new jersey town forces argumentative parents to be little league umpires

[schwabach]

New Jersey town forces argumentative parents to be Little League umpires

Suit up or shut up. That’s the ultimatum on town in New Jersey is offering Little League parents who have no trouble criticizing and critiquing baseball umpires in a very loud manner during games.

www.yardbarker.com

Perfect.

 

[The Man In Blue]

This is one of those things that sounds good on paper ...

 

[schwabach]

It sounds like the town was out of options since fewer and fewer umpires want to put up with increasingly rude parents.

 

[upstatesoftballmom]

If they're already argumentative, they think they're really going to be unbiased and call plays correctly?

 

[Lemond]

Our LL baseball requires ”volunteer” umpires from the parental units. Each team is responsible to provide two available to get through about 4 games each (or something like that).

Worst idea ever.

Having people who do not want to do it in the first place and do not know (or care to even learn) the rules only creates more opportunities for everyone to have a bad day. Not to mention that, while you’re never allowed to call your own kid’s games, everyone in the league knows everyone, and there are definitely times that is apparent for friend or foe on the field.

On the other side, our local rec softball league hires USA umps for higher age brackets, and then our league Head Ump hires and trains high school kids (usually older baseball and softball players) and some other adults to do the 8U and 10U games. As they learn and gain experience, they can move up to 12U. We always have the Head Ump and/or a board member at the fields, and they are VERY quick to come “observe” whenever there is a confrontation from the stands or the coaches. Fans get a chill out warning. Coaches can be removed from their role by the board if it’s bad enough.

This model has worked very well, and produced some good umps. We still have issues like most places, but our fans at tournaments tend to be the nicer ones to have around. IMHO

 

[Lightning]

My daughter's been a youth umpire for a local rec league (in the 8U division) this spring and she rolls her eyes at the parents and coaches who complain a lot, because the ones who complain the most are the least knowledgeable about softball.

This year she's been yelled at by coaches for:

- calling strikes based on where the ball crosses the plate rather than where it crossed in front of the batter's body
- not calling interference on a runner who bumped the 1B who was blocking both the inner bag and the safety bag with her body (and didn't have the ball)
- calling it a fair ball when the ball hit the 3B's glove in fair territory and then rolled into foul territory
- calling a strike when a batter swung the bat but was hit by the ball

She's actually bothered less by the complaining and more by the fact that these coaches know so little about the game that they're coaching.

The league has a zero tolerance policy for coaches who talk back to the youth umpires and DD was tempted to throw out an entire coaching staff during one game, but only didn't because she didn't want the girls to have to forfeit their game for their coaches' behavior.

But if any of those clowns actually tried umpiring, it would not solve anything because they don't know enough about the game to be an umpire.

 

[John 800]

As much as nobody wants to: give one warning and after that eject the kid along with the parent. Kid comes back next game, parent misses several games. If you dont you will deal with it all season, do that once with one parent and it would stop immediately. Most of these that are really over the top would absolutely not do anything to jeopardize their future olympians playing time.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

DD was tempted to throw out an entire coaching staff during one game, but only didn't because she didn't want the girls to have to forfeit their game for their coaches' behavior.

Do they really need the coaches though? Have parents supervise and let the kid coach themselves for the game. They will figure it out.

Would like to see a league played by kids, coached by kids, and umpired by kids. Adults around for supervision/safety only when needed. One can dream....

 

[El Oso]

Do they really need the coaches though? Have parents supervise and let the kid coach themselves for the game. They will figure it out.

Would like to see a league played by kids, coached by kids, and umpired by kids. Adults around for supervision/safety only when needed. One can dream....

Ummmm, what age brackets are you talking about?

 

[_MIA_]

.

Would like to see a league played by kids, coached by kids, and umpired by kids.

That used to be called "Going outside and playing ball at the park until the street lights came on..."