[Mountaineer]

Originally Posted by mcrowder

You continue to go out of your way to intentionally misunderstand. So I'll go slow.

I'm assuming, from your signature and from other claims you make, that you work (at least on occasion) NCAA games. To have gotten this far, surely you've attended enough clinics and have enough experience, that you should have been able to put away your rabbit ears by now, and you should know that A) you are there to officiate the game, B) you are not there to enforce whatever your personal opinion of fan decorum may be, C) it is unprofessional to get into any conflict with fans (or even acknowledge they exist) and D) there is a danger to the umpire that can be caused by interacting with fans ... at WHATEVER level.

So if you've managed to progress far enough to ignore fan nonsense, why do you feel you have to put the rabbit ears back on at younger games.

Where do you get the idea that it is your set of morals that should dictate what is and is not appropriate for fans - what is "obscene"? Seems awfully heavy-handed of you. If you have to do that with players/coaches - fine. You are in charge of the field. You are not in charge of the entire complex. Let someone who IS handle this nonsense.

Oh gosh, I don't have rabbit ears. But when I have a little girl that is being distracted from the game because of a parent (you are probably right it was more than likely her's) yelling at the child. IMO, this IS my concern. All I need is a shot down the 3rd baseline and she gets blasted because her focus is what's going on over the fence. That's why I made the decision I made. Would I do it again? - absolutely. Would I do it in a high school game? - would take a catastrophe. Would I do it in an NCAA game? - helllllll no. My point was the age of the child involved and my belief that it was a distraction - thus I acted.