Part XXVI of Why Youth Sports Umpires and Referees are Calling it Quits!
It’s now been one year since “Obnoxious Parents and Ruthless Coaches” was released, and the reviews have been phenomenal! People everywhere are loving this book, especially those who have been involved with youth baseball and have seen the insanity I’ve written about firsthand for themselves.
Unfortunately, the number of available youth sports umpires and referees continues to shrink, and there were a number of games this year I’ve heard about which had to be rescheduled as no umpires were available to officiate them. The reason why umpires are resigning everywhere is because of the abuse they take from parents and coaches, and a situation that happened to me recently reinforced how foolish and idiotic some supposedly intelligent adults act during a meaningless kid’s baseball game.
Several weeks ago, I had to make a controversial, game ending call while umpiring a 10-year-old “championship game”. My ruling, which was verified by my umpire association’s rules consultant, was absolutely the correct call, but it unfortunately affected the outcome of the game and which team won the championship. In addition to affecting the outcome of the game, I also may have ruined the life of a child, but since adults often make the games more about themselves than the kids, it’s more likely I ruined the life of the parent of the player the call went against. The kid probably forgot about it the next day, but the parent will remember this forever.
It was the last half of the final inning of the championship game. Probably 200 people were watching this game. The home team who was trailing the entire game was batting. They were rallying and had scored three runs to cut the deficit to one run, 8-7 with two outs and bases loaded. A hard grounder was hit to short left field. The throw to the plate from the left fielder bounced and the ball rolled past the catcher. The catcher turned to grab the rolling ball so he could step on home plate before the runner from third base scored, which would end the game and win the visiting team the championship. As the catcher turned to grab the rolling ball, he ran into the “on-deck” batter, who for some unknown reason came strolling up to the plate while this play was still going on. The runner from third crossed the plate with the tying run, and right on his heels the runner from second scored with the winning run. The crowd was going wild, as they thought their team completed a great comeback and won the game and the championship!
After taking a deep breath, I called “TIME”, because I knew that what I was about to say would make “the shit hit the fan,” and I was correct! I announced my ruling, which was interference on the catcher by the on-deck batter, which resulted in the runner from third base who scored being called out for out number three, costing the home team the two runs which tied the game, and immediately ending the game and the chance to win the championship. To say the crowd was not happy is putting it mildly!
“Boos” were heard from the crowd, along with some inappropriate language by parents, especially when you remember that the players in this game were ten years old. Comments loud and clear were heard like, “C’mon ump, you can’t make a call like that in a championship game!” Unfortunately, the on-deck batter should not have been approaching the plate while the play was still happening, and he interfered with the catcher. After explaining it to the coaches, they still weren’t happy, but agreed with me that their player shouldn’t have been where he was. The rules on interference are very clear, and you can’t ignore rules just because it’s a championship game. What a stupid thing to say! I didn’t “invent” a rule, I just was following the rules of the game. While it was unfortunate that a freak play I’d never seen in 15 years of umpiring over 2,000 games happened, it wasn’t my fault that the next batter was somewhere he shouldn’t have been, and none of his five coaches stopped him!
As I was leaving the field, I was approached by a “knucklehead” parent, who should be the poster child for why umpires and youth sports officials everywhere are calling it quits. He said to me very respectfully and politely, “Hey, I just wanted to thank you for making the worst call I’ve ever seen in a baseball game against my son which cost us the championship. You should be really proud of yourself!” I just shook my head as he turned and walked away. It wasn’t worth wasting my breath to even say anything back to him.
Yes, I felt bad for his son who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got called for interference, but his “knucklehead” father, who I will respectfully refer to as “Mr. Knucklehead” is probably one of those parents who, when there are no umpires available to officiate his son’s game, won’t understand why.
Look in the mirror, “Mr. Knucklehead”, and you’ll see the reason why umpires everywhere are calling it quits. It’s because of obnoxious parents and ruthless coaches making comments like what you said to me. People like you make life so miserable for youth sports officials that they quit. People like you are the reason why there’s a critical shortage of youth sports officials. It’s that simple.
And yes, Mr. Knucklehead, I am really proud of myself, and of all youth sports officials who go out there every day and do their best to try to get every call right, even when we have to put up with idiots like you.
It’s a great time to be a youth sports official. There are too many games and not enough officials. The money isn’t bad, and it’s a great second job that you can do as little or as much as you want. We desperately need younger people to become officials to replace the older ones who are leaving. If you are interested in becoming a youth baseball umpire or would like to officiate other youth sports, please contact me through the website below.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog, and if you have, you’ll really enjoy my book.
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 Escape Into Fiction in Franklin, MA. This post is part twenty six of a series of articles based on the book.
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