student "Most Likely"?

You know what? I forgot where I was going with this. But anyway, peer pressure in high school helped us find our niche, our strengths and weaknesses. Today, kids seem more focused on weaknesses...seems to me, anyway. And I'm not sure that comes from their parents.

 

[Remy]

I wonder if these are the parents raising bullies? I really don't get some people.

 

[Gaer]

We cannot legislate morality, but it's sad this can't be taught.

 

[Murrmurr]

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.

There's a few comments on here saying the same thing, but that's never been my experience, which is almost life-long. Not when I played, not when I coached my kids' teams, not when I sub-coached my nephew's team.

idk, maybe I've just been lucky, or maybe it has to do with where we lived, but in every league and every team I've been associated with, the parents and fans were awesome. They support their kids team and respect the opposing team, and always, always respect the officials even when they disagree with a call or whatever. Someone might yell "No way, ump!" or whatever, but I've never seen things escalate further than that sort of thing. And a lot of times this ump checks with that ump to see if s/he disagrees with the call, and then it's over....everyone just lives with it.

And when a player gets a call against him or her, you tell them that's ok, shake it off, you'll get it this time and stuff like that. You don't lose your shit over it. You set an example for your kid. So, what's happening to people, I don't know. It's shameful. It's embarrassing. I hope it's a phase.

 

[Been There]

There is a baseball/softball complex a few blocks away from where I live and occasionally, I will walk or ride my bike down to the complex and if a game is going on, I may stop and watch a few innings. It seems that the older the kids, the worse the parents are. Sometimes I have noticed that the kids will mirror the parents behavior if the umpires make a call against them. It's not the same game back when I played up through American Legion baseball.

 

[davey]

There's a few comments on here saying the same thing, but that's never been my experience, which is almost life-long. Not when I played, not when I coached my kids' teams, not when I sub-coached my nephew's team.

idk, maybe I've just been lucky, or maybe it has to do with where we lived, but in every league and every team I've been associated with, the parents and fans were awesome. They support their kids team and respect the opposing team, and always, always respect the officials even when they disagree with a call or whatever. Someone might yell "No way, ump!" or whatever, but I've never seen things escalate further than that sort of thing. And a lot of times this ump checks with that ump to see if s/he disagrees with the call, and then it's over....everyone just lives with it.

And when a player gets a call against him or her, you tell them that's ok, shake it off, you'll get it this time and stuff like that. You don't lose your shit over it. You set an example for your kid. So, what's happening to people, I don't know. It's shameful. It's embarrassing. I hope it's a phase.

good call coach!!!

 

[Avon]

I blame the Aussies for kicking this off in sport with their sledding, as when Botham came in to bat.

"Ian Botham came out to bat and was greeted by Rod Marsh who said: “G’day Ian. How’s your wife and my kids?” Botham replies: “Wife’s fine, the kids are retarded”

 

[Murrmurr]

We cannot legislate morality, but it's sad this can't be taught.

It can be taught. At home.

I'm sure you know that you have to start when your kids are young, about 18mo old. By then, all they know is that you are there to see to all their needs and keep them happy and comfortable. But now you have to start teaching them that the world is bigger than that, and you are there to keep them safe and help them make right decisions.

Also, up to that point, they aren't aware that every other person in the world is as important as they are, so you have to start teaching them empathy, and to care about and respect others.

So after looking at it from that perspective, people who act like the people in the OP haven't progressed past the age of about 2 years old, and in post #29, where I said I'm not sure it's the fault of the parents, I was wrong. That kind of behavior falls squarely on the shoulders of those people's parents, and they are passing that 2-yr-old behavior onto their kids.