London youth baseball league takes new step to screen out abusive parents

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Trying to protect young umpires from verbal abuse by parents, a London kids baseball league is using screen-like banners at ballfields to obscure the view of home plate from the bleachers.

The idea came from other Ontario leagues that have taken similar steps to prevent parents from yelling at umpires, many of whom are just kids themselves between the ages of 13 and 14, a spokesperson for the board of the North London Baseball Association said.

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“I’ve coached baseball for years and I hear the parents,” said the spokesperson, who – explaining he doesn’t want to deal with the blowback – did not want to be identified.

“We have a constant barrage of parents questioning calls and berating umpires,” he said, noting that’s made it difficult to hang onto the umpires.

Over-the-top behaviour by parents in minor sports is nothing new, but often it’s at the hockey arena – not the ball diamond – where the tensions flare. Over the years in London and Southwestern Ontario, reports have surfaced of parents swearing at children, chasing referees and fighting in the stands.

Lawsuits flew in one recent clash between parents and a minor hockey coach over a young player’s skating skills and lack of ice time, with the coach suing the couple in a $1.29-million defamation suit after they filed a $2-million action alleging, among other things, physical and emotional abuse of their son.

In London, the baseball association put up the screen-like banners behind home plate at three ball diamonds at the North London Athletic Fields, on Adelaide Street North, where games for its youngest players are held. Several feet high, and running the wrap-around length of the fencing behind home plate, the see-through banners still allow spectators in the stands behind home plate to see the action but not as clearly as they would without them there.

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The bleachers at those fields are closer to home plate than at other city diamonds, with less of a distance “buffer” between spectators and umpires, said the association spokesperson. He noted the group is struggling to find young umpires because of the antics of some adults. The number of umpires returning each year becomes “less and less,” he said.

“When you’re a 13- or 14-year-old boy or girl . . . you don’t want to come back. It’s not worth your while,” he said. “It’s not fair to those kids, because they’re learning just like the kids on the field.”

By the time players and umpires get to the older-age groups, he said, there are few umpires left with the skills and experience to do the job.

Putting up the banners is a “good educational tool” to set expectations about behaviour but “follow-up strategies” are also needed to deal with spectators who cross those boundaries, said a sports academic and longtime former university coach.

“Young people going into officiating are doing their best and probably know more about officiating than the parents – berating them will not improve their performance,” said Marge Holman, a retired former kinesiology professor at the University of Windsor. 

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Subjecting young umpires to uncalled-for language from the stands is likely to make them feel inadequate, take away any pleasure “they hoped to have by giving back to a sport that they love and drive them away from engaging in the sport in any capacity,” she said. 

The London league says it has fielded multiple complaints about the banners obstructing the view of parents. One came from the father of a boy who plays in the under-13 age group, who calls the situation “quite embarrassing.”

Alin Cojocaru said his initial reaction to the banners was: “Who was the genius who came up with this idea?” But after learning why the measure was taken, he said it makes sense.

“They’re just kids, you know? They can make mistakes,” he said. “This shouldn’t really happen. It’s sad that (the association) had to do this.

“(The umpires) start at 11 years old, maybe. Some are 14. If this is what’s happening, it’s embarrassing.”

The league maintains spectators don’t have to watch from behind home plate, if they find the banners too obstructive. It encourages them to watch from the outfield.

“There’s lots of room to sit, just bring a lawn chair,” said the association’s spokesperson. “There’s no reason to be directly behind the dugout, questioning the umpire’s call.”

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Verbal harassment of young officials in sports has triggered changes elsewhere, for example the green armband. Introduced in Montreal in 2020, it was adopted by Hockey Eastern Ontario the following year in a campaign to stop verbal abuse of young referees. Officials under age 18 wear a green armband to identify themselves to coaches and spectators as minors.

The association adopted the measure after it discovered that one in three referees was quitting after their first year because of verbal abuse.

In London, the baseball league spokesperson said young umpires need to be cut a break.

“They’re learning, right?” he said. “There’s going to be bad calls. There’s bad calls in the major leagues. It’s just – you can’t be yelling and screaming at children.”

nbrennan@postmedia.com

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