I remember when I was in middle school, or maybe high school, I can't remember what age I was exactly, but my dad has been a baseball umpire for as long as I can remember. He asked me if I wanted to umpire the bases and he would do home plate for a younger kids game. Luckily one of the coaches was an old high school player that we all knew, but there was a pop fly to shallow left field, and since I was the only base umpire(in my first ever game), I didn't have the right position. I couldn't exactly see if the kid caught it or not, and he made a dive backwards. I called it a no catch. Maybe I drowned it out, but the coach that we knew just asked the kid if he caught it, and he didn't really give a straight answer. The parents didn't really say much of anything as far as I remember. This was late 90's early 00's. I've seen videos now that parents are going crazy and taking it way too seriously. I'm sorry, but a lot of these people are taking time out of their day to help referee/officiate/umpire their kids games. If the parents think they can do so much better, why don't they get out there and do it? People are going to make mistakes, especially these people that don't have the experience. Just sit back and enjoy the game. If your kid gets knocked down by an illegal hit, or something of that nature, by all means be upset, but don't be yelling at the ref because they made a call that you disagree with.
