by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . June 21, 2010 . 8:59PM
Dear umpires,
I know that you put up with a lot of junk from angry parents and unhappy children. You work in hot weather and have to wear nasty padding and risk overheating a lot of the time. You chance being hit by balls or bats or even flying little bodies on a regular basis and I have no doubt that every now and then a call you made might keep you up at night.
There are times I watch some of you showboating out there and I wonder if you realize that when you make bad calls over and over and over again so you can show off that you are breaking the hearts of little ones. Kids that may not play the sport of baseball again because of a loss they took seriously and one that you will forget the minute you go home. Last week, I watched one of you set the other team up for a win they didn’t deserve and our team said nothing. They played hard and when they lost, they lost with heart. But you did the same thing two innings in a row and when the inning was over I watched you smirk as you’d commented within my hearing how that kid could really hit and it was great to watch and see if he could bring the runs in.
Do not EVER bring your bias in a front of parent if you want to keep your job. It was all I could not to run out there and hit you with the umbrella I bring to keep myself from passing out due to heat. I’m aware you are, at most, 23 years old, but I will beat you to within an inch of your life if you ever and I mean EVER do that to some 9-10 year olds EVER again. Take your job more seriously and realize that you aren’t God, you are merely a person who is expected to be impartial so as to allow a game to be as fair as possible. You weren’t fair. Not even close.
When we faced that team again in the finals, the game was much closer. We had three umpires and I watched another umpire showboat his way around. He was closer to my age, however, and made fewer mistakes. What I do know is that he didn’t set up that same kid to hit grand slams and our kids didn’t go home crushed. They went home feeling like they’d done well that game and deserved to win second place in the tournament.
AJ said it best when he said, “Mama, I’m not even sad that we got second place. Why is that?” A job well done and game well played while doing your best is nothing to be ashamed of and they weren’t crushed by a score that was stacked against them from the start. Rest assured, if I see you next year, and you pull the same crap, you won’t get away with it again.
I’ve got your number.
Sincerely,
Me
P.S. Before you try to give me the letter from the Umpire, I’ve snoped it for you. Enjoy.
by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . April 23, 2010 . 3:06PM
Dear opposing team VOLUNTEER DAD coach,
Last night, as I sat in the rain to watch my 9-year-old play, after my full day of practicum and class, I watched you make a donkey of yourself. You made me really angry, so what I am about to say is probably going to shock you and several other people, but I’ve had a really bad several months and you know what they say about my give a flip…it’s busted.
When you ran over to the umpire to not just chastise him for a call, but yell at that 17-year old kid because of the placement of the glove on the little kid’s chest, it was all I could do not to take my super strength golf umbrella and define “rip him a new one” for you without using google. Do you know what that phrase means? It means that you can push a 17-year-old kid around, but you are modeling behavior for my 9-year-old kid. Not doing the same poor behavior in front of him is the only thing that stopped me from showing you that you cannot bully everyone.
In the South, they call what you did “showing your ass” and sir, you certainly did. For the rest of the game, the parents did not focus on their children. They nervously bit their lips and watched your reactions. You were the free entertainment. Your own child, whichever poor soul he was, was certainly not focused on the game.
I have dealt with people like you before and let me tell you, they get what they deserve. Maybe not on a little league field, but in life. The manager who browbeat her staff got fired hardcore and couldn’t find a job for months. Karma is a very real thing. Last night, we all got a nice little treat of how you act, but the worst part of it was that we saw what your family puts up with on a regular basis and we felt for them.
It might be time to relax, my friend. Strokes and heart attacks are not to be messed with. Deep breathing and some time at the spa might do you, and the rest of us by proxy, some good.
Sincerely,
Me
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by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . September 17, 2009 . 12:16PM
AJ is pitching this year. Fall season starts his first time to be eligible for kid-pitch. Last season, he played catcher often, even though he has a bum leg and was scared to death to catch at the beginning of the season. Why would a child who has a bad leg and a strong sense of fear subject himself to catching?
Simply because he wanted to be in the middle of the action.
Last season, AJ was in a team full of people who were excellent players. He rarely got to play infield, if ever, and some of the children on his team rarely spent time on the bench, whereas others spent quite a bit of time on the bench. They won a lot, but at what cost, I wonder?
The fall season is focused on learning. He gets to pitch, he gets to play infield and outfield equally and he sits the bench some, too. The other kids get to do things equally. I feel better about this system, even if kid-pitch is killing me with boredom.
The key that I want you to focus on here, is that AJ feels like he needs to be in the middle of things.
He comes by it honestly.
Early in the season, we had a scrimmage and the umpire needed to leave. Leon jumped up and stepped in. He almost got hit, but he also got to be in charge of the game and talk with authority to the coaches. He likes being in the middle of things, too. It’s one of the things that makes him a great attorney and an active parent.
Just for the record, umps don’t like heckling, even if it’s from their wives.
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Life is like a game. We all have challenges, thoughts, opinions and beliefs. Often, it feels like something out there, life, karma, catty people, or blue shells (for the Kart lovers), seeks to bring us down. Luckily, we always get up. This is where I wear my heart on my sleeve and my foot in my mouth.
