Parent Etiquette
 

My 14 yr old son will be calling his first game as an umpire this Sat. My wife and I have watched him play travel ball for years but now watching him umpire is new.

Any suggestions? Do we cheer for a good call? Where would you sit? Can I take pictures?

We have been fortunate that our local area has a significant number of quality umpires that they have been a positive influence as evidence by the fact that he wants to be one.

Keep up the good work guys as you never know who is paying attention.

You can sit whereever you want, but you will find that you will not want to sit next to the other parents. ;)

Take pictures, but don't draw attention to the fact that you are taking pictures of the umpire.

Being the parent of a Junior umpire, and having trained them for years, you're actually asking a really good question.

First, you have to be tough skinned. You're going to hear your son be criticised like never before. Fans not only won't like his calls, they'll question why he's even out there, when a call doesn't go their way. It's going to happen, trust me. Be ready for that. If you can't sit quietly by, you'll need to move somewhere else.

Yeah, I'd take a few pictures. But don't be real obvious about. I've got some great ones of my son when he was 11, that are treasures (he's 23 now).

If you're anywhere in the West, consider sending him to the Little League Baseball Junior Umpire Training Academy next June. $300 for a full week of training, where they live at the facility, can't be beat. Here's a link:

http://www.eteamz.com/llbwest/files/...ireAcademy.pdf

My son is 14 and has shown great interest in joining the officiating ranks. For a couple of years, in fact, he's been grabbing my new copies of Referee Magazine before I can!

I'll probably get him started in some Little League this coming summer.

I forgot about the parents complaining about the umpires because I have never done that.:rolleyes: Guess I will take up a position down the line away from the action(parents).

When I started reading your post I immediately hoped that Kyle would chime in. Kyle is a huge proponent of utilizing junior umpires in LL games, and has given you some great advice. My son umpires as well, and it can be difficult to listen to some of the more nasty comments made when he's working a game that I'm just there to watch. You have to consider the source and not take it personally. The pastor of their local church could be working the dish in a game that their kids are playing in, and he'd be instantly villified as soon as a call didn't go there way. It comes with the job. Make sure to tell your son that too.

Tim.

I'm almost at this stage with my son too. Just remember, you're not a cheering party anymore. There WILL be close plays - it's the nature of the game. And on all of those - every single one --- half of the stands will momentarily hate your son. If he's unfortunate enough to have several close ones go against one team in a row (and this WILL happen), that side's going to get loud. Fight the urge to defend him - you truly have no idea how these already angry people will react. Many just want to vent, but some want more. Your son has a fence between him and these idiots. You do not. Stay above it.

A couple more things.

We started our Junior umpire program in 2000, with just some hope, and our fingers crossed. In my son's first game, he was on the bases, and I had the plate, he had a close call at third. The manager in the box did not agree with his out call, and came to me first. "Not my call, Boss".

Then he went to my son, and got a little animated. Calls from parents ensued, for me to help my son out. Nothing doing.

Now, before the season started, we had a signal for our Juniors for when they'd had enough. The coaches knew it, too. It was folded arms across the chest. That meant ,"I've enough, the next word gets an EJ". Sure enough, my son folded his arms, and the manager stepped back, and headed back to the dugout.

After the game, the manager approached us both. "Here we go" I thought.

"Young man, I still don't agree with your call", he said to my son,"but really liked how you handled yourself out there. Nice job."

That's when I knew we could make this work.

And this whole program has little to do with umpiring and/or baseball. It's all about responsibility, respect and dealing with tough situations. For kids this age, you just can't find a better vehicle to learn these lessons.


I always have three questions for my kids, when they come off the field:

What did you do right? (always start with something positive)
What did you do wrong? (then, bring them back down to Earth. They'll know, if they've been trained right, when they mess up)
What do you need to do to fix it? (give them something to work on for next game).

Try those after his first game.

Could not agree with you more. I started umpiring at 13 and learning the ability to keep a level head while adults did not continues to help me to this day.

So glad you are going out to support your son. Twenty years ago when I started (and still today) my parents come to games when they can. As a teenager my dad would always stand out beyond the outfield fence (60' ball), not to hide, but to help me know that I was loud enough behind the plate. Mom always sat in the bleachers and cheered for everyone. She just loves watching kids play sports. Many times she would be asked, "Which one is your son?" when the parents didn't recognize her. She always happily said, "He is" while pointing at me (usually behind the plate).

I wish your son the best of luck. Starting young is AWESOME!

How did his first game go for him this weekend? And how did go for you watching him umpire?

It went well. He had a lot of fun. He was doing 6-7yr old coach pitch. The usual stuff. Lots of running and not many outs. Everyone hits with free substitutions. Couple of times runners passed runners. Not a lot of calls to make just keep the kids running the right directions. His trainer says "I feel like I am robbing the park every time I get paid for one of these games."

His trainer says he needs to be louder but other than that he is ready to fly solo next week. The plan is he will do this group through the fall and move to 8-9yrs old in the spring.

Like Kyle, I started a youth umpiring program for our local LL back when I was involved with LLBB. We started them the same way, at 12 yo in our coach pitch division and they moved up a higher division each year. If they stayed with the program, which included mandatory attendance at a four hour clinic each spring, by the time they were 14, they were calling games in our 11/12 yo majors division. Program worked well, had 100% backing of the league's BOD, parent's of our young umpires were amazed at the poise and confidence they developed right before their eyes.
Of everything I've done as an umpire, the seven years I spent running this program was by far the most fun and rewarding.
I wish your son the all the best in his development as an umpire.

This was my sons second weekend umpiring. Coach disagreed with my sons rule interpretation. Son told him that he wasn't wrong and get back in the dugout. Coach sent his wife to get his rule book out of the car. Then he called time out and wanted to show my son the rule book. My son told him he could return to the dugout and they weren't discussing his rule book. So proud of him.
My wife's reaction was "can you believe that guy...he sent his wife to get his rule book" " I would have told him to shut up and get your own rule book."

I have a suggestion for you and your son. It might be a good idea to teach him to allow a manager to show him a rule in the rule book, even if he's confident that he's 100% right on the ruling. I don't normally recommend allowing a manager to pull the rule book out on the field, but I think that for a 14 year old umpire, it will help keep him out of trouble. As soon as he tells the manager that he's not going to be discussing the rule book, in the manager and other coaches eyes, he just told them that he doesn't want to be bothered with the facts.

There are ways he can allow a manager to use a rule book during a rules discussion without having to stand there and take a lot of crap as the manager peruses the rule book looking for the rule that he "thinks" applies.

Manager - "Billy I think you needed to call time on this interference call on my second baseman. The ball was in left field when he interfered with the runner, and not calling time like the rule says, allows their runner to go to third. By rule he only gets the base he's going to when there's interference by the defense. I've got it right here in the rule book.

Billy - "Mr. Leftout, please show me the rule. I'll give you 15 seconds to find it. After that, we need to move on and get the game going. You have the option of filing a protest if you don't like my ruling, and can't find it yourself."


YMMV - And I'm sure Kyle's kids have had to deal with situations very similar to this.

Tim.