Tabascocat
Dexternjack
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As a preface, my brother-in-law(BIL) has a 17yr old daughter who plays competitive softball. She has already committed to Alabama but has been chased/recruited by numerous other College's since she was 12. She doesn't even bother with High School ball and only plays on club teams until she graduates.
My BIL decided to become an ASA official a few years ago to umpire games to be close with his daughter on tournaments. Well, this past weekend he was the umpire in charge(UIC) of the whole tourney outside of Baytown. There were 36 teams entered ranging from 5 to 16 yo's(his daughter did not play in this one, was at a different tourney).
He asked me to help umpire because he was short-handed for the upcoming games. He knew my baseball background and thought it would be a piece of cake, so he rushed/helped me through a fast licensing process. That was mistake #1.
So, I set out Friday night to do a few games, it was only pool ball so not to serious. We got paid 15 per game to umpire, made a easy 45.
Here came Saturday, the serious games started at 8am. We get paid 30 per game and being the baseball man I am, I said I would do an ironman(means umping 9 games in one day = $270). My plan was to do this Sat and Sun, mistake #2. It was beyond hot.
I was not prepared for what was to follow. Baseball/softball rules are simple(common sense to me), but the technicalities are not. I never thought I would have to know uniform rules, hesitation(which is purely discretionary), balking rules(totally different than baseball) and the numerous different ASA substitution rules. I was overwhelmed to say the least.
FF to a couple games later, I called a girl out at third and caught some major flak from the parents. After some arguing, they appealed. These parents videotaped the plays and tried to prove me wrong. They called the tourney director and showed him video of the play in question. After 8 mins of groaning, it clearly showed I made the right call. Rule is.....play under protest, not hold up the game yet those parents would not let it go.
Ok, my last game of the night. I had to ump the 6U(six and five year olds). I thought, no sweat, even though those games only have one umpire. Who can take these games that serious? Mistake #3. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off chasing these girls around. Even if they swung and missed, they would still run to a base, not necessarily first, heh. I thought it was fun and cute that these little girls were having a blast but the parents were worse than the older girls. One mom put her fingers into my chest and threatened me when I said her daughter was out popping up to the catcher(with 2 strikes on her). She said the catcher had to make a play on the ball. I said "she did, the catcher caught it!". Her response was "but, she didn't move two steps".
Later that inning, a father was heckling me for over 10 minutes. I told him "you can not heckle me from the dugout or curse me from the parking lot, your choice". He chose the latter
What I am getting at is....these parents make soccer moms look like angels. The crap they put their kids through is too much. I did not do this for the money, I was helping out my BIL. I was even willing to miss the game against KC for this. I am grateful to say that they had too many umpires for Sunday(today) and needed volunteers to take the day off. I think I was the first to high-tail it out. Instead, I dropped most of that money on the NFL Sunday ticket because I didn't feel like going to a sportsbar, was worn out!
Wow, recording games now to call out mistakes? How times have changed. I take back all of my disagreements with umpires over the years, I never knew it was this bad
My BIL decided to become an ASA official a few years ago to umpire games to be close with his daughter on tournaments. Well, this past weekend he was the umpire in charge(UIC) of the whole tourney outside of Baytown. There were 36 teams entered ranging from 5 to 16 yo's(his daughter did not play in this one, was at a different tourney).
He asked me to help umpire because he was short-handed for the upcoming games. He knew my baseball background and thought it would be a piece of cake, so he rushed/helped me through a fast licensing process. That was mistake #1.
So, I set out Friday night to do a few games, it was only pool ball so not to serious. We got paid 15 per game to umpire, made a easy 45.
Here came Saturday, the serious games started at 8am. We get paid 30 per game and being the baseball man I am, I said I would do an ironman(means umping 9 games in one day = $270). My plan was to do this Sat and Sun, mistake #2. It was beyond hot.
I was not prepared for what was to follow. Baseball/softball rules are simple(common sense to me), but the technicalities are not. I never thought I would have to know uniform rules, hesitation(which is purely discretionary), balking rules(totally different than baseball) and the numerous different ASA substitution rules. I was overwhelmed to say the least.
FF to a couple games later, I called a girl out at third and caught some major flak from the parents. After some arguing, they appealed. These parents videotaped the plays and tried to prove me wrong. They called the tourney director and showed him video of the play in question. After 8 mins of groaning, it clearly showed I made the right call. Rule is.....play under protest, not hold up the game yet those parents would not let it go.
Ok, my last game of the night. I had to ump the 6U(six and five year olds). I thought, no sweat, even though those games only have one umpire. Who can take these games that serious? Mistake #3. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off chasing these girls around. Even if they swung and missed, they would still run to a base, not necessarily first, heh. I thought it was fun and cute that these little girls were having a blast but the parents were worse than the older girls. One mom put her fingers into my chest and threatened me when I said her daughter was out popping up to the catcher(with 2 strikes on her). She said the catcher had to make a play on the ball. I said "she did, the catcher caught it!". Her response was "but, she didn't move two steps".
Later that inning, a father was heckling me for over 10 minutes. I told him "you can not heckle me from the dugout or curse me from the parking lot, your choice". He chose the latter
What I am getting at is....these parents make soccer moms look like angels. The crap they put their kids through is too much. I did not do this for the money, I was helping out my BIL. I was even willing to miss the game against KC for this. I am grateful to say that they had too many umpires for Sunday(today) and needed volunteers to take the day off. I think I was the first to high-tail it out. Instead, I dropped most of that money on the NFL Sunday ticket because I didn't feel like going to a sportsbar, was worn out!
Wow, recording games now to call out mistakes? How times have changed. I take back all of my disagreements with umpires over the years, I never knew it was this bad
