age of HS umps. 65+

[DanMaz]

not trying to be mean but so far just about every game all the umps have been 65+ yrs or older. Some have a hard time walking too. braces on both knees etc.....

where are all the younger umpires? Anyone else seeing this trend? Will we run out of umps if these old guys end up retiring?

 

[Simpsoj]

Just being honest here.....younger people aren't interested in officiating game because of attitudes and spectator belidgerance, IMO. Oofficiating is a difficult job. Different rules per organization, small but different and sometimes hard to keep track of. You have so much to keep track of, pitches, balls, strikes, runners leaving early, feet on the rubber, legal equipment, anticipation of what could/should happen but focusing on what is happening and so much more.

It isn't easy and frankly the way "fans" and coaches act many, many times makes it a thankless job. Fans complaining about calls, spouting rules they know nothing about, entitlement of coaches/players/organizations/fans and absolute disdain people show officials, even so far as threats and physical attacks on them.

Now ask yourself if YOU want to be the "Blue" and put up with all the non-sense while officiating a kids game....oh wait, I mean the championship of the World Series. It's a thankless job for the most part, that's why those that accept the fact that officials aren't perfect, WILL make a mistake, play on to overcome those mistakes and shake hands after the game, say "good game Blue" or say thanks make you want to come back tomorrow!

Thats the biggest reason people don't want to officiate anymore...tired of the abuse AND let's be honest we aren't raising generations of kids any longer who have tough enough skin to tolerate all of the above!

As always, my $0.02.

 

[Bink44]

Well said Simpsoj!!

 

[BCsoftballDad]

Just being honest here.....younger people aren't interested in officiating game because of attitudes and spectator belidgerance, IMO. Oofficiating is a difficult job. Different rules per organization, small but different and sometimes hard to keep track of. You have so much to keep track of, pitches, balls, strikes, runners leaving early, feet on the rubber, legal equipment, anticipation of what could/should happen but focusing on what is happening and so much more.

It isn't easy and frankly the way "fans" and coaches act many, many times makes it a thankless job. Fans complaining about calls, spouting rules they know nothing about, entitlement of coaches/players/organizations/fans and absolute disdain people show officials, even so far as threats and physical attacks on them.

Now ask yourself if YOU want to be the "Blue" and put up with all the non-sense while officiating a kids game....oh wait, I mean the championship of the World Series. It's a thankless job for the most part, that's why those that accept the fact that officials aren't perfect, WILL make a mistake, play on to overcome those mistakes and shake hands after the game, say "good game Blue" or say thanks make you want to come back tomorrow!

Thats the biggest reason people don't want to officiate anymore...tired of the abuse AND let's be honest we aren't raising generations of kids any longer who have tough enough skin to tolerate all of the above!

As always, my $0.02.

Well said! This is a fantastic topic of discussion, it is my belief the real reason good responsible umpires are not getting any younger goes far deeper than on field antics and all the sideline "UIC's" sitting in lawn chairs.
It is a vastly different society today than just 15 years ago. Far too many kids are being raised to expect something for nothing. This makes for adults that expect something for nothing. The example we set for our children will be directly reflected in their actions as they grow. Teach them true reward lies in the hard work and dedication to something that teaches life lessons such as respect, loyalty, trust and honor. We are not setting the best example we can for our children and this is eroding the foundation of our culture.

Andy Dyer

 

[WWolff]

Just being honest here.....younger people aren't interested in officiating game because of attitudes and spectator belidgerance, IMO. Oofficiating is a difficult job. Different rules per organization, small but different and sometimes hard to keep track of. You have so much to keep track of, pitches, balls, strikes, runners leaving early, feet on the rubber, legal equipment, anticipation of what could/should happen but focusing on what is happening and so much more.

It isn't easy and frankly the way "fans" and coaches act many, many times makes it a thankless job. Fans complaining about calls, spouting rules they know nothing about, entitlement of coaches/players/organizations/fans and absolute disdain people show officials, even so far as threats and physical attacks on them.

Now ask yourself if YOU want to be the "Blue" and put up with all the non-sense while officiating a kids game....oh wait, I mean the championship of the World Series. It's a thankless job for the most part, that's why those that accept the fact that officials aren't perfect, WILL make a mistake, play on to overcome those mistakes and shake hands after the game, say "good game Blue" or say thanks make you want to come back tomorrow!

Thats the biggest reason people don't want to officiate anymore...tired of the abuse AND let's be honest we aren't raising generations of kids any longer who have tough enough skin to tolerate all of the above!

As always, my $0.02.

