View Single Post
  #6 (permalink)  
Old Sat Jul 07, 2007, 03:01pm
Rich's Avatar
Rich Rich is offline
Get away from me, Steve.
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 15,785
Quote:
Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA
I cannot stand the chanting, either. To call it singing is being extremely kind. I don't mind the cheers so much as the screaming which accompanies it.

A 4-hour softball game? I'm sorry, but the umpires must have really screwed up that game. No one plays a 4-hour game without a rain delay of some sorts.

I quit doing baseball because of the prima donnas who all thought that there were 30 pro scouts at every game and there was an urgent need to show-off for them.

And yes, this even seemed to be true at the adolescent stages of their life only with mommy and daddy being the motivators of stupidity. Unfortunately, too often this is the problem with youth sports.

There are probably very few softball umpires on this board that haven't encountered, and taken pride in, a catcher or pitcher looking into the stands and screaming, "Shut up, dad/mom/grandpa. You're embarassing me." Sometimes, probably quite often, the kids are smarter than the adults and know how to handle playing the game WITHOUT help from others.

The difference between the baseball stars and the SP stars is that in baseball, the umpire's abilities are often not taken into account in how they react in a certain situation (for clarification, I base this opinion on personal observation and conversation with my umpire buddies from the dark side). In SP, much of the crap you get will depend on the hustle, effort and knowledge of the rules. Yeah, you will still get your idiots and the better umpires will just get rid of them, often with approval from the idiot's team.
I think that regardless of the sport you work, the ability to choose wisely (I work college baseball, HS varsity, and adult ball mainly, and avoid a lot of the youth ball on purpose, with the exception of Little League, which I support on numerous levels) on your schedule is key. Once we stop looking for reasons to go to the park and dread going is the time we should cut back or hang it up.

Last edited by Rich; Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 03:05pm.
Reply With Quote