Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Justme
Now that I am working more games for the younger guys (and enjoying it) I have found that it's often more difficult to look good as an umpire working these games than it was when I was working college games. My hat goes off to the guys that work the kids day after day.
|
I have found the same thing to be true. I worked varsity HS from my 2nd year (1987) until last year. This season I joined an association that does youth baseball at all levels through 18 yr. olds. I find that I have to take 10 times as much crap from coaches and fans, because of a couple big reasons:
1) Most LL and youth baseball coaches don't know much about the rules, and argue the usual silly myths that they think are rules. The fans are even worse, and usually have no clue at all. In HS the coaches and fans are significantly more knowledgable.
2) At the lower levels, the coaches and especially the fans think that the umpire must have just fallen off the turnip truck and started umpiring that day. Most folks don't know good umpiring when they witness it, so they treat the umpire like a rube. Most of the people involved have never seen the umpire working at the higher levels unless they have older kids that played HS ball.
Still, the perception is that if you are working a LL Majors game, you must be a really new, inexperienced umpire. Like Tim said, these folks have seen a lot of volunteers wearing their hats backwards with the gear on the outside, and wouldn't recognize a good umpire when they see one.