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

When parents or coaches “lose it and go ballistic” during a youth baseball game, what happens? Lots of things, and none of them are good. For example, let’s say in a ten-year old’s game, the score was tied, and on a close play at the plate the umpire makes a “SAFE!” call which gives the team who scored the lead. The defensive manager, who was sure the umpire got the call wrong, comes running out, and screams at the umpire “C’MON BLUE, YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING, THE RUNNER WAS OUT BY A MILE!” No curse words, so what’s the big deal?

Here’s the big deal:

Kids watch and hear everything their role model coach does and says, and learn that if the coach does it, they can do it too. What they’ve learned here is that it’s okay to scream at or argue with an authority figure because you disagree with them. Try screaming at or arguing with a police officer who stopped you for speeding and see where that gets you!

Kids are being shown that whenever something doesn’t go their way, they can always blame it on someone else instead of taking responsibility for it themselves.

Kids are not being shown the right way to handle adversity. They must be shown that there will be times both in sports and in life when they disagree with their umpire, teacher, or boss, but must accept decisions of these authority figures and move on.

What about the umpire, the poor sap who has to listen to the coach scream at him?

He doesn’t need or want the aggravation and can handle this several ways. He ignores the coach screaming at him, gives the coach an earful of his own, maybe even ejects the coach. Contrary to popular belief, umpires do not enjoy ejecting anyone any more than they enjoy having someone scream at them. Baseball is supposed to be fun, remember? Nothing is fun when someone’s screaming at you. Maybe after a while, the umpire gets so sick and tired of being screamed at and ejecting people who can’t behave at a kid’s baseball game, that he has no other choice. HE QUITS!

So, the simple act of a coach screaming at an umpire, while it may not look like a big deal, could have major consequences, both to kids watching and the umpire who’s getting an earful.

Next time I’ll discuss some specific incidents where misbehaving adults in youth sports made life miserable for those around them, especially officials.

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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 ten of a series of articles based on the book.