Impartial_Observer

I would venture to guess most of those Baseball games were frosh/C games.

Madison has a new turf field, brand new addition includes a state of the art weight room. I was down there for a softball game earlier in the season, Coach Wilson showed me around the new weight facility, impressive.

Dude you got a problem, I made an off the cuff remark.

Your geography teacher failed you.

Is your apartment complex a gated community?

I was quick to bitch about the current state of affairs, I thought I might share a little glimpse of the reason you do it. Last night I had the pleasure to work a game where the HC was a kid I’ve had a relationship since she was about 8. I coached her in HS, saw her play a lot of games in college, as she was in the same conference as my daughter. She’s currently serving as interim HC as the HC has had some health issues. She is expected to be named HC. One of the highlights of my career was being able to shake her hand at the plate meeting and refer to her as coach. I think the best way for me to sum up the current state of affairs is, sports to me has always been about relationships. The main problem as I see it is the toxicity involved doesn’t foster the creation of relationships. Coaches, officials, and parents need to figure out, everyone is here for the same reason, and ultimately it will be the kids who suffer if we continue down this path.

I no longer work youth football where parents are allowed near the field. Basically only leagues played on HS fields with the parents in the stand.

I notice your reference says “him” and not to get into the pronoun thing, I assume this is from a men’s book. I don’t know if any youth fastpitch around, but I do know USA (formerly ASA) has different rules for men’s and women. For instance crow hopping is legal in the mens game and. It allowed in womens. This could also be in reference to Slow pitch.

Im not a big ultimatum guy, they never end well, and I assure you if I’m given an ultimatum I’m going to do the thing you told me not to do. That being said, I have adopted several techniques: Coach do you care to repeat that? Youve made your point it’s time to move on Coach you need to go coach your team. In 40 years, the handful of coaches who excused themselves had it coming. I’ve always taken pride in the fact that things seldom degenerated to where we had an ejection. The other thing is having been a HC and an official, I totally get both sides.

I asked the same thing, and I think that’s what set him off. He went so far as to tell me it was a POE this year. I have heard the term over the years, mostly from old timers, I think it used to have something to do with slow-pitch near as I can tell. This guy has a rep, I’ve had him before, he likes to ask a leading question and then he can argue, regardless of how you answer. He came up to me after the bottom of the first and asked “what are your thoughts on presenting the ball” to which I replied I have no thoughts, because I don’t have any idea what that means. And we were off….

Coaching at the HS level is a HUGE commitment. Not just for the coach but for his family as well. I loved coaching, I loved practices, being around kids, teaching, watching them develop, watching them become successful you adults. What I miss most are the relationships with the kids, I think being around kids keeps you young. I miss the alone time with just the coaching staff, after a game or practice, game planning, practice planning, sharing fellowship, etc. You just reach a point where it’s like why am I doing this? The last year I coached we started the season on a hot streak, we were like 10-0 and ranked like 8th in the state. I had to meet with a parent who’s kid had started and played in every game, because the parent was unhappy about where the kid was playing. Long story short, I’m missing my own kid’s pretty successful college career to coach, and the resounding question in my mind is why am I dealing with this crap? I made up my mind during another such parent meeting and turned my resignation that night. I have had multiple chances to coach since, and as much as I would love do it, particularly with some of the people who’ve asked, I know what comes with it, and just decline. Coaching is the toughest job you’ll ever love. Unrealistic expectations, why isn’t my kid playing, why is my kid playing OF instead of IF, the social media posts (though I never had much issues with that) the massive amount of time away from family and friends, it just stacks up and people get tired of it. It is concerning to me, we are losing good young coaches across the board in all sports. A little caveat, last Thursday I had the plate for a big conference game that had championship implications. It was the best game I’ve seen all season, pitchers duel, 0-0 thru 7 innings. I personally had a great game, yes as an official you know when you walk off the field. In short it was FUN, which ultimately is why I’m there. However, thanks to one of the coaches, who starts bitching about “presenting the ball” in the bottom of the first inning, which is not a term that has been in the rule book in the 20 or so years I’ve been involved. And since he can’t get any satisfaction out of me on his made up term, it sets the tone for the whole night and by the third inning, we’ve degenerated to arguing balls and strikes. He just sucked all the fun out of it for everyone. The opposing catcher even asked at one point, what is that guys problem? I’m not going to lie, and I have shared with some AD’s I don’t know what my future in officiating is at this point. I haven’t even made up my mind whether I’m doing Football this fall or not yet, but I can assure you this, dealing with assholes is making the decision for me. FYI, I had to stop the game in the bottom of the 8th with the visitors up 1-0 because of rain. I won’t get a chance to see how it turns out.

You hit the nail on the head, everybody’s all in until it gets to actually doing the work.

Completely understandable, see my comments earlier in the thread.

So what do you do? Open it back up? Assuming other applicants have scattered in the wind. Starting to get a little late in the game.

Any truth to the rumors Nic Vasilchek has backed out again?

I often opined during my child rearing years, now having children of my own makes me understand why some species eat their young.

Which I did, prior some life changing events.

I have no interest in funding trips to Florida. Just at a point in my life where everyone else’s kids aren’t a priority for me.

I probably will, on my deck, in front of my Weber, with a beer in my hand. Not really the point of my post, but you already knew that didn’t you.

Doesn’t really have to do with gas, I’ve turned down a couple of SB games that were an hour plus away from home and only paid 60 bucks. It’ll be shitty softball, I’m probably five hours in from work to game to home, for 60 bucks…..nah. McDonalds is paying 15ish and hour to start right now.

In our SB rules meeting at least regarding coaches apparel we were told “officials are not the fashion police.” Apparently as more and more female coaches have opted for yoga pants some officials have taken exception. I assure it was never me.

This country was built on alcohol. For years when IO is out of his geographic home base, I always ask if they have any local brews. IO wonders at the science behind brewing/distilling. This past season of Moonshiners Tim Smith took a trip to several Mexican tequila and Mezcal distilleries. Fascinating generations old operations. The mix of science and art is truly amazing.

Mercedes races and Tesla screws around on government welfare and Twitter. https://www.google.com/amp/s/observer.com/2022/01/mercedes-unveils-vision-eqxx-concept-electric-vehicle-long-range/amp/

Or it could just be corporations trying to maximize profits and limit liabilities in a massively government manipulated market.

I’ll never not laugh at this and since the term “ghost gun” is in high rotation, enjoy the chuckle. For anyone who doesn’t know, you are able to build a firearm for personal use, it need not be serialized. You can not legally sell it. My guess is you are FAR more likely to find guns at crime scenes with serial numbers scratched off than not having any to begin with. To buy an 80% receiver, then do the work required to turn it into a functional firearm my guess is beyond the means or work ethic to be employed by many criminals.