You see my Little Leaguer - he's 9. He loves baseball. He wants to play all the time. And today he and his 9 year old baseball team got robbed by hometown umps! So yes, I'm venting. I'm protective. I'm really irritated. I don't want to be "one of those moms", but when I see adults doing things to rob kids....I get pi$$ed!
So here's the story.........
We were warned by some other teams we know from all around not to play in this particular tournament because the umps always seem to go "hometown." You don't want to believe that though - for crying out loud these boys are 9 - why would an ump mess around with kids psyches like that.
Well, all of our friends can now say "I told you so!" Our boys played the hometown team today and had a rough start to the game. By the bottom of the 4th inning they were down by 9. But I gotta say these kids always save their best for the last innings so you never know what can happen. So sure enough during the last 2 innings they came back and ended up going ahead by 4 runs. Now all during the game the umps calls had been very questionable but the boys just played on
So we're in the bottom of the last inning. The other team has come back and are down by one. There are 2 outs. One more out and we win. Our pitcher pitches - the batter swings and misses - Game Over - We win!!!! Um, no.....the field umpire says "no the batter is not out. the pitcher balked" and he advances all the runners one base. Not good! First of all, I can't believe their calling balks on 9 year olds and second of all, if there is a balk you stop the play, throw your hands in the air and yell "balk!"....not let the kid pitch and then decide to do it. As you can imagine, our boys were confused - the coaches were irate and the fans in the stands, well, you can imagine.
So our boys pull it back together and know they just have to get one more out. The next batter hits it, my son gets it and throws a runner out...but in the meantime another runner scores. I couldn't tell if the run scored first or the out was made first - our boys must have thought it was the out because they came running off the field pumped up to go another inning. But of course the ump said the run scored first - game over - hometown team wins.
You should have seen the faces of our boys when the coaches had to tell them, "sorry guys, you lost." They just stared at the coaches in disbelief...first the bogus balk call and now another bad call in the boys' opinion. The boys will bounce back - of course they are very disappointed in the way it all went down - and I am too. I went to find the tournament director to ask her to have the umpires come over and explain to the boys why the made the last two calls the way they did. But of course that didn't happen.
I felt so bad for the kids! But Kade is out in the batting cage now, getting ready for tomorrow. I love how he can leave it on the field....wish I could be more like him! They have a double header tomorrow.....so say a little prayer of protection for the boys....and maybe for the umps....and definitely for the fans to remember we're there for the boys!
3 comments:
I couldn't image being calm in that situation. That's pretty ridiculous.
I'm sure Greg was calm and collected through ;)
OK, that is just wrong!!! I'm sorry but I have to at least ask....was the last out a force out?? Because unless little league is different from pony the run does NOT count. It wouldn't matter if the run happened first or not, if Kade went to first and got the force out (unless little league is different) the run at home does not count.
OK now let me tell you my story, Josh was asked to play on a team in Santa Paula last weekend for a tournament and we had horrible calls every game, but that is always to be expected, it usualy goes both ways and works out OK but after we lost the first game we won the next 2 so our fourth game came and it was a good game but we were having ALOT of bad calls, same umpires, and the bad calls were all going against us. So we were ahead until almost the end when the other team caught up and got ahead by one. Then we were up to bat, this was the last inning to play cause time was about up. We had 1 out, a runner on 2nd, and Josh up to bat. He hit it to the pitcher, as soon as the pitcher started motion throwing to first our runner on 2nd ran to third, they barely threw Josh out at first then they threw the ball to third. Our runner slid under the tag and the third basemen caught the ball and tried to tag him out. Well the home plate umpire ran down the line, the field umpire ran that direction and then both of them just stared at each other. NEITHER one of them knew what to call, they obviously weren't watching the play and they both just stood there, of course all the parents and coaches are yelling and after they get together and talk they called him out. OH MY GOSH!!! When in doubt you never call them out, ties and confusion always goes to the runner. So they caused us to be eliminated from the tournament, had we won we would have played another game for the championship.
I sympathize with you....I have a hard time not complaining when their actions affect our kids and they are being paid, this is not volunteer.
I hope the rest of your games go better!!!
It stinks to have to teach our kids these lessons (that adults are dumb sometimes, and totally unfair) at such a young age. Why do competitive sports have to be so... competitive.
(Can you tell I grew up with a sister and don't get the boy thing yet? Until J plays ball, that is...)
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