Nailed it! I see it from HS to rec to travel ball. Coaches and parents are out of hand, and it spreads to the kids now. A pet peeve of mine is my coaches questioning strike zone and caring on about calls. Memo to coach you can not really able to tell if a ball is on the outside corner or 2 inches off from the side view. Oh and also it's where it crosses the plate not where the batter is standing and not where the catcher receives it!

 

[wow]

65+ Good for them! I hope at that age I am that active. Sure they miss calls, sure they mix up rules, but they are doing something they love. Trust me I have been on both side of bad calls, even lost games on horrible calls.

I can tell you if you look back at all the bad calls, even the ones which cost your DD team a game, 99.99% of the time there was something else the team directly controlled where they could have changed the outcome of the game. Until your team is error free, hits 1.000%, and has perfect games, my take is don't worry about the umps. Control what you can and simply say thanks BLUE....

 

[cobb_of_fury]

Is it perhaps that people of a younger age have other priorities - They are raising a family, Coaching their kids and the pocket money that Umps are paid is not enough of a lure -
Where as if you have the knowledge of the game and the free time umpiring is a nice gig.

I heard a story once about an old church and a visitor asked the priest "I see the only parishioners you have are older people" The Priest said "Yes, younger people have other priorities and dont come to church". so the man asked "Arn't you woried that when they pass the parish will close" - The priest said "No because there will always be older people"

 

[daboss]

Just being honest here.....younger people aren't interested in officiating game because of attitudes and spectator belidgerance, IMO. Oofficiating is a difficult job. Different rules per organization, small but different and sometimes hard to keep track of. You have so much to keep track of, pitches, balls, strikes, runners leaving early, feet on the rubber, legal equipment, anticipation of what could/should happen but focusing on what is happening and so much more.

It isn't easy and frankly the way "fans" and coaches act many, many times makes it a thankless job. Fans complaining about calls, spouting rules they know nothing about, entitlement of coaches/players/organizations/fans and absolute disdain people show officials, even so far as threats and physical attacks on them.

Now ask yourself if YOU want to be the "Blue" and put up with all the non-sense while officiating a kids game....oh wait, I mean the championship of the World Series. It's a thankless job for the most part, that's why those that accept the fact that officials aren't perfect, WILL make a mistake, play on to overcome those mistakes and shake hands after the game, say "good game Blue" or say thanks make you want to come back tomorrow!

Thats the biggest reason people don't want to officiate anymore...tired of the abuse AND let's be honest we aren't raising generations of kids any longer who have tough enough skin to tolerate all of the above!

As always, my $0.02.

Great answer!!!!

I've mentioned for years a time would come when you would no longer have officials available simply because they love the game and enjoy being outside and hanging at the park. The pay seldom covers much more than their expenses in many cases, especially doing school ball. Parents and organizations are constantly complaining of the costs. I warned then to watch out cause the younger generations are not going to do it unless there's some real money involved. That means more overhead per game and higher fees. What you are witnessing now are the die hards that know they are needed. Sure, some are there for wrong reasons just like any facet of life but most believe they are making a difference just like a coach. Few are going to walk away from a good-paying job to drive an hour or 2 to a park for the money, then go home at almost dark to plan another day.

Many state that over time some of the girls playing the game will be giving back and pick up the slack. Not that easy for women that many will get married and have babies after their time. There are simply some things a man cannot do that takes a mother to deal with. Childbirth being a biggy.

If you want newer/younger umpires it'll take some incentive to get them interested. Money talks. Sorry, changing of the times.

I am a farmer. My only source of income. Back in the day the neighbors would help each other out. If a neighbor were hurt or sick, or a family member passed away, the neighbors would organize and go to the farm and finish all his field work for them. No money, no charge. Just an act of kindness to help out in hard times. The last time a neighbor around here lost his wife during harvest, 21 combines and a fleet of trucks, grain carts, and help harvested almost a 1000 acres and the women from a local church cooked for everyone. Everything was out of the individual's pocket at a great expense. The average age for those involved had to have been over 60. While we were in the fields, the owner/farmer got 6 phone calls from younger farmers (30yrs old or less) wanting to know if he would quit farming and rent them his land. All this within 7 days of her passing. When did this world take such a turn downwards?

 

[snoman76]

Fans complaining about calls, spouting rules they know nothing about

Wait..... what you're saying is that the fans (parents) DONT know the rule book cover to cover?
C'mon, they speak as if they do!

 

[Louuuuu]

Let me give you another perspective... As an "insider".

I am a H.S. umpire - 53 years young - and I can't get a game assigned to me because of the overpopulation of "65+" umpires around here.

