I too have umped from T-Ball to high school, a few thousand games over the decades. Once between innings a fan asked why I missed a call on a fly to right--claiming it was foul when it landed about 15 feet inside the foul line (no white line on the field). I thought he was joking at first, but he seriously thought I blew the call.
His position was on a bleacher setup located about 45 feet off that right-field foul line, literally across a paved road near the school. How in the world he thought he could tell when there was no white foul line to help is what amazed me.
Another time a coach, upset over calls during the one and only time he saw me umpire, filed a formal protest claiming I made bad calls against his team on purpose because, even though it was a summer league, I must have looked at the roster and saw his players were going to the local Catholic high school next year (as freshmen) and he was convinced I was prejudiced against Catholics.
What he didn't know was I not only wasn't prejudiced against Catholics, was that I had never looked at the rosters, didn't know anything about where his team was going to go, and, oh yes: I was Catholic AND a graduate of that very high school.
My boss turned down the protest about 10 seconds after our meeting about it began. What a joke.
For accuracy, I need to note: This "coach" was not a representative or coach of the school, just a summer coach who added that dumb notion to his protest because he knew he had no basis for protesting judgment calls.
reply
share