If you’ve ever attended a youth sporting event, the behavior of parents is often the first thing to stand out. They can be absolutely brutal to umpires and officials who generally serve as volunteers or get paid around $50 a game.
For one umpire working a youth game at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, Calif., the incessant heckling from parents proved to be too much for him.
Video of an exchange between parents and the umpire hit TikTok this week, and it ended with the umpire walking off the field and exiting the park in the middle of the game.
Just awful.
We could hear the umpire say to a parent at the start:
“Enough, I’m not hearing another word out of any of you. If you want to have a game here, quiet down.”
That only led to more hostility from the crowd with one parent telling him to “stay professional for the kids and just do your job. That’s it.”
When the umpire was just about to return to the plate, a parent shouted, “Are you mad because the kids are taller than you?”
Upon hearing that, the umpire decided to leave the field.
Though the game took place at Newport Harbor High School, it did not involve the high school team. The coach near home plate could be seen wearing “GBG” gear for the Garciaparra Baseball Group travel team. For The Win reached out to GBG for comment and will update with its response.
Update: GBG issued a statement, claiming that the video was two years old:
It has been brought to our attention that an old video of a game GBG was playing in has resurfaced. We have confirmed that this video is two years old and our team and parents did not partake in this dispute. With a glance back at the video our kids are seen in the third base dugout. GBG has never tolerated this behavior, but rather stated from the start that we will not put up with it. We understand that sometimes we don’t agree with the Umpire’s calls, but the coach is the first line of defense to deal with this. At no point should an occasion occur that an Umpire should feel so uncomfortable that they would walk out of a game. Situations like this only ruin the experience for all involved.
