It's getting bad, and the worst part about it is, as coaches and fans (mostly fans, as coaches know without umpires/officials that are trained, there won't be games).
He, all you without much to do, get licensed, go officiate games. It's easy to know the rules when you're OUTSIDE the fence, right?
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/youth-softball-umpire-says-she-111022916.html?fr=sycsrp_catchallYouth softball umpire says she was punched in the face by a mom: 'It's getting worse and worse.'
Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY
Sat, April 23, 2022, 8:52 PM·6 min read
Word travels fast in Ellisville, Mississippi, and Kristi Moore didn't want her children to hear the news from somebody else. So she called her 17-year-old daughter and explained why she'd be walking through the door with serious injuries to the left side of her face.
Hours earlier on the evening of April 9, Moore became one of the latest victims of violence unleashed by a parent against an official at a youth sports game, according to police. Days after the incident, Moore shared a photo of her black eye and bruised face on social media that went viral, setting off a discussion about abuse umpires and referees face.
The worst part wasn't the swelling around her left eye or the pain in her ear. It was the reactions of her daughter and 13-year-old son.
“They took one look at me and started crying,” Moore, 47, told USA TODAY Sports.
"Mom, we don't want you to do this," they told her. "We don’t want you to get hurt."
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While Moore was umpiring a softball game in the nearby town of Laurel for 12-and-under girls, a mother of one of the players became unruly and screamed profanity across the field. The situation escalated when the mother challenged one of Moore's calls at second base.
“That she was going to (expletive) me up,” Moore recalled. Moore told police later that Kiara Nichelle Thomas threatened her several times, according to a copy of the Laurel Police Department incident report obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
Moore told Thomas, 32, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to leave the field. Thomas was the second person Moore had ejected from the premises. When she refused, Moore told the team's coach that the game would be forfeited if Thomas didn’t leave. A coach told Thomas to leave, Moore said. She did, but not before threatening Moore again, per the incident report.
Kristi Moore has been an umpire for 10 years and serves as the head umpire in Mississippi for the United States Fastpitch Association. She suffered a black eye as a result of an attack after a 12-and-under game she umpired Saturday.
Kristi Moore has been an umpire for 10 years and serves as the head umpire in Mississippi for the United States Fastpitch Association. She suffered a black eye as a result of an attack after a 12-and-under game she umpired Saturday.
After the game, Thomas returned and approached Moore, who said she instructed Thomas to step away, according to the incident report.
Then came the punch. The strike caused a black eye, cuts and scratches underneath Moore's right eye.
According to the report, Thomas was immediately informed the police were being called. She fled the scene but a parks and recreation employee snapped a cell phone photo of the black Chevrolet Crossover Thomas drove, including the license plate number.
A department officer pulled over Thomas at an intersection at 7:18 p.m. Thomas was arrested on one charge of simple assault, Laurel police chief Tommy Cox said; Moore identified her by photograph. Booking photos showed her wearing a "Mother of the Year" shirt, and she was released on bond.
Days after the attack, swelling near Moore's left eye remained.
Days after the attack, swelling near Moore's left eye remained.
Umpiring treatment 'getting worse and worse'
During her umpiring career, there has always been traditional heckling, said Moore, the umpire in charge in Mississippi for the United States Fastpitch Association. She's been calling youth games for about a decade.
“It’s just getting worse and worse,” she said. Threats of violence are routine. “Something has to be done about this. It’s not just softball, baseball. It’s every official.”
National Association of Sports Officials president Barry Mano would like to see the organizations in charge, in this case the United States Fastpitch Association, take more of a lead. USFA founder and national director John Cain said "our whole USFA umpire staff has been supporting her."
"She's done a great job of bringing this to the spotlight," Cain told USA TODAY Sports by phone. "It takes a lot of courage."
Cain called Moore for the first time 13 days after the assault. Cain said the team Thomas' child played on has been banned for the entire season under the organization's zero-tolerance policy.
Mano attributes the rise in harassment of youth sports officials to a less civil society.
