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In my opinion,the only major wrong doing by this young umpire was responding to a parent(fan?).If she stays in umpiring she will learn that spectators mean absolutely nothing to us.There obvious lack of knowledge for the game and biased behavior must be ignored.When someone gets out of hand,she should have went to the field director or coach and had this gentleman(?)removed or the game is over.It really is disheartening the way parents carry on in a game of such magnitude.12U slow pitch certainly isnt the World Series or even the next most important thing.Long gone are the days when a parent can just sit in the stands and enjoy watching their child participate in an athletic contest.They seem to have a sick need to interject themselves into every pitch of the game.Hopefully this young lady will learn from her mistakes and continue on officiating.
As for the particular play described,the only call at the play at second would have been malicious contact if she deliberately crashed into the fielder with excessive force.If she was standing on and blocking the base without the ball,she is in the wrong if the contact was not melicious.That is a problem with the younger levels because the coaches do not teach their kids the proper way to receive the ball without blocking the base.A very misunderstood rule which usually has the unknowlegeable screaming they have to slide.A base runner has 3 options once the fielder HAS the ball,slide,attempt to go around,or give yourself up.So if she was blocking the bag without the ball,there can be contact as long as it is not malicious.
It takes a long time for an umpire to develop the knowledge and skill to apply a rules of the game.It takes even longer to build up a thick skin so that idiots in the stands can be tuned out.All umpires will make mistakes,the goal of a good umpire is to continue to improve and limit those mistkes. Jeff
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