www.chicagotribune.com
I guess if you think it’s not a problem I would offer a striped shirt whistle and flag to you and ask you to be part of the solution. It’s been a huge issue long before the pandemic - just sayin
True Story, I'm heading there Friday. It was mostly kids working there, I'm surprised they can't find anyone. Always thought it was crazy they weren't open on Sundays.
Am I the only runner on this site? My guess is that most referees, like most of the posters here, are former athletes. Doesn't anyone miss the exhilaration of a good run? Intervals like the 100-yard dash don't take up a lot of time.
Yes, I would. But I live downtown and don't have a car.
My son had umped house league baseball and softball for a few years. Also did some of my softball "friendlies". He started doing travel "full time" this summer, beginning at $45 game. There were many times that the assignor was short in finding umps and they would email him last minute to fill in. He made $75 game some weekends as the last minute guy.
My brother in-law has been an umpire for 30 years or more and believe me he likes it. He does it on the side for extra bucks. It’s not for everyone but you can make a few extra bucks doing something you like.
Please note that the Sun-Times is already running stories on prep football. The just had an article on Morgan Park. If you want to support the only remaining paper that covers high school football, go their site and subscribe for $29 a year. Plus, their sports section is much better that what remains of the Tribune.
Quags does an excellent job covering football and other sports at the Herald. Problem is that paper lost its way when it greatly devalued HS sports.
The absolute worst refs/umps are those that start arguing back with fans and coaches.
I will agree, the sports section of the Sun Times is much better than the Trib. Sometimes the Trib doesn't have baseball final scores from games in the Midwest and East, while the Sun Times does. That is unless the game is delayed or runs longer than normal.
This is an excellent post. I have seen several instances of refs and umps doing exactly what you say they shouldn't do.
It doesn't have to be that way. As an organization, you lay out ground rules before they become a part of the organization. Things that everyone will understand. We never had that kind of a problem in the organizations my kids played in. And they all played competitively. And it wasn't cheap. But, I do understand what you're saying if they change their rules for some. That's never good. Glad we never ran into that.
They did lay down ground rules, however, they didn't follow them. Told kids (and parents) things about their development and progress and then didn't follow through during the season with what was being told. The best was No DAD coaches. They had one paid coach, two dads, who were neighbors. Mid-way through the season, we had a new shortstop, then we traveled to Atlanta and one of the dad's brought the neighbor's kid to play CF/P (he wasn't even better than what we had). There are good organizations out there and great coaches, but there are also organizations like this.
I would argue that point about being the "only" paper that covers HIS football.
That is exactly why I said, if they set rules and don't follow them you have a beef. Best thing you can do is put your kid on another team. All of my kids played on various travel teams. If your kid has talent, he won't have trouble finding another team.
that was a couple years ago, he did find another team (actually 5 of the kids from that team left and went to the same program). My son never fully joined, because football became a bigger priority. I do know that the five that left are the only 5 from that team playing in college (4 baseball/1 football).
