Part II of Why Youth Sports Umpires and Referees are Calling it Quits!

These were other observations I had from this past 2023 baseball season:

Although there seems to be more awareness of the abuse of youth sports officials today due to reports in the news and online, the incidents keep happening. Despite warnings and pleas from leaders of youth leagues and high school athletic associations for parents, coaches and spectators to behave, comments are still heard regularly from “umpires in the stands.” Some coaches still acted like their team losing a game 12-0 was the umpire’s fault. In one Massachusetts town, umpires walked off the field during a game after parents were threatening them. The Massachusetts Baseball Umpires Association (MBUA) held a rally at the State House in Boston to call attention to legislators of the need for laws to protect youth sports umpires and referees from assaults. The town of Deptford, New Jersey decided to make parents who were ejected from games for abusing their league’s umpires get behind the plate and try umpiring themselves before they were allowed to return to the stands to watch their kid’s games again.

At the high school level, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), which governs school sports in Massachusetts, is not only trying to recruit, but is practically begging people to become high school sports officials, as the shortage of umpires and referees for all high school sports continues to worsen. Before the starting lineups were announced at high school baseball games, the announcer would read a stern warning to spectators stating that unruly behavior by spectators attending the game will not be tolerated and will result in ejection from the premises. People should already know that, but continued poor behavior of spectators has led to a severe shortage of officials, necessitating this pre-game warning.

Since so many parents and spectators don’t “bite their tongue” when they disagree with calls, officials have resigned in unprecedented numbers in recent years. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Next time I’ll discuss some of the desperate measures I’ve observed that schools are taking to be able to play scheduled games despite the dire shortage of officials in not just baseball, but all interscholastic sports.

---

Randy Corwin is a veteran Massachusetts youth baseball umpire and author of the book, OBNOXIOUS PARENTS AND RUTHLESS COACHES, which is now available at Amazon Books, Barnes and Noble’s online bookstore, and at An Unlikely Story Bookstore and Cafe in Plainville, MA. This post is part two of a series of articles based on the book.