[PeteBooth]

There is an interesting article in February's issue of referee magazine concerning lack of officials and declining attendance. The article mentioned that there is a meeting in June to discuss this very issue.

The main problem according to the article was that officals "fear for their life" and are tired of taking all the abuse.
The offenders get a mere slap on the wrist.

Also, it isn't uncommon for players and coaches to BLAST the officals during interviews. The media is also very critical of officials.

The pay just isn't worth it. In fact the article mentioned that some D1 schools are having difficulty in scheduling games because of the lack of officials. I know my association is in need of officials as I did roughly 1/3 of my games alone.

In today's era, it seems teams put more pressure on Blue by putting the game in THEIR HANDS instead of their own. When Blue makes that crucial obstruction call when the defense is cheating or rings up B1 for strike three - holy hell breaks lose. Coaches want to punch the daylights out of someone (that someone being Blue).

Also, society needs to get a life as fans get to outraged over a simple game. God forbid when Blue makes a mistake - it's like the next coming of World War III.

I personally found the article very interesting and the flight of officials doesn't look to promising unless something is done. It's my gut that when the baby boom generation (guys/ gals around 42 - 45 yrs. old) hangs it up, there will not be enough qualified replacements.

Plenty of times my kids say "hey Dad WHAT'S UP - why do you umpire? Sometimes I wonder that myself.

The game is still a game but society views it a lot different than when we played. In my day, the coach didn't want to hear any complaints when you got called looking. In fact we used to have a 3-2 pitch drill in which the coach would pitch the ball (purposely) around 6 - 8 inches off the outer edge.

If you didn't attempt to at least foul it off - you ran laps. That's when anything close MEANT Anything close. Today one hears "Common Blue Give me a break".

The attitude towards officials has really changed. People view us as a ncecessary evil instead of being an intregal part of the game.

I recommend you read the article and do you too find that too many teams are putting the game in Blues Hands instead of their own.