After witnessing a less-than-stellar evening of officiating in the July 7 game between the Razors and the Dragons, it was magnified by even more less-than-stellar behaviour by some of the players on the field. Before anyone walks onto the field, they should realize that not every close play is going to go their way, or that every close pitch be called a ball or strike to their benefit. The umpires will make mistakes, will sometimes be out of position and sometimes flat-out get some calls wrong, but that does not excuse petulant, childish behaviour by the players. Our umpires are what they are and we have kept them around because we get along with them and realize that they are doing the best in their power to ensure that we have an enjoyable experience on the field of play. They make far less mistakes as umpires than we do as players and, most importantly, have far longer fuses that most other officiating bodies would permit. My experience is that most, if not all of our umpires are open to constructive criticism and to the questioning of their decisions so long as it done so in a respectful and mature fashion, but that is certainly not what happened Monday evening by some players on both benches. Seriously, if having a call go against you in a recreational league softball game is so overwhelmingly devastating that it causes you to temporarily act like a 5-year old, you should really be questioning your priorities in life. Despite a well-earned and much-needed victory for the Dragons Monday night, with all the on-field antics, there was little enjoyment had in achieving it.
