Just Venting....

[rjhouchin]

Why does it not surprise me that you don't know what I am getting at. No where in my post does it say anything about expecting an official to apologize during a game (or afterwards for that matter). Your response is typical of the arrogance I have experienced from officials for 50 years, namely the outright refusal to admit that, like the rest of us mortals, they too make errors. It is a part of the game and I have always accepted that. The quality of officiating his gone done, signigicantly, over the last twenty years, at all levels, including at the professional level thereby severly diminishing the integrity of all sports. One only has to look at a pro basketball game for a few minutes these days to see them walking all over the court, palming the ball, etc. It has become a joke.

When I first became involved in sports, the first thing my father did was make me learn the rules before I could participate. I read the rule book several times a season and my copies are dog eared, highlighted, underlined and heavily used. I have never hollered at an official publicly with the exception of one occassion. In the final game of a regional qualifier for nationals (the winner to go to nationals) with the final out at the plate with two strikes, the plate umpire missed the batter swinging at the next pitch. Now I have been behind the plate and I understand that this is actually possible, however, the
field umpire also missed it. To add insult to injury, it happened again on the next pitch. On the next pitch
(strike 5) we had a dropped third strike, the batter advanced to first, scored to tie the game and our team lost in extra innings. I said to the officials, "I am going to send you a video tape of that and a white cane to watch it with." We actually had video of the incident which clearly showed the batter swinging completly around, twice. You make an extremely generous and self serving assumption that you only make one mistake a game. I wish that were true. It would be a significant improvement over what I have seen these last twenty years. It has become so poor that I for one would rather pick a parent out of the stands from each team and use them. The "trained" officials are of no value whatsoever.

The average cost, per family, for a year of travel ball here in California is around $ 9,000.00 per player. We had a full year of effort and about $ 150,000.00 in costs riding on those calls. We deserved better than we got.

That was only one of many. I actually had an official say to me, during one game, what the hell, they are only girls.
I pulled my team off the field.

I might add that, in all of youth sports, the only ones on the field who are being paid are the officials. When you take my money, you owe me a better job than we are getting.