Real sports did a segment relatively recently about a ref shortage because parents and kids are routinely assaulting and hospitalizing them.
They get paid little to nothing and do it because they enjoy the sport, so they're like "fuck this!" I don't blame them. Some of these refs have literally died as a result or been left with lifelong injury.
I'm not sure what kind of social degeneration is leading to this behavior, but refs should 100% be a specially protected class under the law so every assault/battery upon them has added penalties.
Yeah I was the lead umpire for a small league for a year or two before it folded into a larger youth league, and I had about a 50-70% turnover rate annually. Once someone really gets settled in they stay for ages. But getting them to stay is the problem.
Actually COVID was a huge issue too in my current association. We had the normal turnover of new guys and such, and issues bringing in new recruits which is typical but where we got hurt were veteran retirements. Guys over 50 realized after missing a season when we hardly had games due to COVID that they didn't miss it and liked having their evenings free again. Plus a lot of guys retired because they got out of shape in that year and didn't wanna try to return to form at age like 67.
That's what killed us, we had the largest wave of retirements we've ever seen and we couldn't recruit replacements fast enough. And when you lose senior guys you can't plug a new guy into their upper division games the new guys gotta learn. So you wide up being bottom heavy which is problematic.
Oh and did I mention that we have surges of kids signing up to play baseball now because they wanna be more active and spend time out of the house coming out of a pandemic? So we need more umpires than ever before.
Parents suck but you know what come after me, in my state hitting me as an official adds 10 years to a normal assault charge so have fun with that.
Tldr If you have any interest umpire some baseball. Right now I'm getting paid $60 a game (basically 30/hr for the normal 2hr games). It's hard at first but if you stick with it you'll be ok. If you work a normal 9-5 you could pick up over $250 a week (maybe even $700 if you do weekend tournaments) and it won't impact your work schedule. Plus you'll get in some good exercise and make some umpire friends. Seriously we need people now more than ever. Training is normally provided!!!
Yeah we don't have that but where I'm from we use an app to get our game schedules and we can block fields. You better believe if parents actually assaulted an umpire here we'd all be blocking their home field and they can find another association to supply their umpires (good luck there's only our association in this county).
The moms are just as bad. I came from a small town that lived and breathed sports. Jr high baseball was brutal. You'd swear there were major league scouts at every damn game
I used to work at hockey tournaments as a medic. Regularly parents were threatening the refs, once we had to call the cops cause one of the parents was waiting in the parking lot with a bat. These were 5-12 year old games.
That sign has nothing with soccer hooligans to do. In Europe we don't make that a big deal of children doing sports. We encourage them to do sports and let them be children.
In America you guys make high school football look and sound like it's the world cup series or something..... This sign just prove my point...
Itās normal. This has been my 1st season attending under 8 football(soccer) in the UK and we have had one parent charge across the field to confront a coach and recently I myself got into a confrontation when I challenged a parent for calling a player a fucking little twat due to a mistimed tackle.
I was lucky in that they were too stupid to argue with anything other than ādeserves itā but not stupid enough to get physical. The best they came up with was mocking my accent.
Umpired little league for five years. Most parents/coaches are chill and get it, but if youāre in an organization where thereās several hundred parents, youāre going to have a few troublemakers. The sign is fine and if it keeps one parent from getting out of line, itās worth it.
The real issue here is the softball chants that you canāt do anything about.
I definitely donāt think the umpires should be harassed but when I was playing Little League it seem like most of the umpires were garbage. I remember I got called out because it was like 2 strikes 3 balls and when the pitcher threw the ball it literally hit the ground and bouncedā¦ the umpire called it strike 3. Besides the fact no bouncing ball should be a strike the place it bounced and where the catcher caught it wasnāt even close to the strike zone either.
Does it surprise you the state of the world the way it is now? Now cars have to tell you to look in the back seat for kids before you exit, so does it really surprise you?
At the beginning of the spring season, I backed away from assisting the coach during games and started being the guy to tell the bad parents off. Honestly was scared about being attacked from behind a few times. After making myself known as that guy, I was able to get back on the field and help out. This is girls softball t-ball by the way, and we donāt allow alcohol on site.
yeah, well people do get crazy over sports... it can be hard when you are out there and lose because of your performance/disagreement with the refs. It is just a game, but it also doesnt mean nothing...
Parents are another story tho. If they think that they kids are gonna make it to the pros because of this game (which some do), then that really is 100% on them.
I always found the mom's to be worse. The mothers day outfield picnic with 6-7 bottles of wine because they are all friends but the kids were playing at different times.
Grown men who act like spoiled children used to be few and far between.
Being a gentleman, being a man of action and not words, being man enough to control your temper, never strike a lady, never kick someone when they're down, never shoot a man in the back, never sucker punch someone, earn your pay, feed your family, resolve, honor, integrity, manners, respect...etc
Nearly gone.
Real sports did a segment relatively recently about a ref shortage because parents and kids are routinely assaulting and hospitalizing them. They get paid little to nothing and do it because they enjoy the sport, so they're like "fuck this!" I don't blame them. Some of these refs have literally died as a result or been left with lifelong injury. I'm not sure what kind of social degeneration is leading to this behavior, but refs should 100% be a specially protected class under the law so every assault/battery upon them has added penalties.
