During many years and countless hours watching softball, I’ve heard some things that just make me want to cry.
We’ve all have heard the old saying about there being no such thing as a stupid question. While some of these ballpark comments aren’t stupid…
Come on Blue!
I have to come clean and admit that for most of my coaching career, I was the ultimate umpire abuser.
What makes this so ironic is that I’ve umpired a lot of games. What I learned is that no matter what the call, half the people love it and the other half hate it.
Even more importantly, umpires don’t win or lose games.
Players, no matter their age, will take any chance to deflect responsibility to someone else when things don’t go their way on the ball field. The umpire is the easiest target. When a coach or parent jumps on the blame the umpire bandwagon, players involved can miss an opportunity to learn from what happened in the game.
I tell my hitters that we want them to have the tools to handle whatever the strike zone is on any given day. We refuse to use the umpire as an excuse.
I believe we all do a much better job as coaches when we teach our players to adjust to whatever the umpire calls, rather than blame the umpire for the outcome.
Questions? Comments? Contact us at fastpitchprep@gmail.com.
