by Comets16 » Tue May 13, 2008 1:55 pm
I was there this weekend on the next field over. What alerted our attention behind us was a woman yelling "get that guy out of here". When we turned around the umpire was laying flat by the 1st base. People rushed to his aid and he was on the ground for 10-15 minutes and most of it was unconscious. It halted play on all four fields. Several of the players from both teams were crying, from the incident. The cops and paramedics came and the guy was put in the cop car, none handcuffed.
This happened in a small town, where the games being played were B rec or less level. he girls on the team will be "blacklisted" as everyone was saying and not allowed to play in many tournaments. It was an unfortunate incident, which should have never happened.
I am not condoning this stupid activity by any means, but it seems to me sometimes the umpires want to be a bigger part of the game than they should be. You see it in professional sports all the time. These blues are making $25-$30 a game, and will have local or un-local favorites. If an umpire wants to stink, have favorites or not care if they blew a call and just get the check at the window, he has that right to. Just isn't right.
I was just ejected from a game last weekend for saying "whatever" to an umpire. A runner left very early and was called safe on the throw to second. One of our dads was heckling the umpire on the missed call. He walks over to the fence and states that is "enough". Being that it was my daughter the catcher, the call was missed on, I felt I needed to give a little more and said "whatever". He said you are gone... Not quiet what I say is enough reason to eject someone. We go on to win the game, and win the tournament, so it isn't sour grapes.
Just because they wear a blue uniform gives them the right and makes them the "say and end all"? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. We can only hope that there are more umpires that actually care about doing their best and just not drawing a supplemental income, which hardly any of them file on their taxes anyways...