Calling foul on officiating abuse

A new piece of equipment for officials hopes to keep young baseball umpires safe.

Baseball Manitoba Umpires are making all officials under the age of 18 wear yellow wristbands on their arm, in an effort to get coaches, parents and players to think twice before arguing a call.

Ashton Liskie, vice-president of umpires for Baseball Manitoba, said this will hopefully help keep young umpires working games beyond their initial years. He said most young umpires quit while they’re still at level 1 (first two years) because of the verbal abuse they face from coaches and parents.

“Nobody goes and makes fun of a kid when they make an error, they try to boost the person up, I think we should start treating our umpires the same way,” said Liskie.

He said young umpires are still learning their craft and can often be scared when an adult coach or fan says they were outright wrong. He said the wristband is a visual cue for people to slow down and realize that arguing an out or safe call might not be the right thing to do.

He said 65 per cent of umpires quit before their third season, adding that while some get a part-time job, or have other things going on, there are too many people who quit because of abuse.

“When we ask kids why they don’t come back, it’s ‘I’ve had enough of people yelling at me,’” he said.

Nate Grant, 19, said he’s been followed to his car by angry parents and has felt scared while working games when he was in his early years of officiating the sport.

He started umpiring when he was 13, and said coaches and parents often forget they are talking to an actual human being.

“I always thought it was part of the job,” he said.

Grant said a call a coach doesn’t like often turns into a personal attack, especially at the lowest levels, where young umpires start.

“‘Well you’re too young to be out here, you’re 14-years-old, you can’t eject me,’” he said, remembering what one coach said.

Grant believes a visual sign, like the wristband, might help people realize what they are actually doing.

Another umpire, who worked games for four seasons, said he heard a lot of comments from coaches and fans while working games, and that most are just in passing, and nothing can be done about them.

“Umpiring is a tough job,” said Josh Ireland, who started calling balls and strikes at 13. “We have a shortage of umpires, we don’t want to be chasing people out of it by having them lose interest when they’re young because of coaches yelling at them or parents yelling at them.”

He said young umpires will make questionable calls every once in a while, but that people shouldn’t attack officials for it.

“I’m not a super outgoing person to begin with, those kinds of things would have definitely hurt my motivation,” said Ireland. “You’re going out there thinking ‘I hope nobody gets on me for a bad call.’”

“That’s a kid, they’re not going to be perfect.”

He said he hopes people will see the wristband and take a moment to think before arguing or making comments. But he said he’s worried that people might get used to it after a while and the entire problem will get worse again.

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Both umpires said while arguments don’t happen every game, it still happens too often.

Baseball Manitoba is also increasing the suspensions coaches get for verbal abuse from one game to two games this season, as an additional deterrent.

Liskie said Manitoba got the idea from hockey officials in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island who have done a similar initiative, with youth refs and linespeople wearing a green armband. He said he’s heard that there’s been positive impacts there and that it has helped keep young officials safer.

Officials of several sports in Nova Scotia, including baseball, have also been wearing green armbands since 2022.

Liskie said last year there were 62 ejections across Manitoba, 27 of which were for “verbal abuse” by coaches.