Why?
a.) I still have a full time job, therefore I asked the assigner for local games that would allow me to maybe sneak out the door a few minutes early and still get there by 4:15. Most of the "well seasoned " umps are retired, therefore they can get to any game, any where, any time.
b.) because they are free of time constraints, the officials assigner calls them first. It makes their job so much easier, since they don't actually have to keep track of which potential blue is available for a given field. Just call Ol' Fred - he'll go anywhere.
c.) weekend HS games are typically double-headers. Because I have the previously mentioned full time job, I need weekends to cut the grass and tend to my honey-do list. Guess who has all day during the week to tend to these chores, therefore are available to leave the house for 5 hours on Saturdays?

It's a conspiracy, I tell ya'.


Louuuuu

 

[manitoudan]

I don't care if they are 35 or 75 if they are good , having said that we had a guy at 76 and his partner at 68-75 (?) 2 weeks ago , second time we have had them at the NAIA level. Just horrible , so bad both teams were just laughing at the ball/strike calls . I get the concept of not wanting to set around at the barber shop/ coffee shop doing nothing , but go call rec league or 10-12u ball and quit messing up the college game .

 

[Simpsoj]

65+ Good for them! I hope at that age I am that active. Sure they miss calls, sure they mix up rules, but they are doing something they love. Trust me I have been on both side of bad calls, even lost games on horrible calls.

I can tell you if you look back at all the bad calls, even the ones which cost your DD team a game, 99.99% of the time there was something else the team directly controlled where they could have changed the outcome of the game. Until your team is error free, hits 1.000%, and has perfect games, my take is don't worry about the umps. Control what you can and simply say thanks BLUE....

SO very few people get that concept......he's not changing his call, he called what HE SAW not what your saw, it's his interpretation of the rule or his judgement. Don't complain......it's not the right message for your girls if you "show out"; Mom would say show your A$$. If you want to discuss it come out and do so in a civil tone (I know some officials don't like/want to be questioned but the majority I know and work with are always willing to talk about it, not that anything will change but you can have your say in the proper tone/manner) you wouldn't have a problem. Remember, it's NOT PERSONAL........you see what you see, call what you see and move on. Give your girls the chance to see how adults REALLY act and just move on. Again, it's only a game AND those full-ride D1 offers are rarer than hen's teeth! Enjoy your time with your DD and the fresh air....have fun!!

This WHOLE THING is about teaching these girls the following:
1. The Game
2. How is SHOULD be played
3. How to have fun
4. Winning is great but you can learn a LOT from a loss if you look at the right things
5. How "adults" should act; not the entitlement we see today
6. Umpires, like coaches and players, make mistakes....we too are human
7. Perfection left this world with Christ....the rest of us are just striving for good!

And many more things......but I'm tired of typing!

 

[Simpsoj]

I DO think that's part of it too. They get out of the game; whether its baseball or softball and forget how much fun they had and don't realize that by starting very young they can learn and earn a lot.

MLB umpires will tell you that slow pitch is the best training, you have to know and watch for everything on your own. If you start young you can still be a young man/woman when working NCAA games, traveling the world for Olympics etc. and making a decent amount of money while doing so.

Yes, women have other priorities some by choice some "forced" upon them by having and raising children......they make choices and I know most wouldn't change anything after those little ones are grown...who can blame them.

If you're young and willing to work (pay your dues) you can certainly make some good money over the spring/summer/fall.......as for me, I do enjoy it and like to try and make it fun for the kids and parents alike. Like the guy last weekend at Berliner who "ooooohed" a ball call.....after the next pitch I told him "I think I'll have to take ownership of that last one".......he got a kick out of it and I knew I missed one but what good would it have done to argue/fight about it?!! Just have some fun and enjoy each other......the time will come when you won't be going to those games and you'll miss it much like we did when our Son's HS Soccer season was over for the last time.

 

[mike_dyer]

Just being honest here.....younger people aren't interested in officiating game because of attitudes and spectator belidgerance, IMO. Oofficiating is a difficult job. Different rules per organization, small but different and sometimes hard to keep track of. You have so much to keep track of, pitches, balls, strikes, runners leaving early, feet on the rubber, legal equipment, anticipation of what could/should happen but focusing on what is happening and so much more.

I officiate wrestling and there is nothing tougher than working with a person or group of people who allow coaches and fans to walk all over them. When they allow them to break the rules, which are clearly spelled out in a book that everyone gets a copy of, it emboldens them. 3 or 4 matches into a tournament, or even worse 3 or 4 tournaments into the season, a coach has walked all over 6 or 8 or 20 different officials. Then they run into me or anyone else who thinks rules are important and I have to eject 6 or 8 of them in a day.

