Via The Blue State Conservative
Officiating youth sports games – whether it’s soccer, baseball, basketball, or whatever – is a thankless task. The best one can hope for is to go unnoticed, collect a $40 check for two hours of work, and maybe get a handshake and word of thanks from a reasonable coach afterward. But impartial officiating is essential if a sports league wants to have competitions. It doesn’t work otherwise. Relying on ten-year-old kids and passionate coaches to self-govern is a fool’s errand.
One might expect adults, aka parents, to be appreciative of those choosing to officiate in their spare time, but there appears to be a trend proving the opposite. Some parents have taken to verbal abuse and even threats in expressing their dissatisfaction with officials’ performances. As a result, there are youth sports leagues across the country that are suffering from shortages of officials, including in Massachusetts, Virginia, and Indiana where high school baseball games have been canceled.
When we see videos like this one, we can understand why there’s a shortage:
The video has gone viral after having been posted on TikTok and then shared on Twitter. On Twitter alone, the video has been retweeted over 4,500 times, quote-tweeted over 2,100 times, and has over 66,000 likes. And the comments from viewers overwhelmingly support the umpire, which is totally understandable.
We don’t know the exact age of the players, but they appear to be about 12-years-old, which begs the question: What were these parents thinking? And the answer to that question seems clear: They weren’t.
If you’re attending a professional baseball game, getting on the umps is one thing, but even then it’s bad form in most cases. Yes, those umpires are professionals who are paid handsomely and make their living doing it, but they’re human beings. They make mistakes. Sometimes an umpire or referee will make a call so egregious we can’t help ourselves, but those instances should be rare.
But these situations are different. These aren’t professional players, they’re children. And these aren’t professional umpires, they’re doing it part-time because they want to be involved with youth athletics and make a couple of bucks along the way. A guy punches out from his job as a forklift driver, hurries to his car where he has his uniform and equipment waiting in the back seat, and then he rushes to the local field hoping he’s not late. All for a payday that won’t even fill up his gas tank. Those are the types of folks who officiate youth sports games.
Now consider that what we hear the parents shouting tells us all we need to know about their mindset:
Umpire: “This is just a game for your kid! Because you want to argue balls and strikes in a Little League game?”
Parent: “He didn’t argue balls and strikes, he walked up like a man to you.”
Wait, what? If it’s not OK to get on umpires from the stands at Little League games – which it’s not – then it’s even less OK to stand up, leave the stands, and then approach the umpire. If that umpire felt physically threatened, he was probably justified.
But the most outrageous comment may well have been from the woman we hear on the video, who’s the epitome of the term “Karen.”
Parent: “And this guy’s a firefighter who protects your neighborhood.”
So, that makes it OK? Just because you’re a volunteer firefighter, or even if you’re a professional firefighter, that makes it OK to go to your son’s Little League game to harangue and torment a part-time umpire? What is wrong with you?
Let’s do this. If you’re a part-time official for youth sports, do the best that you can, don’t be partial, and don’t go off on a power trip. And if you’re a parent watching a game, get a grip. If that umpire calls your son out on strikes, it’s not going to be the deal-breaker on whether he ends up playing for the Yankees. Show some respect and appreciation, and start setting a good example for your child.
By Jordan Case
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These all too common now scenes are the symptoms that the patient is on its way to expiring. We are Rome in the final stages no doubt. A significant part of our society wails and rings their hands perplexed on how an 18 yr old boy could point blank slaughter 3rd graders yet seem disconnected to causation altogether. That ” Karen” most likely represents those who would support and defend d High School Drag Queen shows and Drag Queen story hour for kindergartener’s, and gender reassignment for children. Equally , have signage in yard and wears T shirts that read BLM, CRT Matters, and on it goes.
This is not an indictment of a person’s choice of lifestyle it is about children and what is abuse , indoctrination, and grooming of them that foments a dangerous society for them to live in. I could list the litany of issues besides immorality glorified and on parade , like emasculation of males, erasing women , slaughtering babies in the womb, corruption in all pillars of society ,unwed mother rates, removal and mockery of Christianity in our town square so to speak and on it goes.
Like Rome, this will not end well for any of us.
Agree and we do wring our hands.
Let the truth ring.
The parents have no lives and are miserable and frustrated. They’re losers and nobodies, with nothing better to do and no other outlets to take out their frustrations and misery. That’s why stuff like this happens.
I went to photograph my friend’s son playing little league a few years ago and I was embarrassed with the way one of the coaches was carrying on and going overboard about everything, not just the ump. Inappropriate intensity that is evidence of their internal anger and frustration. They’re maniacs.
I have witnessed this type of behavior firsthand. It is both depressing and infuriating.
It’s been going on for decades. I used to umpire little league and pony league back in the 70s, and some parents and coaches did the same shit.
I don’t remember my parents ever driving me to an athletic practice session of any sport or coming to watch me compete. It was just me doing these things on my own.. I remember riding my bike home with my first show jumping trophy when I was 12 or 13 and they weren’t even there.
Let the kids play the game and parents: stay out of the judgement calls.
Kids from THOSE parents are probably going to play for the Yankees actually.
Go Red Sox!
I got ejected from a HS basketball game once. I hadn’t said a word. Really. It was the guy next to me that was an asshole, and I didn’t even know him. Ref thought it was me and tossed me. Don’t blame the ref for tossing, just needed to get the right guy.
More evidence of the collapse of trust societies. No motivation is left unquestioned. Everyone is assumed to be lying or agenda-driven.
There is nothing quite as anger inducing as watching some incompetent ref ruin a kids game, be it baseball, hockey, soccer or anything else that requires refs. The kids see it yet are unable to express their anger or disgust. They feel used.
I kind of feel sorry for you Jordan. Why torment yourself with worrying about these people behaving kindly. If this petty activity in their lives appears so critical to a positive outcome(drafted by the Yankees), that they throw civility out the window, stop daydreaming about them changing their behavior. They are trying to live their peonic lives vicariously through their kids. How sad. I encountered this exact thing with umping T-ball league 1 summer. It sucks! T-BALL!!
Cops been doin the same thing. Walkin away. Not worth it. They’re the umpires out on the street.
A firefighter? Over time, More and more incidents where the Arsonist is a Fireman or Investigator. The people who rush to chop/cut a hole in the roof. Create a chimney, induce draft. Perfectly logical. Sit on their duff mostly. Eating to the point of corpulence. Well Paid Pyromaniacs at heart. Round here, a minor fender bender will involve multiple ambulances, 4-6 pork-mobiles and at least 1 full sized fire truck, Plus a few SUV’s of various ‘Mgmt.’
Highest paid position in ‘Education’? The football coach.
Basement saver
Both my sons played little league baseball and soccer.
This is what we learned; there sure are a lot of assholes in this world.
And parents wonder where their children get their shit behavior from? Take a look in the mirror America: you are the problem.
My family wondered why I refused to play sports when I was a kid. It was because of that exact behavior shown in the video. Every parent thinks their kid is the next Hank Aaron or Joe Montana or Michael Jordan. Guess what? They arent. The focus on sports as a team building activity is gone and the focus on selfish shit head behavior is almost at its peak.
Most parents need a nice cup of shut the fuck up in almost everything now.
ZFG, out.
P.S. organized sports are a stepping stone to organized idiocy.
It reminds me of an interview with a major league umpire and his remark, “there’s balls and there are strikes, but they ain’t nothing until I call them”.