"And we’re more pressure-packed," he told USA TODAY Sports. "Then we get involved with sporting events. This is sort of a classic case. We have a perpetrator being a fan slash mother, who’s upset, and decides to cold-cock an umpire. That’s sort of how this happens.”
This sort of assault, Mano said, doesn’t happen at the professional or collegiate level. It's rare during high school events.
“But it’s really these levels, like the one in Mississippi, that we see the biggest problem,” he added.
A viral video that circulated recently showed a coach tackling an umpire after he was ejected for arguing at a youth game in Texas. The umpire was taken to the hospital.
“It’s kind of to the point now, you’re dreading going, because of parent and coach’s behavior. It’s not just for the officials, it’s for the kids," Moore said. "This is not OK, to be exhibiting this behavior in front of the children.”
"It's going to take an adult population that has to get serious," said Mano, who founded Referee Magazine in 1976.
Discouraging violent behavior through the law
States such as Alabama, Delaware, Florida and Nevada classify assaults of sports officials as felonies, according to NASO. Others have imposed fines eclipsing $1,000 to discourage violence.
Moore would like to see the Mississippi state legislature, which doesn't have such a law on its books, become active in protecting youth sports stewards.
Codifying sports officials as a "defined class" would provide a necessary deterrence, Mano said.
“There’s such a lack of respect for authority … what kind of example is being set for these kids when we resort to violence because we don’t like a call in a ballgame? It’s totally unnecessary," Moore said. "Something has to be done to enforce stricter laws and punishment for this kind of behavior.”
Abuse from parents and fans has a lasting impact on youth sports and those who officiate kids' games. NASO conducted a survey in 2017 with 18,000 respondents answering a variety of questions. It found that the primary reason individuals stop officiating, Mano said, “is this bad behavior.”
Mano said that referees sign up with the presumption that everybody will act reasonably during youth games.
“And it turns out that presumption is wrong,” he said.
Moore isn't sure if she will ever go back to umpiring. She found somebody else to cover the two recreation league games she was scheduled to ump this past week. The emotional wounds need to heal as much as the physical ones.
“I can’t say I’ll never get back out there," Moore said. "But I’m not ready to at this point.”
https://www.wnewsj.com/sports/201154/column-amid-increasing-abuse-officials-flee-youth-sports#:~:text=Moore%20was%20punched%20in%20the%20face%20less%20than,when%20they%20heard%20of%20the%20assault%20of%20Moore.
No sense quoting the entire article - read it at the link.
It's no wonder that, in ohio alone I've read some 1,300 quit in the last year. That's baseball and softball. In ohio, that would be the equivalent of 15 umps per county. And there was never "too many" umps to begin with.
I do softball. Every morning, I, and the other umps, get e-mails asking/begging for umpires. For that evening!
If I wanted, especially this year with the weather, I could do games M-F, and double, sometimes triple headers, on Sat.
The "new" umps? They last a game or 3 and say "screw that. I'm done." And the older umps? Same thing.
Ugly fan behavior and/or coach behavior is killing the sports of baseball/softball. Won't be long until basketball is included. Or soccer, really. Volleyball?
Stupid fans that don't know the rules, but are "tough guys/gals" are ruining kids sports, from 12u on up to varsity.
Players, for the most part, are great. A few coaches are bad. I've got 1 team that I simply refuse to do games for.
Fans? Idiots. Had a deputy, when I got to my vehicle, say "I was watching you walk out. " I said "I'm glad you were here."
Had a fan..................literally screaming at me over this: Runner at third. (softball - in softball you can't leave the base before the ball leaves the pitchers hand)....pitch. Runner takes off for home. Line drive to the shortstop. OUT. Runner was half way home. Short threw it to third, third basegirl caught the ball, stepped on third. "OUT"
Fan was going crazy. "There wasn't a tag!!! She never tagged her !!!! YOU SUCK".
Coach came out. "Uh, did you call her out on the tag? Cause there wasn't a tag." "No, I called her out because it was a caught fly ball, be it a line drive, and the runner was halfway to home. She never tagged up. On a caught fly ball, runner needs to be on the base before she can advance."
I'm 53....getting ready to just be done with it, as are many others I know. Oh well. It will only hurt the kids. Parents.....