It might sound like a good time but it's not, and shame on anyone who ruins my good times.

I mean I'm getting paid to watch from the best seat in the house. Leave me alone already.

There are defined ways I can be questioned and addressed. As long as the rules are followed things run smoothly. As soon as they are not, and depending on how obnoxious or rude the person is being, I may fire a warning shot and I may not.

Another issue is the politics of it all. Say you're in a tournament with 20 teams. 1 or 2 or even more of the teams host a lot of events and an official keeps getting contracts from them. Most officials I've worked with over the years will bend over backwards to oblige the coaches for fear of not getting more contracts from them. I'm a pretty ugly dude anyway, I'm not afraid of cutting off my nose to spite my face.

This is so bad where I live that I know an official who found out and could prove that the nephew of a wrestling coach had broken into his home and stole things from him. He didn't call the police and report it?? I know this is true and not just hearsay because he, personally, filled me in on it.

Crazy.

I explained to him that he wasn't in there looking for the petty stuff he took, he took them because that's what he found. I hope the dirt bag doesn't find the guy's wife or kids in there next time. I hope he doesn't come and find mine or anyone else's either.

 

[mike_dyer]

As far as the age thing goes. I've decided on my own standards for when it will be time to hang up the whistle.

1st and foremost, when there is an out of bounds situation I hustle into a position were I can see both contestants and I move quickly back to the middle. Always. As soon as I get there I start a count in my head. If I count off 5 seconds and one or both of them aren't there they are stalling and I warn or penalize them. If there is ever a time when I have to struggle to do this I'm done.

2. I've seen a lot of guys do a lot of hokey things that make them look foolish all to make it easier on themselves. I watched a guy blow his whistle stomp his foot to call a pin from his feet one time. I know another older guy who catches his disk when he flips it so he doesn't have to bend down and get it. If any nonsense like that ever sounds like a good idea I'm done as well.

 

[FastBat]

Parents, raise your children to understand umps can't be argued with. Just play well, do your best, and you won't have a problem.

There are 2 types of people who argue with umps:
1. The ones who don't know the rules.
2. The ones who are sore losers.

Thanks to all umps, but especially to the 65+ umps. I love to see them at the field! Good for them!

 

[FastBat]

Just being honest here.....younger people aren't interested in officiating game because of attitudes and spectator belidgerance, IMO. Oofficiating is a difficult job. Different rules per organization, small but different and sometimes hard to keep track of. You have so much to keep track of, pitches, balls, strikes, runners leaving early, feet on the rubber, legal equipment, anticipation of what could/should happen but focusing on what is happening and so much more.

It isn't easy and frankly the way "fans" and coaches act many, many times makes it a thankless job. Fans complaining about calls, spouting rules they know nothing about, entitlement of coaches/players/organizations/fans and absolute disdain people show officials, even so far as threats and physical attacks on them.

Now ask yourself if YOU want to be the "Blue" and put up with all the non-sense while officiating a kids game....oh wait, I mean the championship of the World Series. It's a thankless job for the most part, that's why those that accept the fact that officials aren't perfect, WILL make a mistake, play on to overcome those mistakes and shake hands after the game, say "good game Blue" or say thanks make you want to come back tomorrow!

Thats the biggest reason people don't want to officiate anymore...tired of the abuse AND let's be honest we aren't raising generations of kids any longer who have tough enough skin to tolerate all of the above!

As always, my $0.02.

Agree with all of this! What you are describing plays out in this video, two 10u baseball coaches brawling on the field, in front of young boys. Who would want to ump a game for these two coaches?

http://abcnews.go.com/US/coaches-brawl-youth-baseball-game-caught-tape/story?id=38553006

 

[DanMaz]

great answers!!! I see a lot of what you guys are saying makes sense and seems true....


what is the solution?

 

[FastBat]

what is the solution?

What's the solution? That's a loaded question. I am the scheduler for my child's league, have been for 3 years. I can tell you it's not getting any easier to schedule umps and it takes begging sometimes. I don't know how to get younger people involved in umping. I think being an ump used to be respected, now not so much. Perhaps, the fans and parents need to start by giving umps more respect. Would change things? I think it's a start.

 

[SMc4SMc]

A possible solution would be a feeder program where varsity and jv help officiate midget or rec. Also, admin could further their goals in a reach-one-teach-one format that could foster mentoring and big brother / big sister relationships that could be community building on a simpler grass-roots approach that doesn't overly pressures them.