Just a few minutes ago, here's a Facebook message I just got on a parent's wall:



I can't post anything publicly there, so here I am here.

It's a fucking game, folks, with little kids just trying to have fun and get some exercise. The person in question is a coach for one of our little league teams and a pretty influential person in the community. The umpire in question is a fucking 18 year old high school grad just trying to do the best he can and make a little extra money. His paycheck has jack and shit to do with the calls he makes.

This dude needs to back off, and I think I'm beginning to see why his oldest daughter in high school has anger problems too.

So, does he donate his time for free?

I honestly don't know, but I would guess from his comments that he does.

Apparently the umpire came to his dugout, they started arguing over some call, and he said "shutup and go back to the plate and do your job." This is what got him ejected.

Drama over substance; it's the American way.

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Knowledge without reason is useless.

http://boxrockssocks.blogspot.com/

Umpires usually get paid, though a small amount (around here anyways)

I'll be up front, I was at a my sons game tonight and it was one of the worst called games I have been at(I was going to start my own rant til I saw this).

It was a younger Kid, college age, who made the bad calls. I have never seen him as an Umpire before. Usually the Umpires in town are pretty good but this kid made four or five bad calls that really affected the game, interestingly all against the home team.

This was High School level baseball, you didn't say the age of the kids in the game where you live. For small kids it definitely should be just fun and learning but once they get to High School level the kids take it far more seriously.

At this level here there are two Umpires, a Home Plate Ump and a roving infield Ump, The college Kid was the roving infield ump. The Home Plate Ump made no bad calls except the final call which I will get into last.
The Kids bad calls were:
1. Player missed 3rd base by about 2 feet on his way home. Called him Safe
2. Called a player out at 2nd after a steal even though the tag was way late.
3. Called a player safe at 1st because he said first baseman was in still in the air after catching a high throw, even though he landed well before runner arrived.
4. Called a 3rd strike a ball though the batter had swung way beyond the normal position of a checked swing.

He was clearly either not paying attention or really didn't want to be there.
It was a crappy night, off and on rain, though no rain during any of the bad calls
If you dont want to take it seriously don't be an umpire at that level.

Now the reason I was going to write my Rant...
It was a night game, the field has real lights, rainy and crappy out.
It had rained several times during the game, even with the bad calls above, all against the Home team, it was still close.
So... Bottom of the 7th inning (7 inning games in this league) Score is 11 to 8, Home team is up (of course) been raining a bit in the 7th.
Home team just scored, has men on 1st and 3rd, one out and just got to the best part of the batting order.
It starts to rain a bit harder and the Umps call the game.
I have never seen a game called like that, I know the kids were all mad because they had a chance and the umpires never let them see what would happen, either way the game would have been over in about 5 minutes.
It was just stupid.

I have been at games for 10+ years, at least 2 seasons a year (spring and summer, sometimes fall) , 250 ish games over the years and never have seen anything so lame.

Sorry for rambling!

In this case, these were 12 year olds.

Sports are the closest thing to killing each other that we can do (we really yearn to kill people, but can't).

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Boy, this all hits home with me. My son is in 3 baseball leagues this summer (14u) and I have seen plenty of bad calls. I am an assistant coach so usually I try to be the voice of reason. I've seen balls that bounced in called for strikes and lots of 1st basemen that weren't anywhere near the base get the call. The ones that bother me the most are the ones where a kid does something great and it gets overturned by a bad call.

Last weekend we had a tourney and our team just isn't hitting. The team we are playing is very average with a pitcher that was throwing like a batting cage. We finally woke up a bit and got a single follow by another and a walk so the bases are loaded, we are down by 3 and it is the 4th inning. Now at this point I usually worry most that the kid coming up to bat will get nervous and swing at anything. As chance would have it though my own kid is up and he never gets nervous when playing baseball. He takes a pitch for a ball followed by an inside strike. He glances back at me, grins, and takes the next pitch 330' over the fence. As he is rounding 3rd the ump told him to head back to 2nd saying it bounced over the fence.

Yeah, we argued a bit and he was a little disappointed. After the inning he asked me to ask the ump if he could check with the right fielder and see if it was actually over the fence. I did and he did and it was, but the point is this. He didn't get too upset over it, he had moved on long before I did. He was happy just knowing for sure that it was a home run. As chance would have it the next guy drove him in but we lost the game over another bad call in the 7th. But that is another story.

It's good to teach kids to be angry and hyper-competitive over Pee Wee sports.

Honest.

They should instead shelve that fiery spirit and save it for racing to contested mobs in EQ. Oops, wrong decade.

Ok, so that's a stretch and I don't really want to see kids get too crazy about baseball games, but just pointing out that it's normal to get really into whatever it is you're playing. Also, being an ump is harder than it looks. I've never been one, but when I watch live games I think they make terrible calls all the time, then see the instant replay and it's almost always either the right call or a LOT closer than I thought it was. I'm wrong much more often than they are.

Alternative Story BREAKING!: People who need to mind their fucking business.

Trying to figure out your point, Elessar. Are you saying I'm prying? He posted it on his Facebook, publicly, for all of his Facebook Friends to see. Should I have not read it?

eh, I was in a grumpy mood. I think it's more both sides make a big deal out of the issue. I can't stand those parents either when they're way over the top, however in this case, I don't think he was. Teaching kids competition is a good thing provided it's well balanced. On the flip side, I hate those people who feel they have to interject their opinion on this shit ALL the time. In this case, that's not you Fribur. Just saying in general.

You know, I'm interjecting my opinion into shit

Do you think that it is appropriate for a coach to ever tell an umpire to "shut up, go back to the plate and do your job" in front of his 12 year old team?

12 year olds? Definitely not terribly appropriate, but not cause for any outrage.

Not appropriate, but not terrible either. Horribly stupid to piss off an ump during a game though.

Yeah, lets not use "The Children!!!" as a vehicle for advancing our own agendas.

Not that...you know...anyone in America does that.

I think the outrage is that a 30-something (or older) guy is playing the victim over the incident.

The sad part is that he is surrounded by a bunch of douche bag enablers that don't have the balls to say, "Hi Jake, you're being a cockwad, have a nice warm glass of 'shut the hell up'."

I enjoy being a douche bag.

You know what is funny - I really didn't mean you when I wrote that. I meant his friends or whatnot who probably say, "yeah, those umpires suck." So, when I read your response I was confused.

But really, now that you point it out - why CAN'T you say something to him or post something? I get it that you live/work in the area so telling him to shut up may not be appropriate, but why not simply provide a politically correct counter point?

Anyway, I really didn't mean you, but ultimately someone needs to stand up to bullies.

hehe it's ok, I wasn't offended. Your point is true.

I think I don't say something because it doesn't feel worth it. This single small incident doesn't feel worth the drama. I just got pissed for a few, then let it go.