A busy weekend. Umpiring three softball games on Saturday, in the welcome heat of Watsonville. It was a fun day, with no drama so to speak. Young high school girls playing in what is probably their first real organized sporting event. Many of them being introduced to a competitive format for the first time in their young lives.
This weekend a harbinger of the season in the offing, with many games to follow. In years past I hadn’t umpired many softball games, but this season, and the past season I have worked a greater amount. I attribute this shift to the fact that the organization is shorthanded in softball umpires, many umpires arriving at an age where physical mobility is less than what it was in younger years. Many of the umpires retiring from the daily schedule of games and tournaments. Add to this the recruitment of younger people wanting to taste the “excitement” of umpiring, perhaps to gain an experience to talk about at the water cooler. These younger umpires opt to work baseball, a faster game and one usually filled with more exciting plays.
This is not true, however as I have been witness to many close and spectacular plays in softball, close games where the winners prevail by one run, often at the expense of a mental error from the opposition. Games where hot hitters come alive in the later innings to dampen the spirits of the opposing pitcher, or causing the fielders to misjudge or make errors in basic fielding, which enable the opposition to score at will. Girls are competitors, believe it. They can get just as hot and competitive as their male counterparts. Plus they can be as or more agile and athletic as boys or men. In fielding, base running, hitting, girls can make a game of it.
One thing I do find that girls have and boys don’t, generally, is a true meaning of sportsmanship.
Where boys can and will show a streak of “mean-ness”, girls usually cheer and urge their teammates on with wild urgings from the dugout or out in the playing field. They are less apt to throw their bats or head-gear out of frustration, less apt to argue a call, or to sulk after a poor play. Boys do however, show an immense amount of pride in their ability to play and play well. They will give their utmost to win, and relish the fact. Boys are fearless, standing in the batter’s box, taking a hit from an inside pitch, a fastball to the ribs or back. They will slide into a base face first, risking a concussion, chipped tooth, or dislocated finger, or worse, hand or arm.
In my years as a high school umpire, I have enjoyed watching these young men and women open their minds and hearts to competitive sports. I have watched these young people grow from one year to the next, becoming bigger, taller, more confident and more assured, all from having been well coached, having been a part of something larger than themselves. A part of their school community.
(this is an edited post from an earlier date)
