One of the worst run and NOT FUN softball experiences of my life. To start, their Halloween tournament was supposedly "Beginner-Intermediate", but I can say there was not a single team there that would fall under either of those designations. It should be said that I am not a beginner either, I just haven't lived here long and haven't played in years, but I have played since childhood and even umpired several years, attending national training clinics along the way. Tournament director defined beginner as someone who has never played before, had there been any teams fitting that description they would have been blown out of every game. Next, we happened to have the most rude and unprofessional umpire. We had not played in this league and simply asking what the strike zone was met with serious rude attitude. In our last league, it was different and we simply wanted to understand. Then, when we "flipped" home/away at the end, something I have personally never done, he was exceedingly rude to us asking what that meant. In addition, this umpire happened to know many of the players on opposing teams, not generally an issue at all. However, his comments to and about them, using first names and critiquing their play is crossing a line. I will not argue strike/ball judgement, he was trying to take hitters stature and stances into consideration, but he was pretty clearly a beginner in this. He then followed one of our players, who had just popped up for the 3rd out, to his position in the field to ask "What were you thinking when you were up to bat?" Inappropriate at the highest levels. We then had a pop up near home that I attempted to catch, but tripped over the batter who had slipped and fell in the box. The ball hit my knee in fair territory and went foul. He initially called foul ball, but corrected that call. I really did not care what his call was, but he made a point to argue to me that I should have been able to run around the batter. That is a load of bull- that I should anticipate this man slipping and somehow avoid him. Interference/obstruction? I don't know or care, a call was made and I'm rolling with it. However, your umpire continued coming at me with this justification, I literally told him to stop justifying his calls and walked away. He then approached my MOM to tell her that I needed to accept the call. That is so incredulous and manipulative, I should have reported this man's behavior to the tournament director at this time so that she could keep an eye on him. However, I did not and allowed this man to get under my skin. He eventually ejected me from the game, I have never been thrown out in my life and NOTHING I said was EVER an ejection able offense. Credit to the tournament director for listening, but she did not have any power to do anything since that umpire knew the owner. I will never say an umpire is terrible because of misjudgments or 'bad calls', no umpire can make everyone happy and umpires are humans too. In fact, I was defending this umpire for the majority of the games. I do not say this lightly, but if this man is ever allowed to umpire again, he needs to undergo training and be seriously observed for his inappropriate behavior toward players. This tournament experience was so negative for me, from the inaccurate description of level of play to the 3+hour break in the middle of the day, and of course a 'boys club' umpire who will never face any repercussions for his inappropriate behavior, that I will not continue playing this sport. Not out of disliking playing the game, or my teammates who are awesome people, but because after 5 years of not playing, but deciding that this was a 'fun costume tournament', this was so NOT FUN. read more