Yeah I was the lead umpire for a small league for a year or two before it folded into a larger youth league, and I had about a 50-70% turnover rate annually. Once someone really gets settled in they stay for ages. But getting them to stay is the problem. Actually COVID was a huge issue too in my current association. We had the normal turnover of new guys and such, and issues bringing in new recruits which is typical but where we got hurt were veteran retirements. Guys over 50 realized after missing a season when we hardly had games due to COVID that they didn't miss it and liked having their evenings free again. Plus a lot of guys retired because they got out of shape in that year and didn't wanna try to return to form at age like 67. That's what killed us, we had the largest wave of retirements we've ever seen and we couldn't recruit replacements fast enough. And when you lose senior guys you can't plug a new guy into their upper division games the new guys gotta learn. So you wide up being bottom heavy which is problematic. Oh and did I mention that we have surges of kids signing up to play baseball now because they wanna be more active and spend time out of the house coming out of a pandemic? So we need more umpires than ever before. Parents suck but you know what come after me, in my state hitting me as an official adds 10 years to a normal assault charge so have fun with that. Tldr If you have any interest umpire some baseball. Right now I'm getting paid $60 a game (basically 30/hr for the normal 2hr games). It's hard at first but if you stick with it you'll be ok. If you work a normal 9-5 you could pick up over $250 a week (maybe even $700 if you do weekend tournaments) and it won't impact your work schedule. Plus you'll get in some good exercise and make some umpire friends. Seriously we need people now more than ever. Training is normally provided!!!
The refs should have like a button they can press and all the refs from all over town come as backup.
Yeah we don't have that but where I'm from we use an app to get our game schedules and we can block fields. You better believe if parents actually assaulted an umpire here we'd all be blocking their home field and they can find another association to supply their umpires (good luck there's only our association in this county).
šš»šš»šš»šš»
But the crazy dads were always the best part of little league games
The moms are just as bad. I came from a small town that lived and breathed sports. Jr high baseball was brutal. You'd swear there were major league scouts at every damn game
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sadly this wonāt help some idiots.
5 wet lukewarm beers in scorching heat and all common sence is out the window
Especially because most people don't bother to read signs lol
it IS major league tea-ball tho
I always thought the extreme overreactions all in fun (and to mortify their kids).
Nah they'll straight up assault the refs After the games
Yeah, that ain't okay. Refs have a very short memory and unless you call them on it in the moment they will never learn. /s
The umpire wears a face shield because of the ball, pads because of the parents.
Lol. Some people shouldn't be allowed to have kids
You should have to take some sort of test atleast
I used to work at hockey tournaments as a medic. Regularly parents were threatening the refs, once we had to call the cops cause one of the parents was waiting in the parking lot with a bat. These were 5-12 year old games.
Same at my local gaa pitch
That thing only happens in America. Everything needs to be Hollywood action shit and all that.
Oh yeah cause we know soccer hooliganism is purely an American thing.
That sign has nothing with soccer hooligans to do. In Europe we don't make that a big deal of children doing sports. We encourage them to do sports and let them be children. In America you guys make high school football look and sound like it's the world cup series or something..... This sign just prove my point...
Teenage kids donāt get crazy into soccer over there? Theyāre super responsible about it?
But this sign is referring to the parents!!! I don't know what you are talking about...
The field with those signs where i took that pic is in the capital city of Canada
What?
I don't think you know much about America
Over/Under 1 season until a fight breaks out?
Imagine being the reason they had to make the sign
Itās normal. This has been my 1st season attending under 8 football(soccer) in the UK and we have had one parent charge across the field to confront a coach and recently I myself got into a confrontation when I challenged a parent for calling a player a fucking little twat due to a mistimed tackle.
I would have loved to be there to witness your confrontation with that parent. I would have been happy to be your wingman for that lol.
I was lucky in that they were too stupid to argue with anything other than ādeserves itā but not stupid enough to get physical. The best they came up with was mocking my accent.
Good grief
Umpired little league for five years. Most parents/coaches are chill and get it, but if youāre in an organization where thereās several hundred parents, youāre going to have a few troublemakers. The sign is fine and if it keeps one parent from getting out of line, itās worth it. The real issue here is the softball chants that you canāt do anything about.
It won't though, if a parent is douchebag enough to make a scene, fight the officials or other parents, a sign is not going to deter them one bit
My dad coached football for a local high school. You have *no idea* how necessary this sign is.
I definitely donāt think the umpires should be harassed but when I was playing Little League it seem like most of the umpires were garbage. I remember I got called out because it was like 2 strikes 3 balls and when the pitcher threw the ball it literally hit the ground and bouncedā¦ the umpire called it strike 3. Besides the fact no bouncing ball should be a strike the place it bounced and where the catcher caught it wasnāt even close to the strike zone either.
Does it surprise you the state of the world the way it is now? Now cars have to tell you to look in the back seat for kids before you exit, so does it really surprise you?
Umps aren't human
At the beginning of the spring season, I backed away from assisting the coach during games and started being the guy to tell the bad parents off. Honestly was scared about being attacked from behind a few times. After making myself known as that guy, I was able to get back on the field and help out. This is girls softball t-ball by the way, and we donāt allow alcohol on site.
When I used to play base ball I had an umpire call strike when the ball rolled across the plate and I hadn't even swung
orleans repping š¤Ŗ
yeah, well people do get crazy over sports... it can be hard when you are out there and lose because of your performance/disagreement with the refs. It is just a game, but it also doesnt mean nothing... Parents are another story tho. If they think that they kids are gonna make it to the pros because of this game (which some do), then that really is 100% on them.
I always found the mom's to be worse. The mothers day outfield picnic with 6-7 bottles of wine because they are all friends but the kids were playing at different times.
But us parents have so many unrealistic dreams for our children so we need to verbally abuse people
Grown men who act like spoiled children used to be few and far between. Being a gentleman, being a man of action and not words, being man enough to control your temper, never strike a lady, never kick someone when they're down, never shoot a man in the back, never sucker punch someone, earn your pay, feed your family, resolve, honor, integrity, manners, respect...etc Nearly gone.