Safe at the plate: how PEI is changing the ‘culture’ of abuse towards referees

Rhonda Pauls remembers the thrill of being a young umpire and making that close call at home plate: “You’re out!”

She also remembers that shrinking feeling of seeing an irate coach storm out of the dugout to tell her, among other things, that she’s wrong.

“It was terrifying to me,” Pauls said.

“Especially when a woman is in the field with, you know, big men and you have someone coming up to you, red in the face, spitting sunflower seeds in your face, waving their arms, telling you you’re awful and you’ve made the wrong call and you ruined the game for everyone.

“You don’t feel very good about it.”

However, Pauls stuck with it and is now an accomplished umpire officiating high-level matches in Canada and the US

But she doesn’t want other referees, especially young ones, to experience the kind of abuse she says wouldn’t be tolerated in the supermarket, at work, or any other setting without repercussions.

As the new Executive Director of Baseball PEI, Pauls has introduced a new “no confrontation” policy that prohibits coaches of U-18 teams and below from entering an umpire’s area to contest calls.

On to the ump to switch on

This is how it works:

Coaches are not allowed to discuss “judgment decisions”, such as balls and strikes, or safe and out calls on base.

However, coaches may approach an umpire to question an interpretation of a rule, provided they remain off the field of play. Even then, it’s up to the umpires to decide if they want to bet. said Pauls.

“We hope that due to the fact that they have to stop there and have that moment to wait for the referee to approach, the coaches will be able to collect themselves and keep the conversations respectful, which is really nice. we search.”

The coaches and team officials are responsible for preventing their fans from harassing the referees.

“You can usually tell by the direction of the comments which side of the field the spectator is leaning on,” said Pauls.

“So the referee now goes to the coach and says, ‘You know, Grandpa in the blue jacket over there comments on every ball and shot that he disagrees with me. I can’t concentrate. That has to stop.’ “

Violation of the rule may result in automatic removal.

It takes a certain comfort level to expect a teenager to be able to deal with… an adult’s misbehavior.