Douche of the Day: Attention Seeking Umpires

Youth baseball teaches many lessons like teamwork, sacrifice, fair play, and giving your best effort. The nature of baseball is mostly about failure and coping with disappointment, especially at the youth level. Even the best players will often fail more than they succeed, whether pitching, hitting or fielding. For the most part, parents, coaches and teammates forgive failure and encourage the child to try again.

"That's ok, Johnny! You'll get 'em next time!"

Baseball is a team sport that allows for individual achievement. What a great life lesson! Each player gets his turn at bat and a chance to perform in the spotlight. For a child, that time can be stressful. With everyone watching the pressure to succeed can be intense for a kid. To ridicule or embarrass a child for failing to hit a baseball, what Ted Williams once called "the hardest thing to do in sports," is not only mean, it is the act of a bully. Yet this is exactly what is happening on many youth fields.

Lately there has been a rash of umpire videos in internet news showcasing youth league umpires with over-the-top strike three mechanics. Here is an example at a 10U baseball game:

The commentary in these news articles is generally something like, "entertaining, but is this appropriate for youth baseball?" Let me answer that:

No

Exaggerated strike three calls are a part of adult baseball. Who doesn't like MLB umpire Tom Hallion and his uppercut strike three call? It's great entertainment. However, umpire theatrics have no place in youth baseball. Unfortunately, many amateur umpire scour YouTube looking for unique punch out calls that will add a little flair to their games. YouTube is full of amateur and untrained clowns flailing around. The danger is that the inexperienced umpire gets the idea that an exaggerated call is the norm. It's not. Even at the big league level mechanics like Hallion's are rare.

There is nothing wrong with being unique, but when it crosses the line into embarrassing a child, it has gone too far. Remember, even umpires are a role model at the youth level, so what does a zany strike three call teach? Nothing good.

Don't be an attention whore and a douche umpire. Develop a professional and crisp strike three mechanic and leave the clowning to other idiots.

MLB Umpire Adrian Johnson

Douche of the Day! Daryl Keeton

[I started the "Douche of the Day! award yesterday and now see the error of my ways. . . the award is a full time job! -ed.]

Daryl Keeton, age 55 of Jefferson County, Ala., is facing felony charges after he assaulted a 20 year old umpire following his granddaughter's softball game. According to Yahoo! Sports, Keeton spent the game heckling the umpire, then followed the official to the parking lot outside the ballpark where he punched him in the face and bloodied his nose.

"A bloody nose most of the time will get you a misdemeanor, and that's wrong, but yeah, there's a law on the books that if you assault an official it's a Class C felony. That's a serious crime, and it should be," Chief Deputy Randy Christian of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Dept., told Jonathan Hardison of Fox 6 WBRC.

Keeton, who could face up to 10 years in prison for assaulting an Alabama sports official.

Way to go, Daryl! You are the Midwest Ump Douche of the Day!

 

Brett Lawrie: Douche of the Day!

Congrats to Blue Jays outfielder Brett Lawrie for winning the first Midwest Ump Douche of the Day! award (a.k.a. The Delmon Young Award). Mr. Lawrie distinguished himself with a ninth inning tirade over a strike three call. 

Lawrie, playing in only his 80th MLB game, took exception to the punchout by Bill Miller, who has worked over 1,800 MLB contests, five divisional series, the 2009 American League Championship Series, the 2010 World Series, and the 2007 All-Star Game. The pitch was borderline at best as shown by PitchFX:

The immature twenty-two year old decided that firing his helmet at the feet of Umpire Miller was the appropriate response to the disputed third strike. The helmet hit Miller, a UCLA grad, and Major League Baseball suspended Bonehead Brett for four games. Here is his explanation of the incident:

“The only thing I regret is the helmet hitting him,” Lawrie said. “I never meant to do that and it shows. I threw it off the ground, it took a bad hop and it hit him totally by accident. I never meant to throw it at him. As that’s coming across, it seems like a lot of people are saying that I threw it at him, I never threw it at him. I never had any intentions of hurting anybody. I was just frustrated at the play at the time and that’s baseball for you.”

No, you chucklehead, that's not baseball. It's assault. You were angry, lost control, and someone got hit. Leave the "I didn't mean it" excuses for the wife beaters. Next time be a man, keep your hat on your head, and trot your ass back to the dugout. In the meantime, enjoy your suspension and your Douche of the Day! award. You deserve it!