I Am Blind....

[PublicBJ]

Originally posted by ChuckElias
I'm kind of at a loss here. I cannot for the life of me figure out why most of the responses to this thread consider a mascot mocking the officiating crew to be just good, clean fun. I would toss that mascot without a moment's hesitation. Bye bye. Can this kind of act NOT be unsportsmanlike?

Chuck

Because it's just for fun. Relax a little, we can show that referees are a little bit human, too.

If it gets personal or it's not for fun, then do something about it. If the mascot is taunting you about a call that the home team thinks stinks, then do something about it. If he's just teasing the refs during a dead ball or at halftime, why make a bigger deal out of it. I don't think it's disrespectful, it just for fun.

I remember the velcro referee doll, a spectator had one at a game several years ago. She looked at me and jokingly tore it apart while I was watching. We all (including me and my partner) laughed. Now if she had said "Hey ref, we're doing this to you after the game.", that's different.

Heck, I umpired a volunteer softball tournament for a charity many years ago, where at the end of the tournament they dressed us all up with canes, dark sunglasses, a tin cup and some pencils. It was a riot.