Two weeks ago, I got on a roll about bad examples of parent behavior at baseball games. Here is the rest of my rant!
The worst example of bad parenting in a ballgame came, again, in Owatonna this year. There were two fields going, and I was in the middle of a great 1-1 game when a giant bolt of lightning struck about half a mile away. I immediately called the players off the field. The rules state that you don’t restart a game until 30 minutes after the last bolt of lightning is seen, so we reset the clock after every strike.
The other field was cleared as well. As I huddled with the other umpire, coaches, and tournament director, we could see that a storm was going to hit and basically wash out the rest of the afternoon. The coaches of my game wisely decided that, even though it was a tie, they were done and headed out.
The coaches from the other game wanted to try to get five innings in to make it an official game. I told the ump from that field that he shouldn’t go back out until the time had been reached. However, the coaches convinced him to restart the game five minutes after I had last seen lightning. Another bolt struck about five minutes into it, even closer.
I actually heard one mother say, “Aww, keep ‘em out there. We’ve got to make this official.”
I looked at her incredulously and responded, “Are you serious? What if it’s your son that gets hit by lightning?”
She insisted that they had to get the game done. I couldn’t do anything but shake my head. These were 15-year-olds. Safety should always be the priority, and liability also has to be considered.
The good news is the ump finally made the right call and got them off the field, and nobody was hurt. But there were still parents muttering that they should try to keep going.
As an umpire, safety always comes first. The right call comes next. Appeasing the fans is nowhere on the list.
I’ve told any number of people over the years that they don’t have to like me. They don’t have to agree with my calls. But they do have to respect me because I’m doing something that few people want to do, and since I am, my calls will stand.
Overall, the fans from our area are pretty good. Maybe that’s just because they know me. Maybe it’s that they’ve learned respect or know complaining won’t get them anywhere. Maybe they’re afraid I’ll hold it against their kid in school if they complain. (I won’t!)
Notice though that I said overall, not completely. We have people around here who need to work on understanding the need to shut their mouths. More than once I’ve offered my mask (or in football or basketball, my whistle) to a local fan since they seemed to feel they could do a better job. Nobody’s ever taken me up on it.
Here’s the thing: if you’ve NEVER officiated a sport, you CAN’T complain. You just can’t. The view from a field or court is so different than in the stands.
Again, we all make mistakes. We feel terrible about them. I blew a call in a recent game because I didn’t have a good angle. Did it change the outcome? There’s the rub. Most of the time, we’ll never know, except on a game-ending play. Early in a game, if a different call is made, the whole game could change. Or it could stay basically the same.
What people really need to understand is that we need more people to be umpires and officials. We need high school kids to try it out and learn about it. For one thing, they’ll understand the game better when they play. Many have told me, though, that when they have done it, they’ve had a bad experience with parents and/or a coach and don’t want to do it anymore. That’s too bad.
I tell beginning officials to call it loud and call it proud. If you do that, you get questioned less. And it’s just like any other job: the longer you do it, the better you get. You’ll never be perfect, but if you work hard and do the best you can, it’s a great experience. On the ball field, I feel like I have the best seat in the house.
The moral of the story? Enjoy the games. Let the officials do their job. If there’s a mistake, leave it to the coach to talk to the officials. Let your kids be kids and have fun out there. If you have to live vicariously through your kids, I feel sorry for you. It’s certainly fun when they win, but it’s even better when they improve and enjoy the games. Help them do that, please. And before you scream at another official, think about officiating yourself!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is amity, which means friendly relations, as in, “The umpire tried to foster amity with all coaches and spectators.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!