STEELE SPORTS

With southern Minnesota having been heavily affected by the state-wide referee shortage over the course of the past few years, I think there is no better time to preach the importance of being respectful to our referees and umpires who volunteer to oversee our beloved high school sports teams.

Baseball and softball have long been known as sports where fans can tend to be critical of umpires – a part of the game that has to be left behind in 2023.

As someone who regularly yells at the TV when a strike or play in the field doesn’t get called the way I see fit, I know I, too, am guilty of being quick to judge.

However, with the spring season being so fast paced, we cannot afford to have reckless fans cause games to be interrupted, or worse yet, canceled or postponed.

Whether we like to admit it or not, parts of every sport are human error and luck.

No human is perfect, especially not when tasked with monitoring fast-moving plays over the course of seven innings.

For those who have never called balls and strikes from behind the plate, I can assure you of this: It is not as easy as it looks.

Couple this with the fact that umpires are typically former athletes and fans who love the sport enough to ensure that the next wave of future athletes have the opportunity to play, and you begin to realize that these people deserve no hate.

Having spoken with umpires from around the state, I know many have regions that they try to stick around, with fans having a pretty sizeable influence on where they choose to go.

If an umpire feels they are being treated with a lack of respect, they reserve the right to call the game and will likely never work in the area again.

While you may feel as if you have to share your opinion on a certain call, all these opinions do is hamper our local athletes’ opportunities to play.

High school sports are meant to be an opportunity for athletes and spectators alike to hit the ballpark for a fun night of competition, not to engage in a war of words with an umpire.

I can promise you this, umpires do not enter games with grudges or implicit bias. However, they can be swayed to make certain decisions based on how audiences treat them.

In the long run, it benefits everyone to just sit back and enjoy the game regardless of the result.

We need our referees and umpires more than ever, and the only way to ensure that they come back is to treat them with the respect they deserve.