Quote:
Originally Posted by Manny A
I made the switch about eight years ago after watching my son play high school ball and seeing how much of a jerk he and his teammates were toward umpires. They questioned virtually every called strike, made obvious gestures of frustration when a call didn't go their way, and had to have a word or two as they walked back to the dugout. That, and the fact that baseball games always seemed to take forever to play a full seven innings, compelled me to move over to softball rather than sign up with the local baseball umpire association and work higher level baseball (I was strictly a LL baseball umpire at the time).
In my experience, softball coaches tend to be a little more forgiving than baseball coaches (but they still cause problems on occasion). But the players show way better sportsmanship than the boys do. Softball batters don't stand there in the box after a called third, and then slowly walk away mumbling about the pitch. Softball pitchers don't raise their arms and roll their eyes when a close pitch doesn't go their way. Softball runners don't jump up after being called out on a tag play and complain loudly that they got their hand on the bag. I'm not saying they are perfect little angels; there are times that they lose their composure a bit. But certainly not as often, and not as complete, as their male counterparts.
Oh, yeah, and it's always nice to walk back to the parking lot after a full seven, and look over to the baseball field and see they're still in the fourth inning.  |
Hopefully you waved goodbye, as we sometimes do...
And our latest contract is structured so that in a couple of years, we will have pay parity with the baseball people